Social Identities: Race, Ethnicity and Nationality

Question 1

Distinguish between race and ethnicity

Answer 1

Race is a system of labelling that focuses on skin tone, and sometimes other factors such as wealth. Ethnicity is a term that describes shared culture — the practices, values, and beliefs of a group

Question 2

Distinguish between majority groups and minority groups

Answer 2

minority group as “any group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination”

Question 3

Distinguish between nationalism and patriotism

Answer 3

Nationalism refers to sentiment, or ideology that is bound up with an extreme loyalty or devotion to a racial or ethnic group.
Patriotism, on the other hand, refers to a person’s loyalty or devotion to a constitutional group defined in terms of citizenship, common values, beliefs and institutions

Question 4

Explain the difference between stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, and racism

Answer 4

Stereotypes are oversimplified ideas about groups of people; prejudice refers to thoughts and feelings about those groups; while discrimination refers to actions toward them. Racism is a type of prejudice that is used to justify the belief that one racial category is somehow superior or inferior to others

Question 5

Identify and describe the features of different types of discrimination

Answer 5

• Unprejudiced nondiscriminators are open-minded, tolerant, and accepting individuals.
• Unprejudiced discriminators might be those who, unthinkingly, practise sexism in their workplace by not considering females for certain positions that have traditionally been held by men.
• Prejudiced nondiscriminators are those who hold racist beliefs but don’t act on them, such as a racist store owner who serves minority customers.
• Prejudiced discriminators include those who actively make disparaging remarks about others or who perpetuate hate crimes.

Question 6

Describe how functionalist perspectives view race and ethnicity

Answer 6

Argue that discrimination and poverty must have their important roles, but they only support the dominant group

Question 7

Describe how critical perspectives view race and ethnicity

Answer 7

we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes because the way we experience race is shaped, for example, by our gender and class

Question 8

Describe how symbolic interactionist perspectives view race and ethnicity

Answer 8

racial prejudice is formed through interactions between members of the dominant group: without these interactions, individuals in the dominant group would not hold racist views

Question 9

Identify examples of culture of prejudice

Answer 9

A culture of prejudice refers to the idea that prejudice is embedded in our culture; grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism