Week 10 - October 29, 2007

Chapter 11 - Race and Ethnicity are terms people frequently confused. A race is a socially constructed category composed of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important. Race is a significant concept because most people regard it as very important. Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage. Ethnicity involves even more variability and mixture than race because most people identify with more than one ethnic background. A minority is a category of people, distinguished by physical or cultural traits, who are socially disadvantaged. They have two important characteristics: a distinct identity and subordination. Not all members of a minority category are disadvantaged.

Prejudice is a rigid and irrational generalization about an entire category of people. Prejudices are prejudgments and they can be positive or negative. Prejudice often takes the form of stereotypes, which are exaggerated descriptions applied to every person in some category. A powerful and destructive form of prejudice, racism refers to the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another. Closely related to prejudice is discrimination, treating various categories of people unequally. While prejudice refers to attitudes, discrimination is a matter of actions. Like prejudice, it may be positive or negative. According to Robert Merton, prejudice and discrimination may combine in four different ways: active bigotry, timid bigotry, fair-weather liberalism, and all-weather liberalism.