The document explores the concepts of race and ethnicity, defining race as a socially constructed category based on perceived biological differences, and ethnicity as based on cultural traits such as language and nationality. It discusses the historical context of racial classifications, the nature of minority groups, and the manifestations of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Additionally, it highlights the impact of race and ethnicity on life chances in areas like healthcare, education, and income, and outlines various theories and models of race relations.

2. What Is Race?
The term race has been used to describe
things like;
• Skin color: the Caucasian “race”,
• Religion: the Jewish “race”
• Nationality: the British “race”
• Entire human species: the human
“race”

3. Race and Biology
• A race is a socially defined category, based
on real or perceived biological differences
between groups of people.
• Often, these people are singled out as
inferior or superior, on the basis of real or
alleged physical characteristics such as
skin color, hair texture, eye shape, or other
attributes.
• Race has little meaning biologically due to
interbreeding in the human population.
• From a biological standpoint, your blood

4. Race and Society
 Race is a socially constructed reality. Think about
current racial categories.
 African American
 White, Not-Hispanic
 Hispanic
 Asian/Pacific Islander
 Race Historically – The idea of different races as
belonging to distinguishable categories has existed
for hundreds of years.
 19th
Century: biologists grouped humans into 3
groups, Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasoid.
(Or…black, Asian, and white)

5. Race and History
• Racial classifications have changed
throughout history.
• Greece and Rome; Middle Ages;
Nineteenth Century
• U.S. Census show that these classifications
continue to change.
• Racial classifications and social realities are
linked in 3 ways
• Skin Color
• Racial purity is assumed to exist
• Categories of official racial classifications

7. Characteristics of Ethnic
Groups
• An ethnic group is a collection of people
distinguished, by others or by themselves,
primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality
characteristics. (Everyone does not
necessarily identify with a particular ethnic
group)
• Unique cultural traits.
• A sense of community.
• A feeling of ethnocentrism.
• Ascribed membership from birth.
• Tendency to occupy a geographic area.

8. © 2012 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
The Real World
3rd
Edition
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
Kerry Ferris
and
Jill Stein
8

9. Defining Race and
Ethnicity (cont’d)
• Examples: The Jewish or Amish
• Symbolic ethnicity is an ethnic identity that
is only relevant on specific occasions and
does not significantly impact everyday life.
• Example: Irish Americans and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day
• Situational ethnicity is an ethnic identity
that can be either displayed or concealed
depending on its usefulness in a given
situation.
• Example: Native Americans and college tuition

10. What Is a Minority?
• A minority group is made up of
members of a social group that is
systematically denied the same access
to power and resources available to the
dominant groups of a society, but who
are not necessarily fewer in number
than the dominant group.
• Example: Black population in South
Africa…they outnumber whites 7 to 1
• California – only 49% of the population is
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11. Dominant and
Subordinate Groups
• Because the term minority group can be
confusing, some resources use the
following terms:
• A dominant group is one that is
advantaged and has superior resources
and rights in a society.
• A subordinate group is one whose
members are disadvantaged and
subjected to unequal treatment by the
dominant group and who regard
themselves as objects of collective
discrimination.

12. Racism
• Racism: A set of attitudes, beliefs, and
practices used to justify the superior
treatment of one racial or ethnic group
and the inferior treatment of another
racial or ethnic group.
• Racism is used to justify inequality, and
is often rooted in the assumption that
differences between groups are
genetic.

13. Prejudice
• Prejudice is an idea about the
characteristics of a group that is applied to all
members of that group, and is unlikely to
change regardless of the evidence against it.
• Prejudice often results from:
• Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to
regard one’s own culture and group as the
standard.
• Stereotypes are overgeneralizations
about the appearance, behavior, or other
characteristics of members of particular
categories.

14. Can we measure
prejudice?
• Some sociologists use the concept of
social distance to measure prejudice.
• This is the extent to which people are
willing to interact and establish
relationships with members of racial
and ethnic groups other than their own.

15. Discrimination
• Discrimination is unequal treatment of
individuals based on their membership in a
social group; usually motivated by prejudice.

16. Racism, Prejudice, and
Discrimination
• Individual discrimination is
discrimination carried out by one
person against another.
• Institutional discrimination is
discrimination carried out
systematically by social institutions
(political, economic, educational, and
others) that affect all members of a
group who come into contact with it.
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17. Four Major Types of
Discrimination
1. Isolate discrimination
• Example: A prejudiced judge giving
harsher sentences to African American
defendants.
1. Small-group discrimination
• Example: Small group of white students
defacing a professor’s office with racist
epithets.

18. Four Major Types of
Discrimination
3. Direct institutionalized
discrimination
• Example: Intentional exclusion of
people of color from public
accommodations.
3. Indirect institutionalized
discrimination
• Example: Special education classes
may have contributed to racial
stereotyping.

19. Theoretical Perspectives
on Race
• Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and
Symbolic Interactionalism
• Merton’s Typology of Prejudice and
Discrimination
• Frustration Aggression Hypothesis
• Authoritarian Personality Hypothesis
• Contact Hypothesis
• Critical Race Theory
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20. Theoretical Approaches to
Understanding Race in America
• Functionalist theorists focus on the
ways that race creates social ties and
strengthens group bonds, though they
also acknowledge that such ties can
lead to violence and social conflict.
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21. Theoretical Approaches to
Understanding Race in America
(cont’d)
• Conflict theory focuses on the
struggle for power and control over
scarce resources. Early conflict
theorists tried to explain race as a
result of economic oppression.
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22. Race as an Interactional
Accomplishment
• Symbolic Interactionists focus on the
ways that race, class, and gender
intersect to produce an individual’s
identity. They see race as an aspect of
identity established through interaction.
There are several different ways that
we project and receive our racial and
ethnic identities.
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23. Merton’s Typology of
Prejudice and Discrimination
PrejudicedPrejudiced
Attitude?Attitude?
DiscriminatoryDiscriminatory
behavior?behavior?
UnprejudicedUnprejudiced
nondiscriminatornondiscriminator
NoNo NoNo
UnprejudicedUnprejudiced
discriminatordiscriminator
NoNo YesYes
PrejudicedPrejudiced
nondiscriminatornondiscriminator
YesYes NoNo
PrejudicedPrejudiced
DiscriminatorDiscriminator
YesYes YesYes

24. Theories of Prejudice:
Frustration–aggression
Hypothesis
• People who are frustrated in their
efforts to achieve a highly desired goal
will respond with a pattern of
aggression toward others.
• Scapegoat— a person or group that is
incapable of offering resistance to the
hostility or aggression of others

25. Theories of Prejudice:
Authoritarian Personality
Hypothesis
• The Authoritarian personality is
characterized by excessive conformity,
submissiveness to authority,
intolerance, insecurity, a high level of
superstition, and rigid, stereotypic
thinking.

26. Contact Hypothesis
Contact between divergent groups
should be positive as long as group
members:
• Have equal status.
• Pursue the same goals.
• Cooperate with one another to achieve
goals.
• Receive positive feedback while
interacting.

27. Critical Race Theory
• Derives its foundation from the U.S. civil
rights tradition.
• Premises:
• The belief that racism is such an ingrained
feature of U.S. society that it appears to
be ordinary and natural to many people.
• The belief that interest convergence is a
crucial factor in bringing about social
change.

29. Race, Ethnicity, and Life
Chances
• Race and ethnicity influence all aspects
of our lives, including health, education,
work, family, and interactions with the
criminal justice system.
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30. Healthcare
• Health care is an area in which we find
widespread disparity between racial
and ethnic groups. Disparities in
access to health care may help explain
the life expectancy rates for men and
women of different races.
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31. Americans without Health Insurance by Race, 2009
31

32. Education
• In U.S. education, the highest high
school dropout rates are associated
with those from economically
disadvantaged and non-English-
speaking backgrounds.
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33. U.S. Bachelor’s Degree Holders by Race, 2009
33

34. Work and Income
• Inequality can also be seen in the
workplace and in income distribution.
People of color, who are less likely to
achieve high levels of education, are
more likely to have lower-paying jobs.
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35. Work and Income
• In 2004, the median income for whites
was $34,164, for Asian Americans
$36,816, for African Americans
$27,300, and for Hispanics $23,712.
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36. Family
• Marriage differs by race in the United
States
• See pages 241 - 242
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37. The Criminal Justice
System
• Finally, non-whites are more likely to
interact with law enforcement. African
Americans and Hispanics are much
more likely to go to prison than whites.
African Americans are also far more
likely to be murdered than whites. Also,
more than two-thirds of racially
motivated hate crimes in 2003 targeted
blacks.
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38. 38
The Criminal Justice
System
• Also, nonwhites are more likely to
interact with law enforcement.

39. Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation
• Interactions between dominant and
subordinate groups can take many
different forms.
• Genocide is the deliberate and
systematic extermination of a racial,
ethnic, national, or cultural group.
• The treatment of Native Americans is
an example of population transfer,
the forcible removal of a group of
people from the territory they have
occupied. 39
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40. Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation (cont’d)
• Internal colonialism is the economic
and political domination and
subjugation of the minority group by the
controlling group within a nation.
• Segregation is the formal and legal
separation of groups by race or
ethnicity.
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41. Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation (cont’d)
• Assimilation is a pattern of relations
between ethnic or racial groups in
which the minority group is absorbed
into the mainstream or dominant group,
making society more homogeneous.
• Racial assimilation is the process by
which racial minority groups are
absorbed into the dominant group
through intermarriage.
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42. Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation (cont’d)
• Cultural assimilation is the process
by which racial or ethnic groups are
absorbed into the dominant group by
adopting the dominant group’s culture.
• Finally, pluralism (or
multiculturalism) is a pattern of inter-
group relations that encourage racial
and ethnic variation within a society.
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43. Growing Racial and Ethnic
Diversity in the U.S.
• In 1980 white Americans made up 80%
of the population.
• In 2000, white Americans made up
70% of the population.
• By 2056, the roots of the average U.S.
resident will be in Africa, Asia, Hispanic
countries, the Pacific Islands, or Arabia
—not white Europe.

45. Odds of Being a Pro Athlete by
Race/Ethnicity and Sport
White
African
American Latino/a
Football
1 in
62,500
1 in 47,600 1 in 2,500,000
Baseball
1 in
83,300
1 in
333,300
1 in 500,000
Basketball
1 in
357,100
1 in
153,800
1 in
33,300,000

46. ORIGINAL SLIDES
Chapter 8 – Race and Ethnicity
46

47. 47
What Is Race?
• Race is a socially defined
category, based on real or
perceived biological differences
between groups of people.

48. 48
What Is Ethnicity?
• Ethnicity is a socially defined
category based on common
language, religion, nationality,
history, or another cultural
factor.

49. 49
Defining Race and
Ethnicity
• Sociologists see race and ethnicity as
social constructions because:
• Race isn’t based on biology (for instance,
we don’t test DNA to determine race).
• Racial categories change over time.
• Racial categories never have firm
boundaries.

50. 50
Race and Ethnicity
• The distinction between race
and ethnicity is important
because ethnicity can be
displayed or hidden, depending
on individual preferences, while
racial identities are always on
display.

51. 51
Ethnicity
• Symbolic ethnicity is an ethnic
identity that is only relevant on specific
occasions and does not significantly
impact everyday life.
• Situational ethnicity is an ethnic
identity that can be either displayed or
concealed, depending on its usefulness
in a given situation.

52. 52

53. 53

54. 54
What Is a Minority?
• A minority group is a social group that
is systematically denied access to
power and resources available to the
dominant groups of a society.
• It is not necessarily fewer in number
than the dominant group.

55. 55
Racism
• Racism: a set of beliefs about the
superiority of one racial or ethnic
group
• Used to justify inequality
• Often rooted in the assumption that
differences between groups are
genetic

56. 56
Prejudice and
Discrimination
• Prejudice (a thought process):
• An idea about the characteristics of a
group
• Applied to all members of that group
• Unlikely to change regardless of the
evidence against it
• Discrimination (an action):
• Unequal treatment of individuals because
of their social group
• Usually motivated by prejudice

57. 57
Types of Discrimination
• Individual discrimination is
discrimination carried out by one
person against another.
• Institutional discrimination is
systematic discrimination carried out by
social institutions (political, economic,
educational, and others) that affects all
members of a group who come into
contact with it.

58. 58
Race in America:
Theoretical Approaches
• Functionalist theorists
• Focus on the ways that race creates social
ties and strengthens group bonds
• Acknowledge that such ties can lead to
violence and social conflict between
groups

59. 59
Race in America:
Theoretical Approaches
(con’t.)
• Conflict theory
• Focuses on the struggle for power and
control over scarce resources

60. 60
Race in America:
Theoretical Approaches
(con’t.)
• Symbolic Interactionists
• Focus on the ways that race, class, and
gender intersect to produce an individual’s
identity
• See race as an aspect of identity
established through interaction

61. 61
Race in America:
Theoretical Approaches
(con’t.)
• Racial passing, or living as if one is a
member of a different racial category,
has a long history in the United States.

62. 62
Race, Ethnicity, and Life
Chances
• Race and ethnicity influence all aspects
of our lives, including health, education,
work, family, and interactions with the
criminal justice system and health care.

63. Americans without Health Insurance by Race, 2009
63

64. 64
Race, Ethnicity, and Life
Chances (cont’d.)
• In U.S. education, the highest high
school dropout rates are associated
with those from economically
disadvantaged and non-English-
speaking backgrounds.

65. U.S. Bachelor’s Degree Holders by Race, 2009
65

66. 66
Race, Ethnicity, and Life
Chances (cont’d.)
• Inequality can also be seen in the
workplace and in income distribution.
• People of color, who are less likely to
achieve high levels of education, are
more likely to have lower-paying jobs.

67. 67
Race, Ethnicity, and Life
Chances (cont’d.)
• Also, nonwhites are more likely to
interact with law enforcement.

68. 68
Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation
• Genocide is the deliberate and
systematic extermination of a racial,
ethnic, national, or cultural group.
• Population transfer is the forcible
removal of a group of people from the
territory they have occupied.

69. 69
Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation (cont’d.)
• Internal colonialism is the economic
and political domination and
subjugation of the minority group by the
controlling group within a nation.
• Segregation is the formal and legal
separation of groups by race or
ethnicity.

70. 70
Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation (cont’d.)
• Assimilation: the minority group is
absorbed into the mainstream or
dominant group, making society more
homogeneous.
• Racial assimilation: racial minority
groups are absorbed into the dominant
group through intermarriage.
• Cultural assimilation: racial or ethnic
groups are absorbed into the dominant
group by adopting the dominant group’s
culture.

71. 71
Race Relations: Conflict
or Cooperation (cont’d.)
• Pluralism (or multiculturalism) is a
pattern of intergroup relations that
encourage racial and ethnic variation
within a society.

72. 72
A socially defined category based on common
language, religion, nationality, history, or
another cultural factor is called:
a. ethnicity.
b. symbolic ethnicity.
c. symbolic race.
d. race.
Race and Ethnicity—
Concept Quiz

73. 73
The unequal treatment of individuals because
of their social group is called:
a. racism.
b. discrimination.
c. prejudice.
d. institutional racism.
Race and Ethnicity—
Concept Quiz

74. 74
Light-skinned African Americans who attempt to
live as white in order to avoid the
consequences of being black in a racist society
are practicing:
a. racial passing.
b. social fraud.
c. ethnic cleansing.
d. symbolic racism.
Race and Ethnicity—
Concept Quiz

75. 75
__________ is an idea about the
characteristics of a group.
a. Prejudice
b. Assimilation
c. Discrimination
d. Stereotyping
Race and Ethnicity—
Concept Quiz

76. 76
The pattern of intergroup relations that
encourages racial and ethnic variation within a
society is called:
a. pluralism.
b. segregation.
c. population transfer.
d. assimilation.
Race and Ethnicity—
Concept Quiz

77. Additional Art for Chapter
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96. © 2012 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
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AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
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and
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