RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS

RACE: A category of people who are regarded as socially distinct because they share similar physical characteristics.

ETHNIC GROUP: A category of people who are regarded as socially distict because of their shared cultural heritage (usually based on common societal origins).

PREJUDICE: A nonrational, inflexible attitude prejudging an entire category of people on the basis of sterotypes and generalizations.

DISCRIMINATION: Unequal treatment of people on the grounds of their inclusion within a given category.

De Jure Discrimination: Legal discrimination through the laws.

De Facto Discrimination: Institutionalized discrimination entrenched in social customs.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: A prediction that leads to behavior that makes the prediction come true.

People whose physical appearance, cultural or religious practices are unlike those of the dominant group and who are given different and unequal treatment as a result (i.e. they are treated as inferior to the majority). Minority in this context does not mean "fewer in numbers".

• has socially visible characteristics or practices (skin color, language, religion, etc.)



• suffers disadvantages from another group



• is self-conscious with a strong sense of "oneness"



• is generally "endogamous", i.e. members marry within the group;



• membership is an "ascribed" status.

degree to which majority group is so dominant that others must adapt if they wish to have equal access (e.g. learn language, "middle class" manners, etc.)

competition for scarce resources (real "zero-sum")

structural inequality built into the social system (e.g., segregated schools, laws forbidding religious practice, mixed marriage, etc). Note that institutional discrimination is a social variable; individual preference is a psychological variable.

STEREOTYPES: Rigid mental image that summarizes whatever is thought to be typical of the category, especially when it is not checked against reality and is used without taking individual differences into account.

IRRATIONALITY: Illogical and inconsistent thinking that feeds negative viewpoints rather than seeing the category of people as a whole.

"AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY" : A distinctive set of traits, centering on conformity, intolerance, insecurity re: social and power positions and the need for order. Often includes an exaggerated sense of "in-group" identity.

SCAPEGOATING: Placing the blame for one's troubles on a powerless individual or group.

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT: Patterns of inequality, especially when one group has much less power than the others and subordinate position is structured into inferior social relationships within the society.

COMPETITION FOR RESOURCES: Competition between groups for valued resources (power, land, jobs) where more powerful groups secured their own interests by denying full access to those resources by others.

PROJECTION: Unacceptable psychological conflicts projected to other group;

INSTITUTIONAL EXPECTATIONS:

Ideologies and stereotypes taken for granted; social construction of reality;

XENOPHOBIA (Fear of strangers):

Fear of loss of identity and valued cultural traits; fear of being submerged.

FEAR STATUS LOSS: Fear loss of power, privilege; dominant position; downward mobility

CONTACT THEORY

Social contact leads to interaction which leads to assimilation.

The nature of social contacts is decisive. Assimilation takes place most rapidly when

contacts are primary, i.e. most intimate and intense, as in the family circle and intimate, congenial groups;

secondary contacts facilitate accommodation but do not greatly promote assimilation because they are too external and remote.

PATTERNS OF INTERGROUP RELATIONSHIPS

ASSIMILATION: Minority group is eliminated by being absorbed into the domant group, i.e., it loses its distinctive cultural or physical traits.

PLURALISM: Each group keeps its own group identity and culture, recognizing and tolerating differences of others.

POPULATION TRANSFER: Minorities are banished from the country or are removed to segregated areas.

LEGAL PROTECTION OF MINORITIES: Legal measures may be used (usually in the face of hostility toward the minority group) to protect the interests and rights of minorities.

CONTINUED SUBJUGATION: Dominant group continues to maintain its power over the minority.

EXTERMINATION: Majority practices genocide or the extermination of the minority group.