Biological determination
false arguments that suppose social and economic differences between races are the result of permanent, inherited, and inborn distinctions
Race
A symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is misguided as a natural category.
Homogenizing heading
Grouping different types of people into a single category when talking about race. EX. Asian
Racial taxonomy
Race-based classification system. In the US the 5 main categories are 1. pacific islander/native Hawaiian, Alaskan natives/American Indians, Asians, African Americans/Blacks, and white
Phenotype
Physical appearance and constitution, including skeletal structure, height, hair texture, eye color, and skin tone.
Ancestry
Family lineage, often including tribal, regional, or national affiliations.
Naturalization
When something created by humans is mistaken as something dictated by nature.
Ethnicity
A shared lifestyle informed by cultural, historical, religious, and/or national affiliations.
Nationality
Citizenship to a territory controlled by a government.
Five fallacies about racism
1. Individualistic fallacy 2. Legalistic fallacy 3. Tokenistic fallacy 4. Ahistorical fallacy 5. Fixed fallacy
Individualistic fallacy
Racism is assumed to belong to the realm of ideas and prejudices. Racism is only the collection of nasty thoughts a "racist individual" has about another group. Someone operating under this fallacy thinks that there are two types of people, "racists" and
Legalistic Fallacy
This fallacy assumes that abolishing racist laws (racism in principle) automatically leads to the abolition of racism writ large (racism in practice)
Tokenistic Fallacy
This fallacy assumes that the presence of people of color in influential positions is evidence of the complete eradication of racial obstacles. A person acting under this fallacy would believe that since there are millionaires and politicians of color, th
ahistorical fallacy
people who do not think that events that occurred in the past have any sort of relevance to our lives today. They think that events that happened in history are to old to be applicable to things occurring in today's world. For example, "the period of time
fixed fallacy
Racism looks the same in every time period. This fallacy assumes that racism is fixed, that it is immutable, constant across time and space. People acting under this fallacy think that racism is something that does not develop in any way, and those who un
Two specific kinds of racial domination
1. institutional racism and 2. interpersonal racism
institutionalized racism
systematic white domination of people of color, embedded and operating in corporations, universities, legal systems, political bodies, cultural life, and other social collectives. Institutional racism withholds from people of color opportunities, privileg
interpersonal racism
Racial domination in everyday interactions and practices. This can be obvious, but most is covert: this is found in the habitual, common, ordinary practices of our lives.
symbolic violence
refers to the process of people of color unknowingly accepting and supporting the terms of their own domination.
intersectionality
explains the overlapping systems of advantages and disadvantages that affect people differently positioned in society. This idea implies that we cannot understand the lives of poor white single mothers of gay black men by examining only one dimension of t
racial essentialism
A way of thinking that boils down vastly different human experiences into a single master category race.
white privilege
the collection of unearned cultural, political, economic, and social advantages and privileges possessed by people of Anglo-European descent or by those who pass as such.
color-blindness
is a sociological term referring to the disregard of racial characteristics when selecting which individuals will participate in some activity or receive some service. In practice, color-blind operations use no racial data or profiling and make no classif
white antiracists
Whites recognize their own white privilege and disavow-in some cases, actively struggle against-the racial structures from which they draw their privilege. In fact, they leverage their very advantages in the fight to dismantle racial domination.
sociological imagination
Approaching the world skeptically and critically, rejecting overly simplified explanations, and evaluating and reevaluating the nature of things with a new outlook.
reflexivity
turning the instruments of social science-especially critical evaluation carried out with a sociological imagination-back on oneself.
relationality
the building blocks of society are unfolding relationships. In this view, an individual or group is best examined by exploring the networks of relationships, with that individual or group is embedded.
fields of life
The realm of social life that follows its own basic principles.
reconstruction
pushes us to take our new-found knowledge and use it to change the world in which we live.