of Sociology Race/Ethnicity What o o o o is race? Primary civilizations Physical characteristics Symbol that marks identity, body, and nationality Social construct based on groups you hang out with not as much genealogy o Stereotypes Fear/unknown/generalization Drawn from constructs o WI Thomas define on objective but more on subjective Is there anything objective Ancestors primary civilizations Skin color Law o In 1790 US congress restricts naturalization to white persons Can not become naturalized US citizen unless white till 1952 As result people around the world file cases saying they are white (a lot of Asians) What makes white white? o Rely on 2 sets of knowledge Common knowledge popular widely held conceptions of what the races are as well as what distinguishes one race from another Scientific knowledge objective technical knowledge based on naturalistic studies of humans Scientist(anthropologists and biologists) believed there were 5 races (in late 1800s to 30s)- Caucasians Mongolians negroes Americans(red race native Americans) and mali(southeast Indians also called brown race) Courts divide o Supreme courts make decision to use common or scientific o Thind vs US 1920s south east asian applying for citizenship saying he is white has leading anthropologists testify on his race Court says it is evidence of scientific manipulation skin is darker than members of court "we venture to think that average well informed white American would learn with some degree of astonishment is made of such heterogeneous elements" Court says no because he is not white This validates that race is a social construct
o "Racial categories represent a socio political construct that generally reflects the social definition of race as defined in this country" o RACIAL AND ETHNIC CATEGORIES THE IN CENSUS DEFINITION Scientific community does not have set definitions of race Sociologists argue that race is a classification system into categories that are ranked and hierarchical there are no actual races but only physical variations among human beings o Have political and economic consequences Historical Lesson on Slavery - Virginia o In 1660s have indentured servants to serve labor sentence of 7 yrs o First Africans are brought over in same way o Masters have to supply guns to all men except African men 1640 first law separating whites/blacks o In begginging everyone serves 4-7 yrs of indentured servitude then at the end Africans have to start serving 15-20ys while whites such as irish still do 4-7 o In 1661 slavery is legal o In 1669 slaves become property o In 1669 2-3% of state is Africans o In 1750 50% of state is Africans o Conflict sociologists If you look at class structure of Virginia in 1640s handful of elite then middle class free men most of people 6/7th of population are indentured servants/slaves (she had a triangle on board to show this) The 6/7th people are becoming a big problem Pass laws Increase length of servitude for all people including Irish Make it more difficult for white freeman to acquire land This makes things worse Virginia legislature passes in 1670 law that says you can only vote if you own land (tightening control over population) Those people get more rambunctious and they realize they gave all white men guns so Francis bacon says that they can take the discontented people and have them go fight Indian tribes to re-direct there anger Governor of Virginia thinks its bad and charges bacon with treason so bacon burns down Jamestown with his militia and army then shuts down bacon and his troops WHAT GOVERNOR CAN DO what free white men get