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Minority groups
- Distinguishable from dominant groups
- Excluded or denied full participation
- Less access to power and resources; evaluated less favorably
- Stereotyped, ridiculed, condemned, or otherwise defamed
- Develop collective identities
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Race
is a group within the human species that is identified by a society as presumably having certain biologically inherited physical characteristics
Racial classifications have been based on numerous physical characteristics
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18th and 19th century, four major groupings were assigned
- •Mongoloid
- •Caucasoid
- •Negroid
- •Australoid
- Later 30 more racial subcategories were created
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In the 1970s, the United Nations issued a “Statement on Race” that stated
- All people are born free and equal both in dignity and in rights
- •Racism stultifies personal development
- •(Racial) conflicts cost nations money and resources
- •Racism foments international conflict
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Social significance
- is the idea from Symbolic interaction theory that social consequences constitute reality
- People assigned group membership, in part, on physical appearance
- All individuals classify objects, including humans
- Classifications used to scientifically study humans
- Classifications can provide individuals with an identity
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The division of Black America
- Two in five African Americans are middle-class
- Majority of urban, black underclass are unemployed
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Ethnic groups
- are groups where membership is based on shared cultural heritage and other cultural factors and is often connected with a national or geographic identity
- •Many racial groups are ethnic groups
- •Some ethnic groups are concentrated in ethnic enclaves
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self-fulfilling prophesy
is the incorporation of stereotyped behavior into an individual’s view of themselves
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Frustration-aggression theory
is a theory which states that acts of prejudice and discrimination are motivated by anger and frustration individuals feel when they cannot achieve their work or goals
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Scapegoating
is a form of aggressive action motivated by frustration against minority groups because an individual is unable to vent frustration toward the real target or cause
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Ideological racism
is an attempt to justify racism on the basis of a pseudoscientific set of ideas
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Symbolic racism
people insist they are not prejudiced or racist, yet oppose social policies that would eliminate racism and make true equality of opportunity possible
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Institutional racism
involves discrimination that is hidden within the system
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Purposeful or De jure discrimination
is built into the law or is part of the explicit policies of an organization
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Unintentional or De facto discrimination
results from broad policies that favor one group and disadvantage another
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Side-effect discrimination
practices in one institutional area that have a negative impact because they are linked to practices in another institutional area
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Past-in-present discrimination
practices from the past that may no longer be allowed but that continue to affect people today
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The form of dominant and minority group relations in a nation depend on several factors:
- Who has more power
- The needs of the domination group for commodities (labor and/or other resources)
- The cultural norms of each group
- The social histories of the group
- The physical and cultural identifiers of the group
- The times and circumstances
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Genocide
is the systematic effort of a dominant group to destroy a minority
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Subjugation
refers to the subordination of one group to another that holds power and authority
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Population transfer and transnationalism
refers to the removal of a minority group from a region or country
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Assimilation
refers to the structural and cultural merging of minority and majority groups (minority loses their original identity)
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Pluralism
occurs when each ethnic or racial group in a country maintains its own culture and separate set of institutions but has recognized equity in society (i.e., Switzerland)
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Three critical factors contribute to hostility over resources
- If two groups of people are identifiably different then “we” versus “they” thinking may develop
- If the groups come into conflict over scarce resources that both groups want for themselves, hostilities are very likely to arise
- If one group has much more power than the other, intense dislike between the two groups and misrepresentation of each group by the other is virtually inescapable
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Split Labor Market theory
(a branch of conflict theory)-- characterizes the labor market as having two levels
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Primary market
clean jobs
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Secondary market
minorities, especially from the urban underclass, are most likely to work in this market
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Structural-Functional Theory
- A cheap pool of labors who are in and out of work serves several functions for society
- •A cheap pool of labor provides a labor force to do “dirty work”
- •They make occupational which service the poor possible
- •They buy goods others do not want
- •They set examples for others of what not to be
- •They allow others to feel good about giving to charity
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Prejudice, racism, and discrimination are dysfunctional for society in many ways
- •They result in a loss of human resources
- •They cost society due to poverty and crime
- •They maintain hostilities between groups
- •And they fuel disrespect for those in power
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Individual Effects
- Unequal life chances, health, and access to property
- Victims can also have low self-esteem from devalued status in society
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Organizations and communities
- Lose the talents of individuals they exclude
- Government subsidies cost millions but made necessary by lack of opportunities for minority individuals
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Cultural costs
Attempts to justify racism by stereotyping and labeling
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Five common reactions to dealing with a minority group status
- Assimilation – accommodation to prejudice and discrimination
- Acceptance – live with minority status with little overt challenge to the system
- Avoidance – shunning all contact with the dominant group
- Aggression – results from anger and resentment over minority status and from subjugation may lead to retaliation or violence
- Change-oriented Action – minority groups pursue social change in meso and macro-levels of society
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Individual or small group solutions
human relations workshops, group encounters and therapy
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Group contact
integrated housing projects, job programs to promote minority hiring, busing children to schools
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Institutional and societal strategies
lobbying, watchdog monitoring, education information dissemination, protest marches, rallies, and boycotts
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Affirmative Action
is a social policy created to change the unequal distribution of resources
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Strict affirmative action
is a policy that involves affirmative or positive steps to make sure that unintended discrimination does not occur
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Quota systems
are policies that require employers to hire a certain percentage of minorities (now considered unconstitutional and therefore illegal)
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Preference policies
are policies based on the belief that sometime people must be treated differently in order to treat them fairly and to create equality
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Objectives of preference policies include
- Eliminate qualifications that are not substantially related to the job that unwittingly favor members of the dominant group
- Foster achievement of objectives of the organization that are only possible through enhanced diversity
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