Stereotyping,

Prejudice, and
Discrimination
Angie Andriot
Lecture 8
Last Time,
We:
Race versus ethnicity
 Race versus ethnicity
 Rise of multiraciality

as a legitimate
category
 Ethnic identity work
 RACE
A group of people with
inherited physical
characteristics that
distinguish it from another
group
Based on perceived biological differences

Black the way we create racial categories

White from this data is socially constructed
Asian
Native American
Pacific Islander
 Ethnicity
A group of people with a
shared cultural
background that distinguish
it from another group
Hispanic Based on perceived cultural differences

Irish
Ethnicity is more easily achieved, while
Scottish
race is typically ascribed
German
Jewish
 Ethnic
Identity
Strength of identification influenced by:
 Relative size
 Power
 Appearance
 Discrimination
Ethnic work – the
way people
construct their
ethnicity
 Today’s

Agenda:
Minority versus Dominant
group
 Stereotype, Prejudice, and

Discrimination
 What’s the difference?

 Why do we do them?

 How do they happen?

Minorit
y and

groups
Minority & Dominant
Groups
 Minority Group - People Singled Out
for Unequal Treatment
 Minority Group Can Be Racial or
Ethnic
 A Minority Group is Not Necessarily
Numerical Minority
 Women
 Dominant Groups
 The group with the most
 Power
 Privileges
 Highest social class
 Not called ‘majority’ group
 Group that does the discriminating
Minority Groups
 Membership is an Ascribed Status
 Physical or Cultural Traits Held in Low
Esteem by Dominant Group
 Unequal Treatment
 Marry Within Own Group
 Feel Strong Group Solidarity
Stereotyp
ing
and
discrimina
tion
 Stereotypes:
Stereotypes
:
Cognitive
structure that
contains our
knowledge,
Prototypes beliefs, and
Hierarchical expectations
An ecological fallacy occurs
when an analysis of group data
Subtypes about a social
is used to draw conclusions
Invariate
group about an individual.
Stereotypes:
Stereotypes
:
Just because people say it’s
inappropriate to judge people
on the basis of their
membership in certain
categories, doesn’t mean they
don’t do it.
Activation and use of
stereotypes/ prejudice is often
at the implicit (unaware) level
Group Mean:
Mean

White Black
 Normal
Distribution:
Distribution
x

White Black
 Prejudice
 Stereotyping is a categorization
system
 Prejudice is an attitude—the
prejudging of a person based on
their group membership
+ -
Exaggerated or Exaggerated or
made up virtues made up faults
Why are people
prejudice?
 Psychological Tendency
 Socialization Process
 Media
 Family
 Peers Sometimes people will
internalize dominant norms
 School and show prejudice
against their own group
Discrimination
 Discrimination is an action—unfair
treatment directed at an individual
based on their membership in a
marginalized group
 Racial discrimination is one example

Racial
prejudice/discrimination
+
POWER
= racism
 Individual
Discrimination
 The negative treatment of one person
by another on the basis of their race,
ethnicity, nationality, gender, age,
sexuality, etc.
 Sociologists argue we need to get
away from thinking in these terms
 These are individual problems, but they
are symptoms of social problems
 Institutional
Discrimination
• Unseen
 Structural discrimination is • Not directly
woven into the fabric of our racist
life • Insidious
 Those individuals who • Difficult to
engage in racist activities detect…
are to a certain extent
responding to a larger therefore, it is
social structure also easier to
deny its
existence
Institutional
Discrimination
 Institutional
Discrimination
 Does not have to be deliberate –
and often isn’t
 Often, neither side realizes it is
occurring
Institutional
Discrimination

The reason for these differences is not biology,

but social factors, in this case largely income –
the key factor in determining who has access
to better nutrition, housing, and medical care
Can we all succeed?

HARD
WORK

HARD
WORK

HARD WORK
Color Blindness

 supporters perceive it as act of equality

in that it involves the beneficial,
deliberate avoidance of privileging any
one race over others
 critics perceive it as an indirect act of
oppression because it ignores and
overlooks the privileges already
bestowed upon certain races over others
White Solipsism

 What is “normal”
skin, anyway?
 What is the
opposite of
normal?
 What are the
implications here?
Can we all succeed?

HARD
WORK

HARD
WORK

HARD WORK
Affirmative Action
 One way the United States has tried to
diminish racial and gender inequality is
through affirmative action policies
 to treat unequals as equals is to
perpetuate inequality
 a response to a statistically observed
inequity in representation
“
Affirmative action increases diversity by disc
”