SOCI 1001H Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Social Distance
14 Jun 2018
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Race, Ethnicity and Stratification Part 2
Race, Ethnicity and Stratification in general
• Ethnic Stratification: the ordering or ethnic groups into a hierarchy of inequality, where
some groups are dominant and hold greater power over other subordinate ethnic groups
• Majority is about power, not size
Ethnicity/Ethnic Groups
Four main components of ethnicity:
• Unique cultural traits
• Sense of community
• Membership from birth
• Boundary between groups
Ethnic Group:
• A group who, as a result of their shared cultural traits and a high level of interaction,
regard themselves and are regarded as a cultural unit
• Different societies see different ethnic groups as majority or minority
Race (a socio-cultural understanding)
• Refers to more biological and physical traits
• Race is relative and difficult to pinpoint
Race:
• Refers to the social construction of a category of difference between populations of
people
• Is the result of an arbitrary value system imposed on the facts of biological variations in
the human species
• There is no correlation between physical appearance and social characteristics
Racism
Racism:
• An organized set of beliefs about the perceived innate inferiority of some racial groups,
combined with the power to transform these ideas into practices that deny or exclude
equality of treatment on the basis of race
• Involves elements of prejudice and discrimination
Discrimination:
• Can be ouvert or systematic/institutional
• Ouvert: specific acts of discrimination directed against specific victims by specific
perpetrators
• Interpersonal
• Systematic/institutional: members of minority groups are systematically excluded
from institutions and positions of power
• there are generally no overtly identifiable perpetrators
Prejudice:
• Involves pre-judging in negative terms, the characteristics that we assume are shared by
members of other social groups
• Bogardus invented social distance scale:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Race, ethnicity and stratification in general: ethnic stratification: the ordering or ethnic groups into a hierarchy of inequality, where some groups are dominant and hold greater power over other subordinate ethnic groups, majority is about power, not size. Four main components of ethnicity: unique cultural traits, sense of community, membership from birth, boundary between groups. Ethnic group: a group who, as a result of their shared cultural traits and a high level of interaction, regard themselves and are regarded as a cultural unit, different societies see different ethnic groups as majority or minority. Race (a socio-cultural understanding: refers to more biological and physical traits, race is relative and difficult to pinpoint. Race: refers to the social construction of a category of difference between populations of people. Is the result of an arbitrary value system imposed on the facts of biological variations in the human species: there is no correlation between physical appearance and social characteristics.
