Wednesday, March 17, 1999
Announcements:

• The test score email did not include bonus points. The bonus points are listed at 304 Osmond.

1. Prejudice and Discrimination

1. W.I. Thomas Theorem: If men define the situation as real, it becomes real in consequences.
2. Prejudice and Discrimination move in a vicious cycle

1. Powerful people believe minorities are inferior. Men define minorities as inferior, therefore it becomes real in consequences. The majority group is ethnocentric and justifies their exploitation of minorities by calling them inferior.
2. Minorities occupy a disadvantaged position as a result of prejudice and discrimination. They can only get low paying jobs.
3. Minorities are innately inferior – Powerful people believe that minorities are innately inferior because they occupy a disadvantaged position.
4. New prejudice and discrimination begin.
5. Prejudice and Discrimination reinforce each other – perpetuate the cycle.

1. Process of Integration of the Minority groups into the Majority

1. Intro: It is very hard for Eastern Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans to assimilate into American culture – it is a very long process.
2. Segregation – Minorities live in self-segregated places – Example: Chinatown, Little Italy, etc… Physical and social segregation – not de jure segregation, but de facto.
3. Accommodation – Minorities are aware of the norms and values of the dominant culture but they DO NOT change their own norms and values. They learn how to deal with societal institutions. Example: Korean immigrant learns how to start a business but doesn’t change his own norms and values.
4. Acculturation (Cultural Assimilation) – Minorities gradually follow patterns, norms, and values of American culture. They are still not invited to the country clubs and banquets though – forced assimilation, the minority adjusts to the majority. Assimilation involves ethnicity, not race.
5. Assimilation (Structural Assimilation) – process where ethnic groups and society are culturally fused. Minority groups are accepted into the culture. Minority forges secondary and primary relationships with the majority group. They become active participants in societal institutions. Immigrants become Anglo-conformed to easily assimilate into the majority.
6. Amalgamation (Physical Assimilation) – Melting pot – Racial and ethnic groups are blended through interbreeding (miscegenation). This is a utopian stage that has not arrived in America – only 3% of the population have physically assimilated.

1. Pluralism, multiculturalism (respect for other cultures)

1. Ethnic groups retain integrity and identity but do not integrate into the dominant society
2. Ethnic minorities are distinct from each other and then majority – social parity (equality) – they share institutions with the dominant class – political, social, and economic parity.
3. Pluralism is promoted; there is no melting pot.

1. Racial and Ethnic Groups

1. African Americans: slavery heritage, Civil Rights movement. Their poverty rate and teen pregnancy rate has dropped, while the median income and life expectancy has increased. NOTE: Life expectancy, although it has risen, is still not close to the average white American. Life expectancy for inner city African Americans is 53.8 years, the same as a man from Bangladesh.
2. Latin Americans – 33 million, their population is surpassing African Americans. The poorest people in the US are Hispanic. They have a problem with education, language difficulty, and they have to many children. "Minority- Majority" – By 2050, Hispanics will become the majority.
3. Japanese Americans – Population transfer – Internment. In 1941 after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, FDR signed executive order 9066, which put 110,000 Japanese Americans into American concentration camps. Japanese Internment – lost property even though they were citizens. In 1988, compensation was given to the Japanese Americans who suffered.
4. Native Americans – population transfer – now there are less than 1 million Native Americans. They were put on reservations and forced to move west of the Mississippi. Had to deal with forced assimilation and received smallpox and alcohol from the Europeans, which effectively cut down their population.

1. Functionalist Perspective on Racial and Ethnic Stratification