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Jenna Vincenty-Cole

Mr. Lerczak

Chapter 9 summary

May 16, 2019

Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity

Minority is a group of people who, because of physical or cultural traits, are

differentiated from the dominant group in society and treated unequally. Cultural

characteristics may include accent, religion, language, and parentage. Race is people

sharing certain inherited physical characteristics that are considered important within a

society. People use things such as skin color, hair texture, facial features, head form,

and height to determine race. Ethnic Minority is a group identified by cultural, national,

or religious characteristics.They are separate from the larger group because they wish

to preserve their cultural and national origins.

Patterns of racial and ethnic relations take two forms: assimilation and conflict.

Patterns of assimilation include Anglo-conformity, the melting pot, cultural pluralism, and

accomodation. Conflict patterns include genocide, population transfer and subjugation.

Assimilation is the blending or fusing of a minority group into the dominant society.

Acculturation is the process by which a culture is passed on to a new generation.

Assimilation differs from Acculturation because it follows one of four patterns instead of

just being passed to the new generation. Anglo-conformity is the first one, and it is the

most prevalent of assimilation in the United States. Immigrants are accepted as long as

they conform to dominant Anglo standards. Melting pot in the second way. In this

pattern of assimilation all ethnic and racial minorities voluntarily blend together. Cultural
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pluralism is the third way. It's the desire of a group to maintain some sense of identity

separate from the dominant group. The popularity of different ethnic foods shows the

impact of cultural pluralism on American society. The final one is accommodation.

Accommodation is an extreme form of cultural pluralism. It occurs when a minority

maintains its own culturally unique way of life. Children in these groups are socialized to

adopt the traditions and values of the group so it helps maintain the groups culture.

Sociologists have identified three basic patterns that dominant cultures take

when they reject minorities. They are subjugation, population transfer, and genocide.

Subjugation is the process by which a minority group is denied equal access to the

benefits of a society. It is also the most common pattern of conflict, and it can take two

forms: De jure segregation or De facto segregation. In population transfer, a minority is

forced either to move to a remote location or to leave entirely the territory controlled by

the majority. At the extreme, conflict takes the form of Genocide. Genocide is the

systematic effort to destroy an entire population. Tragically, genocide campaigns are

more common in world history than you might think.

Prejudice involves attitudes, while discrimination is about behavior. Prejudice

often leads to discrimination, like in some instances, discrimination creates prejudice

attitudes through stereotyping. Prejudice typically has great power because it is based

on strong emotion. One of the forms of prejudice is Racism: an extreme form of

prejudice that assumes superiority of one racial group over others. Another is Sexism-

the belief that one gender is superior to the other. While prejudice involves holding

biased opinions, discrimination is acting upon those opinions by treating people unfairly.

Through prejudice and discrimination come stereotypes and hate crimes. Stereotypes
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appear in any society. Once they take hold, stereotypes are hard to shake. Hate crimes,

sadly, are just as common as stereotyping. Hate crimes are a criminal act motivated by

extreme prejudice. Some hate crimes, consistent with the conflict theory, are based on

the belief that the victim is somehow threatening the perpetrators livelihood or self-

interest.

Discrimination in the United States has caused some ethnic and racial groups to

lag behind the white majority in jobs, income, and education. Progress is made but

gains remain fragile. African Americans and Latinos are the two largest minority groups

on the United States. Psychologists try and explain prejudice and discrimination by

looking at the mental states of individuals. Functionalists focus on the functional and

dysfunctional aspects of prejudice and discrimination. According to the conflict theory, a

majority uses prejudice and discrimination as weapons of power to control the minority.

Finally, from the symbolic interactionists perspective, members of a society learn to be

prejudiced in much the same way that they learn to be patriotic.