SOCI1 Final Review - SOCI1 Final Chapter Summaries Intro Race Ethnicity and Immigration by Blair-Loy Race is a cultural structure that is

SOCI1 Final Chapter Summaries “Intro: Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration” by Blair-Loy Race is a cultural structure that is institutionalized into the social structures of immigration policies, house segregation, educational systems, and job opportunities. Although race is a cultural structure, it is socially defined. Definitions and restrictions on race are different in various social groups and communities. Race and ethnicity is asserted and ascribed. Assertion is when one person embraces an identity, and ascription is what others assign one to be (Blair-Loy 151). Cultural structures shape the influence of social class on their educational experiences. For some minorities, however, education doesn’t allow for much more mobility if they are from low-income families (152). “ A Constructionist Approach” by Cornell and Hartmann Race is defined as “a human group defined by itself or others as a distinct by virtue of perceived common physical characteristics that are held to be inherent” (lecture). In another words, it is how a group is perceived. Race is not an inevitable categorization. Instead, it is a social construction and changes indefinitely. It embodies a process in which others identify others. Race is invented but has real effects on our lives (discussion). P. 153 Ethnicity is different from race in that it is a “collectivity within a larger society having real or putative common ancestry, memories of a shared historical past, and a cultural focus on one or more symbolic elements defined as the epitome of their peoplehood” (lecture). Ethnicity is real or assumed shared ancestry with others, and it is based on one’s region, religion, or community. It also relates to how one identifies himself. P. 154 Cornell and Hartmann argue that race and ethnicity are the social products of ascription and assignment, and assertion. Ascription is what others claim we are, and assertion is what we claim to be. Both are reciprocal processes and change over time (lecture). P. 158 Ethnic communities participate in their own construction and reproduction of their race in several ways. They establish organizations, promote research into their ethnic history/culture, retell historical stories in celebration of their ethnic group, practice cultural traditions, etc (Cornell, Hartmann 159). Asserted and ascribed identities can be either thick or thin. Thick identities comprehensively organize one’s social life, while thin identities minimally organizes social life (162). The constructionist approach to race and ethnicity sees it as a changing and diverse process. An established ethnic/racial identitiy becomes a lens through which people interpret and see the world around them (172). The idea of hidden identities is brought up in the reading as well. Hidden identities involve the privilege to be a part of the dominant group. For example, in America, white is the dominant race (therefore, the hidden ethnicity… people don’t segregate them, they use them as a starting point to segregate others instead).