Social Identities: Minority Groups and Race

Minority Group

• A minority group is a social group in a society that faces disadvantage and inequity compared to the dominant group due to their physical, ethnic, or cultural attributes.

Race

• Race is a social category founded on the idea of inherent differences between people based on ancestry.
• Examples: Black, White, Asian, Hispanic

Ethnicity

• Ethnicity is a social identity linked to ancestral and cultural background.
• It's more complex than race, encompassing cultural values, norms, language, history, and religion that distinguish a group from others.
• Examples: Mayan, Aztec, Caucasian, Hutu, Tutsi

Americanity as a Concept

• Americanity suggests a new world order distinct from the old European world.
• It emphasises "newness".
• Key aspects include colonialism, ethnicity, and racism.

Coloniality

• Coloniality refers to the continued socio-cultural hierarchy of European and non-European countries, even after formal colonialism ends.
• It's a subordination mindset perpetuated by stigmas and stereotypes.
• Independence doesn't automatically end coloniality.
• Coloniality impacts knowledge, political economics, and continues to marginalize former colonies.

Ethnicity

• Ethnicity is a social identity imposed by others and self-defined, locating individuals within a state structure.
• It creates collective identities.
• Utilizes categorization to preserve existing hierarchies and justify colonial practices such as labor control (e.g., slavery, indentured labor).
• It fosters social boundaries.

Racism

• Racism, implicit in ethnicity, has become more explicit and institutionalized in the modern era, especially after WWII.
• The US, as a superpower, faces challenges concerning claims of racism and maintaining a model world status.
• Meritocracy is questioned as a fair method for upward mobility.

Decoloniality

• Decoloniality is a response to coloniality, seeking to dismantle the colonial matrix of power.
• It challenges the hierarchies and distorted knowledge systems stemming from coloniality.
• Recognises that decolonization didn't eliminate colonialism but transformed it.

Patriarchy

• Patriarchy is a system where society is controlled by men.
• This control extends into economic domains, production, and the environment.

Intersectionality

• Intersectionality highlights how multiple social identities (e.g., race, gender, class) shape individual experiences, beyond the impact of single identities alone.

Sex vs. Gender vs. Sexuality

• Sex refers to biological differences between males and females.
• Gender refers to societal expectations associated with each sex.
• Sexuality encompasses sexual behaviours, attractions, relationships, and identities.

Gender Discrimination and Socialization

• Gender discrimination is differential treatment based on gender.
• Gender role socialization involves learning gender roles from family, education, and media.
• Social role construction is the establishment of gender roles, reflecting prevailing power structures.
• Hegemonic masculinity (toxic masculinity) emphasizes male strength, self-reliance, and unemotional traits as essential aspects of masculinity.

Biological Essentialism

• Biological essentialism is the belief that gender differences are innate and rooted in biology, influencing societal inequalities

Feminism

• Feminism is a sociological perspective focusing on gender's centrality and unique experiences.
• Various types exist, including Liberal, Radical, and Ecofeminism – each with different approaches to gender disparity.

Global Inequality

• Global inequality encompasses systematic wealth and power disparities between countries.
• Different methods (e.g., GDP) exist for comparing and evaluating standards of living across countries.
• Countries are classified as high-income, upper-middle income, lower-middle income, or low-income based on average per capita incomes.

Theories of Global Inequality

• Market-oriented theory: Promotes free-market decisions with minimal government intervention as the path to economic prosperity.
• Modernization theory: Advocates for adopting modern economic institutions and practices to foster economic growth.
• Dependency theory: Argues that poverty in low-income countries results from exploitation by wealthy nations.
• World-System Theory: Views the global economy as a single system with interconnected core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries, characterized by unequal exchange.

World Systems Change

• The world system is slowly changing to a more multipolar structure.
• Although issues like hunger persist, their prevalence has decreased.