Navigating Racial and Ethnic Groups
RACIAL GROUP
A set of people distinguishable by visible physical characteristics, such as skin colour, facial features, and hair type
Race
People belonging to the same group based on common visible features
ETHNIC GROUP
A set of people belonging to the same group by virtue of a common birthplace, ancestry, language, or culture
Ethnicity
Social groups with shared national or cultural traditions
Socially constructed concepts
Biologically, there is only one human race
Racial and ethnic groups can be referred to together as racialized groups
Racialization
The tendency to view and categorize people according to visible signs of race or ethnicity
- Encourages prejudice and discrimination—based on the mistaken belief that certain intellectual, emotional, and behavioural traits are inherent among all members of a racialized group
- Imposes racial distinctions into situations that should be managed without them
- Contributes to racial conflicts
- Can escalate to violence
Racial (Ethnic) Socialization
Process by which people learn to perceive and evaluate others and themselves according to presumed racial or ethnic differences
- Construction of “insider” and “outsider” groups (or “normal” vs “other”)
Institutional Racism
Discrimination based on formal rules and common practices that are so widespread and well established that the discrimination seems normal and goes unnoticed
Expressed Racism
Discrimination occurring when people project their fears onto particular racialized minorities, then act according to these projections
Racial Profiling
Expecting individuals to act differently, and interpreting their actions differently, based on race (e.g. linking race to likelihood of criminal activity)
Critical Race Theory
Views race as a performance, not an innate quality
- Proposes that only disadvantaged people are in the position to see and assess the lived reality of inequality (standpoint theory)
- Argues that racism is deeply entrenched in our social and legal institutions
- Shifts discussions on race and ethnicity from essentialism (racial “qualities”) to performativity (racial labels and performances)
Social Distance
The distance between different racial and ethnic groups (Bogardus)
- Measures the extent of segregation and mixing among different racialized groups
- Based on people’s willingness to accept members of a certain racial, ethnic, or other group into closer or more distant social relationships
Key findings
- Some groups are less tolerant than others
- Some groups are less tolerated than others
- Tolerance in a society tends to increase over time
- e.g. intergroup marriage is becoming more common in large cities
IMMIGRATION
Immigrants tend to behave in patterned and predictable ways
Historically, Canada has used immigrant inflows and restrictions to satisfy economic and social needs
- Immigration head tax (1885–1923) and Chinese Exclusion Act (1923–1947) discriminated against Asian immigrants
- Immigration is now considered an essential contributor to economic growth and prosperity
Most immigrants first settle in large urban areas
- Cities are melting pots—places where people readily encounter others from very different backgrounds
Assimilation
Process by which an outsider / immigrant group becomes indistinguishably integrated into the dominant host society
Ethnic Self-Segregation
Members of racialized groups (e.g. recent immigrants) settle together for economic and linguistic reasons
Multiculturalism
Belief that all citizens, regardless of ethnic background, are equal and should preserve their cultural heritage
Acculturation
Process of adopting / fitting into a culture other than the one a person was first socialized into
Ethnic communities
Made up of individuals who share common characteristics (including history and cultural beliefs) that distinguish them from other people in society
Interculturalism
Encourages tolerance for different cultures, but demands their forceful acceptance of and incorporation into society
Imagined Communities
Socially constructed racialized groups that are treated (by insiders and outsiders) as real because they are widely believed to be real (Anderson)
- People live and work with others they perceive to be like themselves
Often take the form of ethnic enclaves—a neighbourhood that is mainly or exclusively populated by people who belong to the same racialized group (e.g. Little India, Chinatown)
Many groups develop institutional completeness—services (including schools, churches, and mass media) aimed at a particular ethnic community, often in their traditional language
Dispersed immigrants also form diasporic groups—ethnic groups that have established multiple centres of immigrant life throughout the world
Preserve ethnic identities and communities, but delay or prevent integration
Ethno-racial Inequality
- Still evident in societies, particularly in areas of employment, housing, wealth, health, and criminal justice
- Canada’s Aboriginal peoples—remain affected by disadvantage, discrimination, and social distance
- Implicit Attitude Test—developed to measure unconscious beliefs that maintain racial prejudices
NAMES WORTH KNOWING
Emory S. Bogardus (1882–1973) developed the concept of social distance, devising a scale that ranks people’s willingness to accept members of a certain racial, ethnic, or other group into closer or more distant social relationships.
Karl Gunnar Myrdal (1898–1987) studied race relations in the United States starting in 1937, observing serious discrimination of African Americans and identifying the need for the American government and citizens to support racial equality.
Edward Said (1935–2003) explored how Westerners, through hegemony and colonialism, have imagined other cultures, most notably through Orientalism, the Western view of the Middle East.
Benedict Anderson (b. 1936) coined the term imagined communities to highlight the socially constructed aspect of all ethnic and racialized group life.
Patricia Hill-Collins (b. 1948) is known for her work on intersectionality, the theory that unique worldviews are produced when systems of oppression by race intersect with systems of oppression by other social factors, such as gender, class, and sexuality.
Kimberlé Crenshaw (b. 1959) helped develop critical race theory (CRT) and coined the term intersectionality to refer to the linking forms of prejudice based on race and gender.
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