Assignment 1 Sociology

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SOC101RACE.ppt
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Demographic Variables - The Bases of Inequality: Race/Ethnicity, Social Stratification and Gender

When Did the World Begin?

  • About 4.5 – 5 billion years ago

When Did People Begin and Where?

  • Australopithecines- 2-4 million years ago
  • Homo Erectus- 1-2 m
  • Homo Sapiens- <1 m
  • African origin

When Did People Change Skin Color?

  • Human Migration– Homo Erectus out of Africa across Eurasia about 1 million years ago, Homo Sapiens colonized Africa about 150,000 years ago, moved out of Africa 70,000 years ago, and spread across Australia, Asia, and Europe by 40,000 years ago.
  • Migration to the Americas – 20,000 to 15,000 years ago
  • About 110,000 years ago people began to display different skin colors – why?

Race

  • What is race?
  • Always seen as a biological concept
  • Based on skin color, cranial shape, eye features, hair texture

Race/Ethnicity

  • Race – a distinct population of people with genetically transmitted physical characteristics

- examples?

  • Ethnicity - a term which represents social groups with a shared history, sense of identity, geography and cultural roots which may occur despite racial difference

- examples?

Ethnicity vs. Culture

  • What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
  • Ethnicity – the country into which you are born
  • Culture – all the shared activities and beliefs of a group of people

Is Concept of Race a Biological or Social Concept?

  • Three major categories: Negroid, Asianoid/Mongoloid, Caucusoid
  • How did we arrive at these categories?
  • To answer this have to go back in time…


  • Initially the development of concept of race was a biological concept
  • Each race is a separate species then
  • Polygenie – each race has its’ own primal pair

Consequences of Differences in Skin Colors

Charles Darwin Challenged This Belief
Origin of Species, 1859

Darwinism

  • Evolution
  • Survival of the Fittest
  • Natural Selection

From Polygenie to Monogenie

  • Monogenie – belief in one

primal pair for all human groups

  • Evidence of Monogenie:
  • African origin for all
  • Mitochondrial DNA same
  • Not enough time

Conclusions

  • Race is a social construct (concept), not a biological concept
  • No physical evidence of biological races.
  • So…
  • One Race – the human race!

For More Info on Race –
PBS: Race: The Power of an Ilusion

However, Many Social Consequences - The Isms…

  • Discrimination based on…
  • Racism
  • Classism
  • Sexism
  • Ageism
  • Homophobia
  • Etc.

Polygenie

  • Until 1859 we believed in Polygenie – the belief that all major racial groups have their own primal pair
  • So, three primal pairs (one each for each of the three major supposed racial categories)

From Polygenie to Monogenie

  • Belief all human groups came from one/ same primal pair
  • Evidence:
  • African origin for all
  • Mitochondrial DNA same
  • Not enough time

Consequences of the Belief in Concept of Separate Races

  • Social Darwinism
  • Eugenics
  • Prejudice
  • Discrimination
  • Stereotyping
  • Ethnocentrism
  • Slavery/Segregation
  • Racism
  • Etc.

Social Darwinism

  • Applying Darwinian principles of evolution, survival of the fittest, and natural selection to human groups
  • So, what are the implications for human groups?

Social Darwinism = Superiority

Other Examples of Eugenics

  • Forced Sterilization
  • Euthanasia
  • Genocide (Native Americans)

Forced Sterilization

  • Government policies which forced people to undergo surgical sterilization.
  • In the first half of the 20th century, many such programs were instituted in many countries around the world, usually as part of Eugenics programs intended to prevent the reproduction and multiplication of members of the population considered to be carriers of defective genetic traits.

Forced Sterilization
Timeline in the U.S.

  • In 1897, Michigan became the first state bring up forced sterilization legislature. This legislature did not pass; nor did Pennsylvania’s attempts a few years later.
  • The first state to introduce sterilization laws was Indiana, in 1907; Washington and California followed suit in 1907.
  • In 1927 the famed sterilization case Buck v. Bell was heard in the supreme courts, which legalized forced sterilizations, and began the age of the most forced sterilizations.

  • In 1942 the case Skinner v. Oklahoma ruled that you cannot sterilize someone as a punishment, which partially curtailed forced sterilizations.
  • By 1963, most states had taken sterilization laws out of use, though many of them remained in the law books for longer: North Carolina did not rescind their laws until 1974.
  • Roughly 70,000 Americans were sterilized against their will.

Carrie Buck (1906-1983)

Prejudice

  • Prejudgment or negative belief; existing bias towards an individual or group
  • Example?

Discrimination

  • What is discrimination?
  • Act or behavior
  • Personal v. Institutional
  • Examples?
  • Defacto Discrimination
  • Dejure Discrimination

What Other Groups?

  • Besides race/ethnicity what other groups are historically discriminated against?
  • People w/ physical challenges
  • Sexual orientation
  • The elderly
  • Women

Stereotyping

  • Assuming all members of a group are a particular way or an individual is like all members of a group
  • Example?

Ethnocentrism

  • What is ethnocentrism?
  • Seeing the world from the perspective of one's own culture. Believing “one’s own group is the center of everything,” against which all other groups are judged.
  • Belief that your group is superior

Consequences of Ethnocentrism

  • Out-group hostility
  • In-group solidarity
  • Produces concept of subordinate/minority group

KKK (1866-Present)

  • Advocates white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti- Catholicism, racism, homophobia, and nativism.
  • Often uses terrorism, violence, and acts of intimidation, such as cross burning and lynching.

Neo-Nazis (1940s-Present)

  • The ideology of post-WW II global political movements seeking to revive Nazism

Skinheads (1950s-Present)

  • Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, are a working-class subculture that originated in England, and then spread to other parts of the world
  • Originally non-political,

skinhead groups range

from far-left to

far-right now

Aryan Nation (1970s-Present)

  • An international white supremacist, Neo-Nazi organization that is affiliated with the KKK.
  • Founded by Richard Butler as an arm of Church of Jesus Christ-Christian.
  • Headquarters in Idaho.

Egocentrism

  • Belief that others think or believe like you or should think or believe like you
  • Example?

XENOPHOBIA

  • A fear of strangers or foreigners. A strong antipathy or aversion to strangers or foreigners.
  • Examples?

Methods of Discrimination/Racism

  • Segregation - physical or social separation of groups
  • U.S. – 1865-1964
  • ‘Colored’ v. White

Exclusion

  • Exclusion – prohibiting or restricting entry or participation of a group
  • Examples?
  • Immigration Restriction Laws (i.e., Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882-1943)

Expulsion

  • Expulsion – removal of a group by using force or intimidation
  • Examples?
  • Japanese Internment Camps, 1941-1944

Attempts to Resolve Racism

  • Brown v. Bd. Of Education of Topeka, KS, 1954 (14th Amendment, equal protection violated) Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

Civil Rights Act, 1964

  • Based on the Civil Rights Act of 1875, proposed by President John Kennedy, and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson

Busing

  • Desegregation efforts to integrate schools

Affirmative Action, EEOC, Title IX (1965-Present)

  • Refers to policies intended to promote access to education or employment aimed at historically socio-politically non-dominant groups, i.e., people of color and women.
  • Motivation for these policies is to resolve the effects of the past and to encourage businesses and public institutions such as universities, hospitals, and police forces to be more representative of the population.

Immigration History in the U.S.

What is Immigration?

  • Immigration is the movement of non-residents to the U.S., and has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of our history.
  • The foreign born, however, have never been more than 16% of the population since 1675.

Three Large Waves of Immigration

  • Primary (1600s-early 1800s) English, Dutch, Irish, Scottish, German
  • Secondary (late 1800s-1924) Southern and Eastern European, Mexican
  • Tertiary (1965-Present) African, Asian, Carribbean, Puerto Rican, Central and South American, Middle Eastern

During Secondary Wave (late 1800s-1924)

Angel Island, San Francisco, CA

  • From 1910-1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station processed 175,000+ Asians entering into the US, serving a similar role to Ellis Island for European immigrants.
  • The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 provided tough entry restrictions, so many immigrants waited on the island for more than two years. http://www.aiisf.org/

Angel Island

  • The conditions on Angel Island were very poor.
  • A fire burned down the main building in 1940.

Perils of Immigration

  • Dangerous, risky, difficult, expensive, so why do they come?
  • Push factors vs. pull factors
  • Social, economic, political, religious, natural disasters, family/personal, etc.
  • Today 500,000-1+ million/year come

Other Reasons

  • Around 60,000 convicts were transported to the U.S./British colonies in the 1700s

Australia

  • Thousands of convicts were also shipped to Australia in the 1800s b/c of the “Bloody Code” in England

U.S. Total Population Figures

  • 1790 - 3.9 million
  • 1830 – 12.8 million
  • 1850 – 23 million
  • 1890 – 63 million
  • 1910 – 92 million
  • 1930 – 123 million
  • 1950 – 151 million
  • 1960 – 179 million
  • 1970 – 203 million
  • 1980 – 226 million
  • 1990 – 248 million
  • 2000 – 281 million
  • 2021 – 330+ million

U.S. Population 2020
Major Groups

  • 330 million total population in U.S.
  • 197 million European Americans
  • 52 million Latino/Hispanic Americans (projected to be 102 million in 2050; was 22 million in 1990)
  • 37-42 million African Americans (higher total if include biracial or multiracial)
  • 17 million Asian Americans
  • 10 million Middle Eastern Americans (4-5 million Arab Americans (Muslim and Christian); 6.5 million Jewish Americans)

Nativism – Control/Quotas
Melting Pot or Dumping Ground?

  • Open immigration until Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, and the Immigration Act of 1924.
  • Congress passed a literacy act in 1917 to curb the influx of low-skilled immigrants.
  • The National Origins Formula was established in 1927. Total annual immigration was capped at 150,000.

Reasons for Immigration Restriction Laws

  • Laws passed in the 1920s tried to achieve three goals:

1. reduce the number of unskilled immigrants

2. favor uniting of families by giving preferences to relatives

3. keeping the ethnic distribution stable by allocating quotas to various ethnic groups

Current Yearly Immigrant Numbers

  • Legal immigrants to the United States number approximately 1,000,000 legal immigrants per year.
  • The U.S. accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than any other country in the world.
  • Total number of legal immigrants and their children 89 million.
  • Contemporary immigrants settle predominantly in seven states: CA, NY, FL, TX, PA, NJ, and IL.

“Chain Migration”

  • Instead of a "national origins system", what the U.S. now has is an "immigrant origins system" where increasing numbers of recent immigrants sponsor increasing numbers of their relatives.
  • The result is that most legal immigrants now come from Asia and Latin America, and not Europe.

Effects of 9/11

  • Public attitudes about

immigration (especially

about Arab Americans)

in the U.S. have been

heavily influenced by

the aftermath of the

September 11, 2001

attacks.

Legal Immigration Isn’t the Problem It’s Illegal Immigration, Or Is It?

  • 11-12 million illegal/undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S.
  • What do they do here?
  • They are our migrant workers, our car washers, waiters, nannies, landscapers, cleaning ladies, etc…

Not a New Issue

  • 1954 – “Operation Wetback,” limiting and restricting 1.2 million illegal Mexicans crossing the border

  • In 1986, the Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA) was passed, creating for the first time, in theory at least, penalties for employers who hired illegal immigrants.

They Come Stuffed In
Small Boats…

They Come Stuffed in Car Trunks…2

Even 5 in a Trunk…

They Come Through Barb Wire…

They Come Over Walls…

They Come Through the Desert…

They Risk Being Arrested

And Going to Jails and Detention Centers…

And Many Americans Are Angry…

So, What To Do With Illegal Immigrants?

  • Pres. Bush Proposed a Temporary Worker or Guest Worker Program

Pres. Bush Also Wanted to
Build a Wall…

President Obama

  • Did not support a border fence
  • Supported a guest worker program with a database of workers
  • Wanted to give a path to legal residency
  • Says legalizing workers would boost wages