Prejudice and Discrimination Lecture Notes

May 17, 2024

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.