Sociology 420 Test
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- Essentialism (Framework Essay)
- the view that reality exitsts independently of our perception of it, that we perceive the meaning of the world rather than construct that meaning. From this perspective, there are real and important differences among categories of people.
- Constructionism (Framwork Essay)
- the view that reality cannot be separated from the way a culture makes sense of it that meaning is "constructed" through social, political, legal, scientific, and other practices. From this perspective, differences among people are created through social processes.
- Panethnic
- Is this good or bad. All Asian people not Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese. Became just Asian Americans. a classification that spans ethnic identities. Also like Hispanic or Latino.
- Intersectionality
- consideration of the ways that master statuses interact and mutually construct one another.
- One-drop rule
- he one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of sub-Saharan ancestry (however small or invisible) cannot be considered white[1] and so unless said person has an alternative non-white ancestry they can claim, such as Native American, Asian, Arab, Australian aboriginal, they must be considered black.
- Hypo-descent rule
- mixed race people are given the status of the less dominate group (mixed people choose either the black or the white. hypodescent is the assignment of mixed-race children to the race that is considered subordinate or inferior. The opposite practice is hyperdescent, in which children are assigned to the race that is considered dominant or superior.
- Miscegenation
- interracial dating/or sexual relations (Virginia vs. Loving) is the mixing of different racial groups, that is, marrying, cohabiting, having sexual relations and having children with a partner from outside one's racially or ethnically defined group.
- Assimilation
- being absorbed into the dominant sector (the dominant group wins/everyone should conform to their beliefs.
- Amalgamation
- mixed race (Japanese Americans "the slanted eye" continue to reproduce until their race is dominant/pure again.
- Checker-boarding
- government practices (people who owned land), tried to separate people but they ended up reproducing.
- Mono-racial identity
- (people associate with one identity). It is the privileged identity, common among the young generation. (example-I'm not mixed, I'm just one race).
- Passing
- people who looked white and were mixed could "pass" as white person. Advantages- economic, Disadvantages- betray your race, double consciousness (living a double life) trying to fit into two different cultures.
- Undercounted people
- in the census=lower funding. "Black Poverty"
- Tautology
- people at the top are seen as having "the right" things.
- Gilbert and Kahl Model of Class Structure
- -Capitalist -Upper middle class -Middle class -Working class -Working poor -Underclass
- Class Consciousness
- the degree to which people are aware of themselves as a distinctive group that shares political of economic differences. is consciousness of one's social class or economic rank in society.
- Gilbert and Kahl Social Class
- Economic Variable -occupation -income -wealth Status Variables -personal prestige -association -socialization Political variables -power -class consciousness Dual Concept -succession/mobility
- Human Capital
- Human-capital factors are often included in the "merit" formula for success. Human capital refers to whatever aquired skills, knowledge, or experience workers process that they can exchange for income in open markets. Wage laborers can "invest" in themselves through the accumulation of education and training thus, increasing their skills and presumably their productive capacities.
- Factors of Import in Current Class Structure
- 1. Consolidation of capitalist and class diversification (local owned banks bought by companies and made global). 2. Increasing importance of credentials (education is key, but also adds to the catch up game). 3. Middle class "squeeze" (crisis of expectations)(ppl. take leases out on mercedes when they cannot buy them). 4. Occupational polarization in post industrial economy (ppl. in the top positions become further apart from the lower positions) 5. Proletarianization (middle class identify with white collar, but still have low pay: bank tellers) and embourgeoisement (working class end up making more than the middle class/more freedom/autonomy). 6. Declining power/significance of unions (unions kept workers from being exploited. Now unions are not helpful/loss of bargining power). 7) Increasing separation of poor from work (textile workers don't have a job anymore because the company closed down, no job, no education). 8) Blurred boundaries between the working poor and the poor (meshing/getting a job on and off).
- Possible Essay Questions
- 1. The construction of difference with race class and sex. 2. Themes of essentialism in readings.
- Race and the Construction of Ethnic Identity (The meaning of difference pg. 40-50)
- Everyone was one ethnicity before. In the past, languages were intended identity. Ethnicity is physical. Used to be language over looks, now looks over language. Before people thought everyone looks the same.
- Who is black? One Nation's Definition (MD pg. 50)
- Black people are a combination of all colors and white people are just one color. If there is going to be a norm, black people are more of a norm because they have a combination of colors. Because of the one-drop rules, blacks are a category with a variety. Because you can apply the one-drop rule to everyone, everyone should be included. How is everyone not considered "black"?
- Real Indians: Identity and the survival
- You had to prove you were Native American. Blood quantum- blood is the transmitter of the culture.
- Ethnic, generational and class diversification
- within panethnicity all Asian Americans are different within each community. Asians, Chinese make more money
- We are all Americans (Latin Americanization) (Pg. 97-112)
- The whole of latin american strive for the whitening of their people. Ever since colonial times, similar to the idea of White Supremacy. Eliminate dark Latinos.
- Whiteness as an "Unmarked" Cultural Category
- White people feel like they have no culture. Neutral and normative is contradictory. Marking vs. invisibility. Since white/heterosexual is not marked, it is invisible.
- How white people became white/ How Jews became white folks (white privileged
- Continuing to separate the lines between black and white. More people to consider as white (immigrants-irish, italian) Jewish G.I. bill.
- Becoming Hispanic (white privilege)
- Racism within your own race.
- The Five Sexes (MD
- Sex, sexuality and gender. Your sex could be female, your sexuality could be heterosexuality and your gender could be male. Intersectionality or multi-dimentional spaces.
- Gendered Society
- difference and domination. Men being invisible as men. Marking men. Men are most of the time not marked. Marking based on history. We haven't looked at what is the men's or white person's perspective. We have indivisibility. A male feels like he can't be nuturing because it's not in their nature. Vice versa
- Difference in Domination (Sexuality)
- how the assumptions of differences are used as dominating forces. Domination is the outcome of different cultural valuing.
- The Transgender Phenomenon (print out)
- causalities of transgender (people try to figure out how to name and label themselves). We still have to define people, so we do that through gender roles. Figuring out what the phenomenon is.
- Introduction to thinking straight (print out)
- deconstructs heterosexuality