CHAPTER 9
Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Define “minority group” from the sociological perspective.
2. Explain how race is socially constructed and scientific arguments that races are not biologically real.
3. Define and describe historical, global examples of the following patterns of racial and ethnic group interaction: genocide, expulsion, colonialism, segregation, acculturation, pluralism, and assimilation, including the distinction between primary and secondary assimilation.
4. Describe trends in racial and ethnic diversity in the United States.
5. Trace changes in how race has been defined in the United States since the first U.S. census and discuss the implications of the new "mixedrace" category of racial identification.
6. Explain the concept of ethnicity, how ethnic groups are distinguished, and the problems with use of racial and ethnic labels.
7. Describe American attitudes about race relations since the Katrina disaster.
8. Describe historical trends in U.S. immigration policies and characteristics of current U.S. immigrants.
9. Explain the two guest-worker programs in the United States and problems with these programs.
10. Describe the extent of illegal immigration into the U.S., the concerns U.S. citizens have about illegal immigration, and problems related to illegal border crossings.
11. Describe the prevalence of undocumented workers in the United States, their reasons for coming to the U.S., their working conditions, government policies toward illegal immigration, and the role of churches as sanctuaries for illegal immigrants.
12. Describe the prevalence of naturalized citizens in the United States and the requirements for U.S. citizenship.
13. Explain the dysfunctions of racial and ethnic inequality from the structural-functionalist perspective and the manifest functions and latent dysfunctions of the Civil Rights Movement.
14. Explain and give examples of how competition over wealth, power, and prestige contributes to racial and ethnic group tensions, according to the conflict perspective.
15. From the symbolic interactionist perspective, explain the consequences of meanings and labels regarding race and ethnicity, including the power of stereotypes to create self-fulfilling prophecies, and how individuals learn prejudicial attitudes through language.
16. Define the concepts of prejudice and racism and explain aversive and modern racism.
17. Explain how people learn prejudice through socialization and the media.
18. Define and describe examples of individual discrimination, overt discrimination, adaptive discrimination, and institutional discrimination.
19. Describe the extent of racial and ethnic discrimination and segregation in the United States in employment, housing, education, and politics.
20. Define hate crimes, explain why the FBI data undercounts hate crimes, describe how hate crimes have increased since 9/11, explain the types of motivations for hate crimes, and describe hate crimes on college campuses and in the military.
21. Describe governmental strategies to reduce prejudice, racism, and discrimination, including the Equal Opportunity Commission and affirmative action policies in federal contracts.
22. Describe Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action in higher education and state and university responses to these court rulings.
23. Describe national survey data regarding attitudes toward affirmative action and explain arguments for and against affirmative action
24. Describe educational strategies to reduce prejudice, racism, and discrimination, including multicultural education, “whiteness studies,” and diversification of college student populations.
25. Describe official apologies and reparations for past discriminations and arguments for and against restitution programs for racial discrimination.