Midterm 2 Flashcards
(94 cards)
Social construction of race
how people interact with and understand race by sorting people into different categories
how people act according to these meanings and categories creating real-world repercussions
e.g. hard to narrow people down into on, or how the definition of ‘white’ has been broadened
scientific racism
- attempts to explain racial differences scientifically
- it is based on bodily differences
- focused on the origins, explanations and classifications f race
e.g. Haeckel thought that black people had more moveable toes
ethnocentrism
- belief that one’s own culture or group is superior to other
- tendency to view all other cultures from a perspective of one’s own
e.g. white, European = normal, everyone else = abmnormal
eugenics
- the idea that people can actively improve the genetic profile of humans
- leads to forced sterilisation of groups that are deemed as ‘unfit to reproduce’
e.g. Nazi Germany
racialisation
the formation of a new racial identity, in which new ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people
e.g. post 9/11: brown+headscarf+beard = newly radicalised category
ethnicity
common culture, religion, history, or ancestry shared by a group of people
race
- externally imposed (someone else defines you)
- involuntary
- usually based on physical appearance
- hierarchical
- exclusive
ethnicity
- voluntary (you choose what to identify as)
- self-defined (members of the group define what it means to be a part of that group)
- non-heirarchical
- relatively equal: one ethnicity does not necessarily have more power than another
- fluid: you can be in more than one
Symbolic Ethnicity
- a nationality, not in the sense of a citizenship, but in the sense of identifying with a past or future nationality
- this can be easily expressed, without stigma
e.g. claiming Irishness because of your Irish heritage whilst being a US citizen
culturelessness
- it implies a kind of white superiority since there is a ‘normal’ culture or a culture that is ‘beyond culture’
- white people often claim it
- there is an implication that people should strive towards this culture
racialized ethnicity
- your ethnicity is tied to your race
- it becomes impossible to distinguish when or when not to engage in your ethnicity
e.g. ‘where are you from, no where are you really from?’
stereotypes
widely shared perceptions about the personal characteristics, tendencies, or abilities of a group
prejudice
preconceived beliefs, opinions, and attitudes about a group
explicit bias
- bias that we are aware of
- has become less common, or at least has become more frowned upon
e.g. Charlottesville protests
implicit bias
- subconscious bias that we may be completely unaware that we have
- very common
discrimination
acting in a way that disadvantages certain groups of people
institutional racism
the ways that the core institutions in our society have prejudiced and discriminatory values embedded into them
e.g.black veterans systematically excluded from receiving the benefits from the G.I. Bill
Governmental institutionalised racism
Black WWII veterans excluded from the G.I. Bill
residential institutionalised racism
- racial zoning
- sundown towns
- redlining
racial zoning
preventing integration of different races and cultures into certain areas to safeguard property value
e.g. racial restrictions in Evanston
sundown towns
all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States that practiced a form of segregation by enforcing restrictions excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation, and violence.
redlining
denying investment to an area in which investment could improve the economic and housing opportunities of the residents
e.g. Chicago
Criminal justice: institutional racism (2 egs)
EG crack vs cocaine mandatory sentencing
EG employment is harder for former inmates, let alone black former inmates
gender
how we give meaning to sex through social interaction