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Lesson 11: Race, Racism and Privilege

Social ProblemsRobert Wonser

Race

Social construction that uses certain traits to organize people into hierarchies

Traits may be physical, religious, cultural, or socioeconomic

Constructions entrenched in social structures and organizations

What Does “Black” and “White” Look Like Anyway?

What race is this man?

What marks him as Black?

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What Does “Black” and “White” Look Like Anyway? Obama and his Grandfather

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Other Examples of Race as a Social Construction

One drop rule in the United States

“Money whitens” saying in Latin American cultures

Jews considered a separate race in Nazi Germany

“White Ethnics”

Ethnicity

Social construction based on Cultural heritage

Often connected to nationality

May be associated with languages, surnames, holidays, clothing styles

Ranges on a continuum of strength from thick to thin (symbolic ethnicity)

Minority Group

Refers to the group’s share of power and resources not size

Women are a numerical majority of the population but lack the income and political power of men.

People of color are the numerical majority globally, but they hold minority status in the United States

Racism

A system of advantage and disadvantage based on race

Colorblind Racism

Race is irrelevant

Racial discrimination a thing of the past

Problems minorities encounter must stem from individual inadequacies

Tokenistic Fallacy

Assumption that because a few members of a minority group have achieved equality with majority counterparts, the group no longer experiences racial disadvantage

Examples: Oprah, Barack Obama

Institutional Discrimination

Policies and practices embedded in social institutions that favor members of the majority group while systematically disadvantaging people of color

May not be racially intended

Sometimes difficult to identify

Results in “sedimentation of racial inequality”

Jim Crow

System of racialized segregation that existed from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865 to the landmark civil rights legislations of the late 1960s.

Blacks often remained unable to:

own their own labor

testify as witnesses

obtain an equal education

vote

New Jim Crow (Alexander 2012)

Criminal justice system acts as the major enforcer of Jim Crow today

Example: White crack users more likely to be sentenced to treatment than prison; only 25 percent were arrested, compared to 63 percent of black users (Beckett et al 2005).

Internalized Racism

Occurs when people of color buy into the dominant ideology and view themselves as inferior

Race and Structural Functionalism

Minorities must assimilate into the dominant culture

Poor integration harmful to social equilibrium

Segmented assimilation: traditional, downward, or hybrid

Bumpy line assimilation: individuals can have “thick” or “thin” ties to parents’ culture of origin.

Race and Conflict Theory

W.E.B. DuBois’s double consciousness

Blacks possess a dual understanding of (1) themselves as fully capable human beings, and (2) the majority group’s obscured perception of them.

Similar to white privilege

Race and Symbolic Interaction

Contact hypothesis (Allport 1954)

the more intergroup contact between whites and racial/ethnic minorities, the less likely they are to be prejudiced

Contact most effective when:

People are of equal status

Contact is regular and sanctioned by an authority

Race and Symbolic Interaction

Stereotype threat (Steele 1995; 1997)

Occurs when minorities’ self-concepts and performance on tasks are harmed by societal stereotypes that portray them as less competent than other racial groups