SOCIOL 3RI3 Past Paper January 13th, 2025 PDF

1/13/25 SOCIOL 3RI3 January 13th, 2025 1 LEARNING GOALS Explore Grasp Consider...

1/13/25 SOCIOL 3RI3 January 13th, 2025 1 LEARNING GOALS Explore Grasp Consider Explore the Grasp Consider historical dialectical implications of origins on nature of Fields (2001) racism; racial and Hunt constructs; (2021) for Source: https://www.americamagazine.org/politics- sociology of society/2022/03/28/canada-catholic-bishops-demographics- racialization. church-first-peoples-indigenous 2 1  1/13/25 AGENDA 1) Updates 2) Introductions and ice-breakers 1) Review of historical origins of racism 2) Analysis of readings 3) 8-minute break 4) Contemporary racial politics. 3 INTRODUCTIONS AND ICE-BREAKERS üFind two people with whom you share something in common üWith each person: a) Share each other names and the programs you’re studying b) Then, tell each other “never have I ever ….. ” 4 2  1/13/25 SUB-THEMES FOR THE DAY 1) How and why is race an ideology? What is an ideology? 2) Terminology : racialization rather than race 3) Revisiting the historical origins of racism 4) Analyzing Fields (2001) and Hunt (2021) 5) Contemporary illustrations 5 IDEOLOGY “A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy” (Oxford Dictionary) “Any wide-ranging system of beliefs, ways of thought, and categories that provide the foundation of programmes of political and social action: an ideology is a conceptual scheme with a practical application” (Oxford Reference) Examples of ideology: capitalism, socialism, democracy, Christianity, Islam. 6 3  1/13/25 To say race is a social construction is only the beginning (Barbara Fields); does not explain why it exists. Racism is an ideology because: RACIAL IDEOLOGIES It was created to resolve the contradiction between an unequal political and economic order and notions of democracy and individual freedom. 7 RACIALIZATION The process of creating “races” by ascribing unequal cultural and biological meanings to physical characteristics: E.g., skin color facial features hair texture 8 4  1/13/25 Multiple populations have had to battle against dehumanizing stereotypes, including Indigenous, Black, Italian, Jewish, Irish, Italian, Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, and Muslims. 9 For more information: https://www.racepowerofanillusion.org/ 10 5  1/13/25 HISTORICAL ORIGINS Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Religious explanations for Biological racism (1800- Cultural racism (post WWII- colonialism and 1940) present) enslavement Religiosity declines and Once racism outlawed by Catholicism claimed non- secularism rises. law (UN convention after Europeans were inferior With rise of biology and Jewish genocide), and yet could still attain anthropology, biological secularization becomes “religious” emancipation. notions of inferiority dominant, cultural Belief Africans are emerge and gain explanations for destined for servitude credence. inequality take over. because descend from, Jim Crow and South Still, biology remains and are cursed by, Ham. African apartheid hidden in racialized Indigenous peoples are extreme examples of stereotypes. savages but can be biological racism turned civilized. into law. 11 KEY DATES AND TURNING POINTS (1600-1800S) Belief Indigenous Early 1600s: populations Colonization, can be 1882: European indentured “civilized” Chinese servants, 1775-1800s: 1830: Indian Exclusion Act in Age of Removal Act, US tributes from Indigenous democratic and Trail of "Asiatic Barred populations revolutions Tears Zone" (1917) Late 1600s: 1819: 1865: Civil 1870s: Transatlantic Civilization War and Jim Crow in slave trade to policy abolition of South begins, US begins; slavery KKK, and slave laws are lynching and passed. pogroms Distinction between Indigenous people now spread “White” and “Black” deemed inferior to arises Notions of Black make way for White inferiority grow male land ownership 12 6  1/13/25 KEY DATES AND TURNING POINTS (1865-PRESENT) 1865 to 1940s: heyday of scientific 1970s-1980s: racism, 1965: Un peak of civil Post-1960s eugenics, and Declaration rights litigation era of color- legal Against Racial and blindness and segregation Discrimination enforcement. cultural racism. 1930s-1940s: 1964-65 : 1960s to WWII and US Civil rights present: Jewish legislation & Conservative genocide liberalization backlash to Deportation of of immigration. Civil Rights 300-400,000 Acts Mexicans, many US citizens. 13 KEY DATES IN CANADIAN CONTEXT 1867: Confederation 1876: Indian Act 1885-1923: Chinese Head Tax 1923-1947: Chinese Immigration Act 1914: Komagata Maru incident 1942-1949: Internment of Japanese immigrants. Up to 1950-1960s: Racial segregation of Black citizens from education, industries, and commercial spaces. 1967: End of racial discrimination in immigration. 1971: Multiculturalism within a Bilingual Framework Act. 14 7  1/13/25 BEYOND THE “ETHNICITY PARADIGM” ETHNICITY RACE A voluntary, cultural identity a) An imposed identity b) An ideology c) A power relation Born out of a sense of shared heritage Born out of European colonization and capitalism. Refers to a single group a) A hierarchical construct b) Whole societies are racialized 15 FIELDS (2001) “Race during the era of the American revolution…became a way of resolving the contradiction between a natural right to freedom and the fact of slavery.” “Race was part of the defensive rationale for slavery because when slavery acquired an affirmative as opposed to a defensive rationale – slavery was a positive good rather than a necessary evil –” race did not need to exist. “You need a radical affirmation of bondage only where you have a radical affirmation of freedom.” Barbara Fields Colombia University, NY “American democracy and racism are Siamese twins.” 16 8  1/13/25 DIALECTICS OF RACE Racism did not arise to explain Black and Indigenous subjugation, but to justify why they would remain unfree when democracy was granted to white men; Thus, race constitutes a political project created to sustain colonialism, white supremacy, and unregulated capitalism. Racial ideologies function through dialectical opposites, separating between that which is desirable and normal from what is abnormal and deviant. Hunt (2021): civilization and savagery, good and evil, man vs nature, White vs “Indian.” For example, people of color depicted as deviant, criminal, illegal, violent, free-loaders, etc. Racial ideologies make inequality and exclusion culturally acceptable in societies founded on ideals of equality, freedom, and equality of opportunity. Racial ideologies not only foster consent for racial inequality and colonialism but also stifle dissent. 17 qSettler colonialism operates through a logic of elimination: genocide and assimilation (Wolfe, 1999). qDue to Indigenous resistance, settler colonialism and logic of elimination are ongoing processes; Hunt (2021) uses the term ”structurally embedded.” qSettler colonial state exercises power by declaring itself lawful authority and criminalizing Indigenous culture and resistance (Hunt, 2001). qLogic of elimination operates through binary (or dialectical) opposites; defining settler authority as “lawful” and Indigeneity as “unlawful.” qContradiction between settler colonialism and Indigeneity Source: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/peter-shawn-taylor-one- means the latter must constantly be “subdued, destroyed, canadian-bears-weight-of-nations-sins-for-scalping contained, and assimilated” (Hunt, 2021, p. 215). 18 9  1/13/25 “The happiest future for the Indian race is absorption into the general population, and this is the object of the policy of our government…” INDIAN ACT “I want to get rid of the Indian problem…Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian (1876) department…” (Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs (1913-1932), quoted in Palmater (2014) 19 Harper government introduces Bill C-51 in 2015 defining “economic terrorism” as a crime (Barker and Lowman, 2023) Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/canada-indigenous-land-defenders-police-documents 20 10  1/13/25 INDIAN ACT =“LEGISLATED ELIMINATION” qGroups all Indigenous people into a presumed biological category of “Indian”; ØIndian Act remains primary way to be recognized as Indigenous; ØTo be recognized as “status Indian,” must remain on reserve. If leave reserve permanently, lose “Indian status.” ØIndigenous people who leave reserve lose their rights to access services for Indigenous people. qIndian Act reinforces disappearance and assimilation of Indigenous people: ØCan only claim rights to reserve land if you are a “status Indian”; ØAfter two generations of marriage to a non-Indigenous person, individuals lose their “Indian status,” known as the “two-generation cut- Pam Palmater off.” Professor, Toronto Metropolitan ØUntil 1985, Indigenous women could not pass on their Indigenous status to University their children if they married a non-Indigenous person. Mi’kmaw citizen, Eel River Bar First Nation 21 DIALECTICS OF RACISM ØWhite supremacy, capitalism, and colonialism operate in constant tension with demands for equality, freedom, democracy, and civil and human rights. ØRacial ideologies may exist to resolve ideological contradictions, yet, they remain an ongoing source of political and cultural conflict (e.g., Black Lives Matter vs racial stereotypes, Indigenous self-determination vs capitalist land exploitation). Ø Political institutions and elites play a central role in either reinforcing or attenuating racial ideologies and inequality; policy change has always come about as a result of social movements for equality. 22 11  1/13/25 As a sociologist, how would you interpret the recent claim that the California fires are because of DEI? 1) Why is DEI the target? 2) What goals might these right-wing elites be seeking? https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/right-wingers- blame-los-angeles-fires-diversity-democrats-1235230047/ 23 Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-jordan-peterson-interview-1.7423197 24 12