Monday, March 15, 1999
Announcements:

• Correction: Under the heading of "Contributing Factors to Growing Inequality in the USA" in the March 1 notes, unemployment is not a contributing factor to inequality because it has gone down in recent years.

1. Problems of Race and Ethnicity

1. Majority and Minority Groups

1. Majority Group – dominates minority groups – dominates societal institutions and valuable resources (color of skin is a valued resource). Majority group may be small and still control institutions – Example: In South Africa, the less populous white group controlled the government and societal institutions.
2. Minority Group – subordinate to the majority group, they are at a disadvantage. They have no value and no power to control institutions – Race, Gender, Physical handicaps all play significant roles in determining majority and minority groups. 5 features of Minority Group:

1. Common physical and cultural traits – they share a distinctive identity
2. Unequal power
3. Ascribed Status
4. Great sense of Group Solidarity
5. Endogamy – marry within social group

1. "Minority-Majority" – The growing trend of minorities changing into the majority. By 2050 minorities are likely to become the majority in the US. Example: Fresno, California – the Latin American population is going up all over the place.

1. Prejudice, Stereotype, and Racism

1. Prejudice – "pre-judge" – rigid and irrational generalization of a group of people. The basis for prejudice is ethnocentrism and prejudice is the basis for all discrimination. Everyone is prejudice; it is an attitude.

1. Positive Prejudice – When one group of people exaggerates its own virtues
2. Negative Prejudice – Condemning people who are different than us. Example: A highly prejudice comment – "If you are Black, you must be out of work." This should be changed to – "If you are Black, you are more likely to be out of work."

1. Stereotype – Common label to groups of people. Assume someone behaves a certain way because he belongs to certain social groups. Examples: Asian-Americans are good students. Jewish people are stingy…etc.
2. Racism – Extreme form of prejudice – belief that one racial group is innately superior to another racial group. Racism is the basis for slavery and colonization.

1. Ideological Racism – Belief that their race is superior to all others. Example: The Aryan race in Hitler’s Germany. Example: Ideological Casteism in India. Ideological Racism is the basis of ethnic cleansing.
2. Individual Racism – One individual being racist. Example: Whites prevent Blacks from moving into their neighborhood – "White Flight" Example: Jasper, Texas – White people dragged a Black man to his death. Example: A Black man was castrated and hung in Denver, Colorado.
3. Institutional Racism (Institutionalized Discrimination) – racism that guides institutions (police department, universities, industries). They do it intentionally or unintentionally. Example: Rodney King and LAPD – NYPD shot a West Guinea man with 41 bullets because they mistook him for a serial rapist. Example: Neo-Nazis and White supremacists. Example: Race profile – a minority is pulled over if he is driving a nice car. Example: Tuskegee Experiment – Federal Government observed 400 Black males who had syphilis without treating them with penicillin to see how syphilis ran its course on Black men.
4. Environmental Racism – African American’s are excluded from entering white neighborhoods. Example: Kennedy Heights, Texas – houses were sold to African Americans even though the land they were built on was unsanitary.

1. Discrimination – prejudice (attitude) put into action

1. De Jure: segregation supported by laws. Example: Jim Crow Laws enforced segregation. They were overturned in 1954 by the US Supreme Court in their decision in the case Brown v. Board of Education in which it was determined that schools should be integrated. "Zero Immigration Laws"
2. De Facto: "In Reality" – people show racism - Residential segregation, spatial isolation of Blacks.
3. Robert Merton – 4 groups of people in reference to prejudice and discrimination

1. Active Bigot – "All-weather bigot" – Example: Manager in Wal-Mart refuses to hire minorities.
2. Timid Bigot – prejudice but afraid of the consequences of discrimination
3. Fair-weather Liberal (Reluctant Liberal) – Discriminates without having personal prejudice – his boss demands that he discriminate.
4. All-weather Liberal – free from discrimination