Prejudice and Discrimination Lecture

Key Concepts

• Prejudice and Discrimination: Typically associated with racial and ethnic groups.

Racial Groups

• Definition: Groups set apart due to physical characteristics with social significance.
• Key Point: Society assigns more meaning to certain physical traits like skin color compared to others like eye color.

Ethnic Groups

• Definition: Groups set apart by national origin or distinctive cultural patterns (e.g., Puerto Rican, Irish, Japanese Americans, Jews).
• Cultural Traditions: Some groups are defined more by cultural traditions than by nation of origin.

Other Bases for Prejudice

• Power: Economic, political, and self-autonomy aspects.

  • Majority groups leverage political power to protect interests.
  • Minority groups often lack members to influence voting outcomes in their favor.

• Social Class:

  • Importance of Status: Status is relative; higher status exists only with lower status beneath it.
  • Unequal status fosters prejudice.
  • Just World Phenomenon: Belief that the world is just, leading to assumptions that people get what they deserve (e.g., poor people are lazy).
  • Consequence: Can result in discrimination, such as opposition to welfare programs.

• Prestige:

  • Often tied to occupation.
  • High prestige jobs (e.g., doctor, lawyer) usually belong to dominant groups.
  • Lower prestige jobs (e.g., sanitation workers, service industry) are often taken by minority groups.

Implications

• Economic and Social Limitations: Laws and unfair hiring practices that limit opportunities and sense of control for minority groups.
• Discrimination via policy: Votes against welfare programs as a result of the Just World Phenomenon.