Sociology 111 8,14,WR

• "Race"


  • First applied to humans during European colonial expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries
  • Reflects beliefs about biological superiority and inferiority in the context of colonial power
• Race does not exist as distinct biological entities among humans
• There is difficulty defining how many races there are
• Differences within supposed races often outnumbered those between races
• There is only one human species, one race
• Racialization


  A social process in which human groups are viewed and judged as essentially different in terms of their intellect, morality, values, innate (essential) worth, based on perceived differences in physical appearance or cultural heritage
• Visible minority


  Persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour
• Master narrative


  The story a nation tells about itself to celebrate its past and present, often glossing over or omitting certain unpleasant events that complicate the national self-identity
• The racialization of the indigenous population of the Americas began in the sixteenth century in Europe
• Indigenous people have been living in what is now Canada for at least 14,000 years
• 93% of the history of what is now Canada is indigenous alone
• Indigenous peoples in Canada

  Defined by a complex system of legal statuses that separates them from non-indigenous peoples, and from each other
• Legal designations for indigenous peoples in Canada

  • Registered Indian
  • Bill C-31 Indian
  • Band member
  • Reserve resident
  • Treaty Indian
  • Metis
  • Eskimo
• Until 1985, the Indian Act only recognized men as "registered Indian"; women's status was derived from the man to whom they were married; children's from their father
• In 1985 Bill C-31 passed enabling people who had lost their Indian status through marriage or through the marriage of their mother to apply to be reinstated
• Inuit have been in Canada for a shorter time and occupy arctic territory
• Metis are the descendants of French (European) fur traders and Cree women
• Indigenous people make up just under 5% of the population of people living in Canada, but their population is growing at a rate over four times that of non-indigenous population
• Black communities have existed in Nova Scotia since the British proclamation of 1779
• Segregation in Nova Scotia was legally ended in 1954
• In 2016 census, close to 1.2 million people who identified as black were living in Canada
• As of the 2016 census, two-thirds of visible-minority Canadians were of Asian ancestry
• South Asians and Chinese Canadians make up the two largest visible-minority populations in the country
• Chinese immigrants began to settle on Canada's west coast in the mid-nineteenth century
• Estimates range from 7,000 to 15,000 Chinese immigrants in Canada
• Head taxes and an act to prevent the employment of female labour

  1. Federal government imposed a $50 head tax on any Chinese migrant entering the country in 1885

  2. Head tax increased to $100 by 1900 and $500 by 1903

  3. Government of Saskatchewan created an act in 1912 to prevent the employment of female labour in certain capacities
• Ethnicity


  Membership in a culture group that has roots in a particular place in the world and is associated with distinctive cultural practices and behaviors
• Most people identify with just one race but may have several ethnicities
• Ethnicity is something you can opt into or out of
• Approaches to the study of ethnicity

  • Essentialism
  • Postcolonialism
  • Epiphenomenal
  • Instrumentalism
  • Social constructivism
• Essentialism


  The view that every ethnic group is defined by a "laundry list" of traits carried down from the past to the present with little or no change
• Postcolonialism


  A framework that analyzes the destructive impact colonialism has on both the colonized and the colonizer
• Epiphenomenal ethnicity


  Describes a secondary effect that arises from, but does not causally influence, a separate phenomenon
• Instrumentalism


  Focuses on emerging ethnicity rather than on long-established ethnic characteristics, with elite members who mobilize ethnicity called "ethnic entrepreneurs"
• Social constructivism


  The view that ethnicity is artificial, constructed by individuals to serve some agenda
• Intersectionality


  The way different social factors - race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality orientation, class, age, and disability - combine to shape the experience of minoritized groups
• Elements of racism


  • Racialization
  • Prejudice
  • Discrimination
  • Power
• Different kinds of racism

  • Racial bigotry
  • Systemic or institutional racism
  • Polite, smiling, or friendly racism
• Master narratives, buried knowledge


  Racism is often downplayed or omitted in the master narratives that a country constructs about its history, and historical mistreatment, exploitation, and destruction of minorities is excluded from textbooks and other narratives
• Racial profiling, carding


  The practice of police stopping, questioning and documenting people when no offense has been committed