Ethnicity and stratification

Question 1

what do functionalist say about ethnicity and social inequality

Answer 1

Assimilation theory - encouraged to identify (multiculturalism ) then discrimination will fade .
- minority ethnic groups should become absorbed into mainstream british culture through work and socially interacting with people (multiculturalism)

Question 2

what’s an example of this assimilation theory

Answer 2

Irish have been quickly assimilated into British culture because they are not obviously significantly physically different
- In 2016 : David Cameron caused some controversy by announcing a £20 million plan for teaching muslim women english and warning that the ppl who didn’t learn english would be deported

Question 3

what does patterson say ( functionalist )

Answer 3

Racism disappears as immigrants are assimilated .
Shared norms and values so should assimilate

Question 4

what are evaluation points for functionalism

Answer 4

• disregards discrimination and institutional racism
  Study : macpherson and casey report
• assumes dominant cultural values are the best
• easier to assimilate if not visibly different e.g italians into wales but not somalis who arrived at a similar time
• Marxists and feminists : View that this type of theorising as justifying the inequality, poverty and oppression of the weakest in society
• racism means it’s difficult for people to assimilate
• Malik ( pm )
  Assimilation model of race relations is very dangerous as over emphasis on cultural differences will make people feel different and separate

Question 5

What does marx say

Answer 5

• didn’t focus on race but did focus on the irish => took low paid work and undercut wages in Britain .
• Placed them in confrontation with poorly paid british workers

Question 6

What did Cox say (neomarxist )

Answer 6

-how racism supported capitalism because groups within the w/c fought each other and failed to see the real enemy was the bourgeoisie
- uses a “divide and rule “ strategy to control the working class . While the working class are divided on ethnic lines , they cannot unite to overthrow economic and political systems that exploit them

Question 7

what does Hall say (neomarxist)

Answer 7

w/c encouraged to dislike migrants .
Newspapers highlight “black” crime and overlook political / economic problems
- through class and race should be seen as part of the same issue .
Ethnic minorities are scapegoats therefore racism occurs

Question 8

what does Hall and jefferson say (neomarxist )

Answer 8

Ethnic minority are scapegoats, blamed by the media for social problems caused by inadequacies of government e.g unemployment

Question 9

What does Gabriel and Ben-Tovim say (neomarxist )

Answer 9

race and class different problems and other neo marxists suggest race is a useless concept as the problem is class based

Question 10

What does Bourdieu and Passeron say (neomarxist )

Answer 10

Concept of lack of culture capital can be applied to ethnic minorities within eduction

Question 11

what does Miller say (neomarxism )

Answer 11

Ethnic minorities as being a part of main class structure but not accepted by others

Question 12

What does Gilroy say ( Neo marxists )

Answer 12

Cultural racism means non white groups are seen as not british because of their failure to adopt british culture . Media links between black minorities and crime added to the form of racism

Question 13

what’s evaluation for marxists and neomarxists

Answer 13

• solution for marxists involves a revolution but that’s not realistic
• focus on class means ignores race as a reality
• overlooks the extent of racism in w/c youth crime
  Feminists :
  Black feminism is the main focus => race seen as more important than gender as dominated in home but face racism in wider society + the process of suppression by the dominant culture
  Erasure = dominant culture try to remove minority culture
  Denial = people refuse to acknowledge cultural differences , assuming own beliefs are the only belief
• invisibility = overlooked
  tokenism = an atttempt by that group to show equality but they are still overlooked
  OTO : collins = black women in america have developed traditions of art , music and writing not yet widely known

Question 14

what are the views of weberian explanations of ethnicity and social inequality

Answer 14

Lends itself to ethnicity due to complex interactions
Status = visible minority has low status and prevents assimilation because people don’t want to associate with lower status groups
Class = ethnic minorities take low paid jobs work as only work available to them and due to poor language skills
Party = not involved in politics and not properly represented in mainstream politics
STAT ( 10% of MPs in 2019)

Question 15

what does banton and rex say ( weberian)

Answer 15

Racial inequality caused by complex interactions of different social events

Question 16

what does rex and tomlinson say ( weberian )

Answer 16

Developed their notion of the underclass to describe the position of black ethnic minority members of society but their view of underclass differences from that of the new right . Suggest that black ethnic minorities cannot escape their position

Question 17

what are evaluations for weberian

Answer 17

• because weber argued that society is hugely complex , it becomes ridicule to specific where groups differ or who belongs to what group
• this may be a fair reflection of the realists of society but it’s difficult to generalise from this position and draw conclusions
• not all black ethnic groups have low status - some have high status occupations

Question 18

what do new right say about ethnicity and social inequality

Answer 18

Duty of the black ethnic minorities groups to assimilate as quickly as possible into british culture

Question 19

what does murray state (new right )

Answer 19

african carribean groups particular problem as form a significant part of the underclass
- they have high rates of single parent hood = leads to crime
- the problem of inequality is the migrant groups not the society

Question 20

what does saunders argue ( new right )

Answer 20

• migrants fail to adapt to british culture developing cultural attitudes that lead to poverty then accept poverty position becoming trapped by their own attitude
• there’s a developing black underclass who are welfare dependent

Question 21

what does Herrnstein and murray state ( new right )

Answer 21

Reported that asians are slightly more intelligent than white but both groups are significantly more intelligent than black minorities

Question 22

what are evaluation for new right

Answer 22

• blames yhe victims of discrimination = failed to improve themselves
• assumed there’s such thing as british culture
• modood ( pm) = migrants cultures dissimilar and overlooks variety of cultures