SOCIOLOGY

UINIT :
 Discriminatory behavior
• Prejudice often leads to discrimination the denial of opportunities and equal rights
to individuals and groups because of prejudice or other arbitrary reasons.
• Prejudiced attitudes should not be equated with discriminatory behavior. Although
the two are generally related they are not identical; either condition can be present
without the other. A prejudiced person does not always act on his /her biases.
• The term glass ceiling refers to an invisible barrier that blocks the promotion of a
qualified in a work environment because of the individual’s gender, race or
ethnicity.
 The Privileges of the dominant

• One aspect of discrimination that is often over looked is the privileges that
dominant groups enjoy at the expense of others.
• Sociologists and other social scientists are becoming increasingly interested in
what it means to be “white” for white privilege is the other side of the
proverbial coin of a racial discrimination. In this context, white privilege
refers to rights granted to people as particular benefit or favor simply
because they are white.
 Institutional discrimination

• Institutional discrimination refers to the denial of opportunities and equal

rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a
society.
• this kind of discrimination consistently effects certain racial and ethnic
groups more than others .
Sociological perspectives
on race and ethnicity
 Functionalities perspectives

• Sociologist Arnold Rose (1951) has out-lined dysfunction that are associated with racism :
• A society that practices discrimination fails to use the resources of all individuals.
Discrimination limits the search for talent and leadership to the dominant group.
• Discrimination aggravates social problems such as poverty, delinquency, and crime, and
places financial burden of alleviating those problems on the dominant group.
• Society must invest a good deal of time and money to defend its barriers to the full
participation of all members.
• Racial prejudice and discrimination often undercut good-will and friendly diplomatic
relations between nations.
 Conflict perspective

• Conflict theorists would certainly agree with Arnold Rose that racial
prejudice and discrimination have many handful consequences for society.
• From Marxist points of view, racism keeps minorities in low-paying jobs,
thereby supplying capitalist ruling class with a pool of cheap labor.
 Labeling perspective

• One practice that fits both the conflict perspective and labeling theory is a
racial profiling is any arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race,
ethnicity, or national origin rather than on a person’s behavior.
• Generally, racial profiling occurs when law enforcement officers, including
customs officials, airport security, and police, assume that people who fit a
certain description are likely to be engaged in illegal activities.
 Interactionist perspective

• The contact hypothesis states that in cooperative circumstances, interracial

contact between people of equal status will cause them to become less
prejudiced and to abandon old stereotypes.
 Segregation

• Segregation refers to the physical separation of two groups of people in

terms of residence, workplace, and social events.
• Generally a dominant groups imposes this pattern on minority group.
Segregation is rarely complete, however. Intergroup contact inevitably
occurs, even in the most segregated societies.
 Amalgamation

• Amalgamation happens when a majority group and a minority group

combine to form a new group.
• Through inter marriage over several generation, various groups in society
combine to form a new group. This pattern can be expressed as A+B+C
D.
• Where A, B, and C represent different groups in society, and D signifies the
end result, unique cultural – racial group unlike any of the initial groups.
 Assimilation

• Assimilation is the process through which a person forsakes his/her cultural

tradition to become part of a different culture.
• Generally, it is practiced by a minority group member who wants to conform
to the standards of the dominant group.
• Assimilation can be described as a pattern in which A+B+C A. the
majority, A, dominates in such a way that members of minorities B and C
imitate it and attempt to become indistinguishable from it.
 Pluralism
• Pluralism as based on mutual respect for one another’s cultures among the various
groups in a society.
• This pattern allows a minority group to express its own culture and still participate
without prejudice in the larger society.
• Earlier, we described amalgamation as A+B+C D, and assimilation as
A+B+CA.
• using this same approach, we can conceive of pluralism as A+B+CA+B+C.
• All the groups coexist in the same society.
THE END