SOCIOLOGY 204 Chapter 11: Ethnicity & Race

The systematic, planned destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group

The movement of people into one country from another for the purpose of settlement

Patterns of discrimination based on ethnicity that have become structured into existing social institutions

The idea that ethnic differences can be combined to create new patterns of behavior drawing on diverse cultural sources

A group of people in a minority in a given society who, because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, find themselves in situations of inequality within that society

Ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life

A model for ethnic relations in which all ethnic groups in the United States retain their independent and separate identities, yet share equally in the rights and powers of citizenship

Differences in human physical characteristics used to categorize large numbers of individuals

The process by which understandings of race are used to classify individuals or groups of people. Racial distinctions are more than ways of describing human differences; they are also important factors in the reproduction of patterns of power and inequality

The skills taught to children of multiracial families to help them cope with racial hierarchies and to integrate multiple ethnic identities

The attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics. This is a form of prejudice

Focusing on physical variations between people. Racist attitudes became entrenched during the period of Western colonial expansion, but seem also to rest on mechanisms of prejudice and discrimination found in human societies today

Individuals or groups blamed for wrongs that were not of their doing

The practices of keeping racial and ethnic groups physically separate, thereby maintaining the superior position of the dominant group

Ethnic identity that is chosen for the moment based on the social setting or situation

Thinking in terms of fixed and inflexible categories

Ethnic identity that is retained only for symbolic importance