Race, Culture and AmericanSociety

All of the World Is a Stage

Saturday Reader

Identity

Who are WE really?

US Census

American is changing everyday. She is becoming more “colorful”, has more “accents,” and is older. Check out census.

Who is a minorityMinority Group

Minority status has more to with wealth and power.Using Wagley and Harris (1958) there are 5 characteristics of minority

• The members of the group experience a pattern of disadvantage or inequality.

• The members of the group share a visible trait or characteristic that differentiates them from other groups.

• The minority group is a self-conscious social unit.• Membership is the group is usually determined at birth.• Members tend to marry within the group.

MoreEthnic minorities – use cultural characteristics

Racial minorities – use physical characteristics

RaceThe conception that people can be classified into groups based on skin color, hair texture, shape of head, eyes, nose, and lips. from Meaning of Difference (5th) by Karen Rosenblum and Toni-Michelle C. Travis

EthnicityMembership is a subgroup within an environment dominated by another culture.“Minority groups identified primarily by cultural characteristics such as language or religion.” (race, ethnicity, etc.)“It is an an aspect of social relationship between agents who consider themselves as being culturally distinctive from members of other groups with whom they have a minimum of regular interaction. It can thus be defined as a social identity (based on a contrast vis-à-vis others) characterized by metaphoric or fictive kinship (Yelvington, 1991:168).” [http://folk.uio.no.geithe/Ethnicity.html]

Gender

Gender

What is it about men?What is it about women?

Some DefinitionsPrejudice

Is the tendency of an individual to think about other groups in negative ways, to attach negative emotions to those groups, and to prejudice individuals on the basis of their group membership.

• Individual prejudice has two parts– Cognitive (thinking)– Affective (feeling)

A prejudice person thinks about other groups in terms of stereotypes which are generalizations that are thought to apply to group members.

Four Concepts in Dominant-Minority Relations

Level of Analysis

Dimension Individual Group or Societal

Thinking/feelingDoing

PrejudiceDiscrimination

Ideological RacismInstitutional Discrimination

More DefinitionsDiscrimination

is the unequal treatment of a person or person based on group membership.

Ideological RacismA belief system that asserts that a particular group is inferior; it is the group of societal equivalent of individual prejudice.

Institutional DiscriminationIs a pattern of unequal treatment based on group membership that is built into the daily operations of society, whether or not it is consciously intended.

Assimilation and PluralismIs resistance futile?

What is

Assimilation“is a process in which formerly distinct and separate groups come to share a common culture and merge together socially. Differences in among groups decrease.”

Pluralism“exists when groups maintain their individual identities. Groups remain separate and cultural and social differences persist over time.”

Types of Assimilation

Melting Pot – is where groups come together and contribute in roughly equal amounts creating a common culture and a new, unique society.

Questions • Is this true of the US?• Why or Why not?• What is distinctive about US

culture and society?• Who are the biggest

contributors?

Another type -- dominant in praxisIn the US

Americanization or Anglo-conformity

• Assimilation in the US “was designed to maintain the predominance of the British-type institutional patterns created during the early years of American society.” In this systems “immigrants and minority groups are expected to adapt Anglo-American culture as quickly as possible.”

Milton Gordon

He developed 3 stages of assimilation.

AcculturationIntegration• Secondary level• Primary level

Intermarriage

Gordon’s Stages of AssimilationStage Process

1. Acculturation (cultural assimilation)

The group learns the culture, language, and value system of the dominant society.

Gordon’s Stages of AssimilationStage Process

2. Integration (structural assimilation)

At the secondary level:

• Public, impersonal

At the primary level:• Interpersonal, intimate

Members of the group enter that public institutions of the dominant society

Members of the group into into cliques, clubs, and friendship groups of the dominant society.

Gordon’s Stages (cont.)Stage Process

3. Intermarriage (marital assimilation)

Members of the group intermarry with members of the dominant group on a large-scale basis.

PluralismCultural pluralism

“Groups have not acculturated and each maintains it own identity. The groups might speak different languages, practice different religions, and have different value systems.”

Structural pluralism“Cultural differences are minimal but the groups occupy different locations in the social structure.” The has many of the same cultural practices as the dominant group but they maintain separate organizations.

Multiculturalism

This stresses mutual respect for all groups and celebrates the multiplicity of heritages that have contributed to the development of the United States.

Sources2. Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender by Joseph Healy, (3rd edition).Race http://www.providence.edu/polisci/rep/What is race - Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender by Joseph Healy, (3rd edition).http://www.beijing-2008.org/eolympic/ztq/Download-photos/Ethnic%20Minorities%20support%20Beijing's%20Bid.jpghttp://www.network-democracy.org/social-security/bb/adss/images/minorities_1a.gifGender - http://www.manchester.edu/users/facstaff/DKMonaco/photos.htmlPrejudice et al – Race, pp. 25-28Borg pictures - http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/7900/BORGCUBE.htm

Sourceshttp://www.calstatela.edu/exed/aclp/images/aclpcover04.jpghttp://www.chamberlainsd.org/images/Photos/boydancer.gifhttp://www.americanembassy.org.cy/armstr.jpghttp://www.wethepeople.gov/neh/images/culture-cover.gifhttp://www.osia.org/public/images/ellisisland.jpghttp://www.austinitalians.org/aiflogow.jpgRace, Ethnicity etc.