Soc- Chapter 8

Front 1

ethnic group

Back 1

"A group whose members share a sense of togetherness and the conviction that they form a distinct group or "people"."

Front 2

ethnic minority

Back 2

"An ethnic group that suffers prejudice and discrimination at the hands of a larger dominant group."

Front 3

race

Back 3

"A group of people thought to have a common set of physical characteristics and a common ancestry."

Front 4

ethnocentrism

Back 4

"The tendency to view the norms and values of one's own culture as absolute and to use them as a standard against which to measure those of other cultures."

Front 5

racism

Back 5

"A belief in the superiority of one racial group over another that leads to prejudice and discrimination."

Front 6

domination

Back 6

"A social system in which one ethnic group holds power and uses it to keep other groups in a subculture posistion."

Front 7

segregation

Back 7

"The seperation of two or more racial or ethnic groups."

Front 8

intergration

Back 8

"A social system in which an individual's ethnic background is considered unimportant and people from different ethnic groups live in the same neigborhoods, attend the same schools, work in the same businesses, amd so on.

Front 9

pluralism

Back 9

"A social system in which there are distinct and seperate ethnic groups that nonetheless maintain equal social, economic, and political relationships."

Front 10

assimilation

Back 10

"A process by which a person takes on a new culture."

Front 11

melting pot theory

Back 11

"The belief that the different ethnic groups in a nation should learn from each other and merge together to create a single new culture."

Front 12

salad bowl theory

Back 12

"The belief that a society should encourage its ethnic groups to maintain their distinctive cultural characteristics."

Front 13

white ethnics

Back 13

"Americans of European descent who maintain a distinct ethnic identity."

Front 14

prejudice

Back 14

"An unsupported negative attitude toward a group as a whole or toward an individual because he or she is a member of that group."

Front 15

discrimination

Back 15

"An action that penalizes someone because of such characteristics as ethnic group, religion or gender."

Front 16

authoritarian personality

Back 16

"A person who is rigid and inflexible, has very low tolerance for uncertainty, and readily accepts orders from above."

Front 17

scapegoat

Back 17

"A person or group that is unjustly blamed for the problems of others."

Front 18

ethnic stereotype

Back 18

"The portrayal of all the members of a particular ethnic group as having similar fixed, usually unfavorable, traits."

Front 19

contrast conceptions

Back 19

"The strong negative stereotypes that ethnic groups often develop about each other."

Front 20

institutional discrimination

Back 20

"Discrimination against minority groups that is practiced by economic, educational, and political organizations rather than by individuals."

Front 21

internal colonialism

Back 21

"A theory of racism and discrimination which distinguishes between minorities who are "conquered people" and those who are not."

Front 22

colonized minority

Back 22

"A minority group that has aquired minority status through involuntary means, such as being captured and brought to the country or having their home territory annexed by another group."

Front 23

immigrant minority

Back 23

"A minority group that has aquired minority status through voluntary immigration."

Front 24

civil rights movement

Back 24

"The social movement in the United States that brought an end to the segregation system."

Front 25

Eurocentric

Back 25

"A view of the world or an educational curriculum that takes an exclusively European perspective."

Front 26

multicultural education

Back 26

"Education that includes the perspectives and experiences of different ethnic groups."

Front 27

reverse discrimination

Back 27

"Discrimination against white males."

Front 28

affirmative action

Back 28

"A policy of positive effort to rectify the effects of past discrimination."

Front 29

The Functionalist Perspective- Ethnic Minorities

Back 29

-They believe that shared values and attitudes are the cement that holds a society together.
-The more disagreement there is over basic values, the more unstable and disorganized a society is likely to be.
-Ethnic discrimination is both a cause of contempoary social discrimination.
-The failure to give minorities full equality wastes valuable human resources and generates ethnic hostilities that reduce economic production and undermine political authority.
-They feel the best response to these problems is to reduce discrimination by recognizing our social institutions. Unity is objective, whether it is achieved through domination, pluralism, or intergration. Intergration is ideal.
-They ask for an attack on discrimination in housing, education, criminal justice, and elsewhere, arguing that an effective reform movement will increase support for "the system" among ethnic minorities while at the same time maintaining the allegiance of the majority.

Front 30

The Conflict Perspective- Ethnic Minorities

Back 30

-See our history as one of conflict and oppression.
-The history of all ethnic relations is the history of a struggle for power. When one group is more powerful than others, a system of domination develops in which the weaker groups are exploited for the political, social, and economic advantage of the dominant group. When power is more equally distributed, pluralism develops.
-Assert that ethnic equality can be achieved only through struggle. A group that has improved it's status is, by definition, a group that has seized more political and economic power.
-Argue that political change is often nessacary to bring out economic change.
-The key to increased power is organization for political action.

Front 31

The Feminist Perspective- Ethnic Minorities

Back 31

-Similarities among women and minorities in our society.
-Both groups have been put down in derogatory stereotypes, subject to widespread occupational discrimination, and often excluded from the mainstream of our cultural life.
-Share a common interest to protect the affirmative action programs.
-Call upon women and pro-feminist men to continue to educate people about the harm that ethnic and gender stereotyping causes and to encourage people to look closely at their own lives to discover and uproot stereotypes and prejudiced attitudes that have crept into their system of belief's during the socialization process.

Front 32

The Interactionist Perspective- Ethnic Minorities

Back 32

-Holds that individuals develop their concept of personal indentity from their interactions with the people around them. When members of a minority group are constantly insulted, demeaned, and harrassed, they are bound to be affected. Some internalize these feelings, resulting in low self-esteem and feelings of personal inadequacy.
-Their proposals fall into 2 catagories.
-First- based on the fact that whatever is learned can be unlearned. Included here are recommendations for more ethnic contact and communication and for direct attack on ethnic stereotypes in the media and in schools.
-Second- proposals that attempt to go to the roots of the problem by recommending long-term changes to reduce ethnic competition and conflict. Say that prejudices and discrimination will decrease as the fear of economic competition decreases.
-Grouping people into common catagories based on certain characteristics has caused enormous social problems.
-Best solution- to abandon those traditional attitudes and adopt the more scientifically supportable view that all people are members of a single human race.