Race, Ethnicity, and Prejudice: Social Dynamics

Understanding Race and Ethnicity in Society

Defining Race: A Social Construct

• A socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.
• Scientists invented the concept of “race” in the nineteenth century and identified three racial types: Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid.

Racial Categories and Genetic Variation

• The three racial categories differ in only 6% of their genes, which is less than the genetic variation within each category.
• The Canadian census asks people to identify themselves as Aboriginal, Black, and Visible Minority.
• Many people have multiracial ancestry.

The Trend Toward Mixture and Multi-Ethnic Identities

• Over many generations and throughout the Americas, genetic traits from around the world have become mixed.
• In Canada, 41.4% of the total population claims multiple origins.
• The emergence of multi-ethnic identities is the result of intermarriage; with new generations, ethnic and racial intermarriage becomes more common.

Defining Ethnicity: Shared Cultural Heritage

• A shared cultural heritage.
• Objective criteria: ancestry, dress, religion, language.
• Subjective criteria: the internalization of a distinctive social identity.
• Important: Ethnic distinctiveness should not be viewed as racial.

Theories Explaining Prejudice and Discrimination

Scapegoat Theory of Prejudice

• Where does prejudice come from? Prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged.
• Prejudice is a way to express anger and produces feelings of superiority.
• Scapegoat: A person or category of people, typically with little power, whom people unfairly blame for their own troubles.

Authoritarian Personality Theory

• A personality trait of certain individuals who show intolerance towards all minorities.
• They are rigid moralists with little education who see things as clear-cut matters of right and wrong.
• They view society as naturally competitive and hierarchical.

Culture Theory of Prejudice

• Some prejudice is found in everyone because it is embedded in culture.
• Belief in the social superiority of some categories of people (e.g., British) is still a part of Canadian culture.
• Bogardus’ social distance scale shows consistency between Canada and the US.

Conflict Theory of Prejudice

• Prejudice is a product of social conflict.
• It serves as self-justification for the rich and powerful to oppress others, for example, Chinese railroad labourers.
• Steele: Minorities themselves may cultivate a climate of race consciousness (victimhood) in order to win greater power and privileges (“special treatment”).

Majority and Minority Group Interactions

Patterns of Social Interaction

• Pluralism: A state in which racial and ethnic minorities are distinct but have social parity.
• Institutional completeness: The complexity of community organizations that meet the needs of members.
• Multiculturalism in Canada: Policy introduced in 1971 and Act in 1988. Critics think it is divisive.