Lecture 11 Race and ethnic

relations

Key variables
Race and ethnicity
Race and ethnic relations
Horizontal and vertical differentiation
Social distance
How are these variables defined?
How are these variables related?
Ethnicity and race in Canada
The history of pluralism
historic waves of immigrant arrival
The horizontal layering of groups
The development of communities
Language, culture and religion
residential segregation
Inmarriage vs intermarriage
Educational opportunities
Institutional completeness

Ethnic groups are social systems if they

are institutionally complete
Institutionally complete groups have
goals, leaders, politics
ceremonies, ritual objects
deep beliefs, tension releasing practices
What creates institutional completeness?
Sources of institutional
completeness
Group cohesion is due to
connectedness (structural)
similarity (demographic)
identification (psychological)
How does each affect the other?
How are they all affected by
language and culture
prejudice and discrimination
resources to build institutions?
The vertical dimension of
pluralism

Social distance and exclusion

Prejudice and discrimination
systemic discrimination
Porters Vertical Mosaic
What it said
Why it was important
Connecting the vertical and horizontal
Exclusion is a structural trait

Simmels stranger
stranger is a structural position
strangers are stereotyped as consequence
Even identified members of a team can
be strangers e.g., placekickers
an occupational stranger who never learned
football and yet wins games
Sources of exclusion
cultural marginality vs social marginality
Social distance and minorities
Key variables
social distance
minorities
stereotypes
discrimination
How to measure these variables
Irony: some discriminated-against
minorities also practice discrimination
Concept of brown racism (Washington)
Defining diaspora

A geographic scatter of people

from the same region or country
to widely distant destinations
maintaining contact with homeland
Diasporas create international networks
what are the network nodes?
What flows through them?
What maintains the flows?
World ethnic community (WEC)
WECs result from diasporas
Close relations at a distance
Some examples:
the Jewish diaspora
the African diaspora
the Chinese diaspora
WECs effect
on local societies
on world politics
 Rethinking Babylon and
Babylon

Pre modern and early modern experiences

Babylon as the site of creativity
The modern experience
Irony: the original meaning of the term diaspora
was hijacked to describe forced and unhappy
exile
Why did this happen?
Why is this significant?
What should the term mean?
Reflections on diaspora

There is no nation now but the

imagination (poet Derek Walcott)
Is this true?
Prospects that disaporic networks will
replace nation-states
Implications for world organization
Likely effects of diasporas
How will diasporas and WEC likely affect
Race and ethnic relations
Horizontal and vertical differentiation
Social distance
Prejudice
Discrimination
Social problems related to
ethnicity and race relations
What are the problems?
Exclusion
Prejudice
Discrimination
How related to other social problems?
Racism and employment
Poverty and wealth
Crime and violence
Different theoretical approaches
How are (problems of) race and ethnic
relations viewed by
Structural functionalism?
Conflict theory
Symbolic interactionism
How much is due to industrial capitalism?
Health consequences
Effects of horizontal differentiation on
Knowledge, attitudes and practices
access to good quality health care
stress and well-being
How to solve these problems
Multiculturalism vs assimilation
Government interventions
e.g., employment equity
Personal initiatives