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How do you define your cultural identity?
When people generally speak of culture, what are they referring to?
Is culture your: ethnicity, race, language, customs, beliefs, nationality?
Can your culture be influenced by: SES? Neighborhood? Age? Gender? Abilities? Disabilities? Educational level? Sexual orientation?
What is meant when we hear phrases: pop-culture, rap-culture?
What is your home culture? School culture?
Does CCHS have its unique school culture in comparison to other schools?
What creates this culture? Can your home culture come in conflict
with your school culture? If so, in what ways?
Do we share culture or do we have our own unique culture?
Do brothers and sisters share the same culture? Twins?
Is culture singular or plural?
Can you change your culture?
Can you taste your culture? Smell? See? Hear? Can you hold it in your hands?
Is culture permanent or temporary?
Are you born into a culture or do you create it?
Continue to ponder...
Socially Constructed CategoriesSocial Construct (in sociology)- an idea or notion that
appears to be natural and obvious to people who accept it but may or may not represent reality, so it remains largely an invention or control mechanism of a given society.
Individuals and groups participate in the construction of their perceived social reality by creating categories of meaning.
Social Constructs: race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, etc.
Everything we give social meaning or significance to.
'Black' NAACP leader outed as white woman
– June 15, 2015: SPOKANE, Wash. -- A recent investigation into racially charged threats made toward the president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane has raised questions beyond who made the threats.
On Thursday, Rachel Dolezal's parents claimed she had been deceiving people.
Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal said Thursday that they want people to know the truth including that their daughter is Caucasian.
Rachel Dolezal - NAACP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B24Bbsf3U4
Is Dolezal White or Black?
The limitations of social constructs.
Conceptual Frameworks
Introduction (Maurianne Adams)
Social Diversity – race, [ethnicity], gender, sexuality, class, and others [i.e., abilities, disabilities, religion, age, etc.)
Diversity = differences; between groups; in comparison to the “norm”
The “norm”?
The larger social norm that is held by the majority group population.
What is considered the “norm” in terms of race? White/Caucasian
What is considered the “norm” in terms of gender? Male
What is considered the “norm” in terms of sexuality? Heterosexual
What is considered the “norm” in terms of religion? Christian
Marginalization
To place in a position of marginal importance, influence, or power.
Historically marginalized groups in the US: African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asians, Jews, Muslims, women, disabled/physically/mentally challenged, etc.
Historically Dominant Group
The dominant group controls the value system and rewards in a particular society (occurs in all societies).
Social dominance creates a hierarchy of power: those with power and those with limited power.
Socially dominant groups enjoy a “privilege” by holding the position of “the norm”
Historically in the US, groups considered “other” than White & Male, have been marginalized.
The “Other”The Other is an individual who is perceived by the group as not
belonging, as being different in some fundamental way.
Any stranger becomes the Other.
The dominant group sees itself as the norm and judges those who do not meet that norm (that is, who are different in any way) as the Other.
The “Other” is perceived as lacking essential characteristics possessed by the group, the Other is almost always seen as a lesser or inferior being and is treated accordingly.
The Other in a society may have few or no legal rights, may be characterized as less intelligent or as immoral, and may even be regarded as sub-human.
Oppression
The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
Social oppression is the socially supported mistreatment and exploitation of a group, category, or team of people or individuals.
"Institutional Oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systematically reflect and produce inequities based on one’s membership in targeted social identity groups.
If oppressive consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs, or Practices, the institution is oppressive whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have oppressive intentions.
4 Conceptual Frameworks (employed by Adams)
The following 4 interrelated conceptual frameworks are key assumptions that inform the perspective the textbook.
1. Social Identity is based on social identity groups in advantaged or disadvantaged social locations or positions.
- You are who you are based on the group you belong to.
4 Conceptual Frameworks (employed by Adams)
2. The social construction of privilege and oppression within specific historical contexts.
- History has played a significant part in determining advantages and disadvantages of dominant vs marginalized groups.
4 Conceptual Frameworks (employed by Adams)
3. Frameworks for Analysis of Oppression
- Moving beyond the individual (or “micro”) level of the socialization process, to analyze how oppression is enacted and reproduced at the institutional level (“meso”) and the societal/cultural (“macro”) level.
- Understanding the inequalities that exists among groups.
4 Conceptual Frameworks (employed by Adams)
4. Frameworks for envisioning empowerment and social change.
- Approaching our social conditions with the desire for fairness and justice.
- Creating a culture that does not enforce or reproduce oppression.
What is ethnicity? Ethnicity (ethnic group) – an individual’s
national origin or origins; an ethnic quality or affiliation resulting from racial or cultural ties. Vague because the term can include only national origin, religion, race, and class. For example, many authors identify Jewish Americans as an ethnic group because they identify themselves more with their religion than where they are from.
Examples of Ethnic Groups in the US:› White› African American/Black› Hispanic› Asian› Middle Eastern› Native American› Pacific Islander
Concept of RaceRace defined:
A. any of the traditional divisions of humankind, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics.
B. any arbitrary classification of modern humans,
sometimes, esp. formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups.
C. a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans.
the commonest being the Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and
Negroid; no longer in technical use.
Ethnicity vs. Race Race refers to a person's physical
appearance, such as skin color, eye color, hair color, bone/jaw structure, etc.
Ethnicity, on the other hand, relates to
cultural factors such as nationality, culture, ancestry, language and beliefs.
Race vs. Ethnicity Caucasian Black Asian ?
White/Anglo Black/African
American Asian Middle Eastern Native American Hispanic/Latino
Great confusion exists; these two concepts are easily misunderstood; they are often used interchangeably although they mean different things.
Why is it important to know?
Race/ethnicity in California
United States today
United States in the future
Stereotype - an oversimplified generalization about an entire group of people without regard for individual differences.
Ex. Whites are rich, Asians can’t drive, all Latinos speak Spanish, all Blacks can dance, Muslims are terrorists, Jews are stingy, etc.
Stereotypes
What is racism? the ideology that humans are divided into separate
and exclusive biological entities called "races". This ideology entails the belief that members of a
race share a set of characteristic traits, abilities, or qualities, that traits of personality, intellect, morality, and other cultural behavioral characteristics are inherited, and that
this inheritance means that races can be ranked as innately superior or inferior to others.
To be racist is to believe one's race is superior to other races.
Racist behavior can be conscious and unconscious.
Multiple Group Identity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92h2oOC5zFA
An individual's subjective representation of the interrelationships among his or her multiple group identities
Membership in these groups “…may result in shared experiences…and serve as powerful reference groups in the formation of worldviews”
Prejudice – unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, esp. of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group; Ex:. (i.e., fear of going into neighborhood, elevator, distrust of a merchant toward a customer of another ethnic group, anger at any advantages that group members may perceive as receiving, fear of property value dropping because of a particular group, etc.) = attitude
Individual discrimination – occurs at at the personal level; one person discriminates against another because of their own prejudicial, bigoted feelings. (i.e., realtors, personnel managers, receptionists, loan officers, landlords, teachers, etc.)
Institutional discrimination – the individual has less control; more than personal attitudes, this refers to “the effects of inequalities that are rooted in the system-wide operation of a society and have little relation to racially related attitudinal factors or the majority group’s racial or ethnic prejudices.” The society we live in has inherently discriminated against
others, therefore there are remnants still today. Members of some groups do not receive the same benefits
from society as the dominant group; Individuals are harmed by circumstances beyond their control
because of their membership in a specific group. (i.e., textbooks, standardized-tests; ACTO; DADT, quota
systems of hiring, etc. Historical: Jim Crow, Rodney King Trial, Virginia Military
Institute and the Citadel, Denny’s Discrimination lawsuit, etc.
Bigotry – prejudice and/or discrimination against one or all members of a particular group based on negative perceptions of their beliefs and practices or on negative group stereotypes; bigotry is attitude driven. Stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one's own.
Scapegoating – the act of blaming an individual or group for something when, in reality, there is no one person or group responsible for the problem. Blaming another person or a group because of his/her group identity.
Current Examples? Muslims after 9/11, Latino immigrants Past: Chinese, Italian, Jews, Native
Americans, Japanese, etc.
A term used in critical race theory by social scientists, as a way of conceptualizing racial inequalities that focuses as much on the advantages that white people accumulate from society as on the disadvantages that people of color (minorities) experience.
Suggests that whites view their social, cultural, and economic experiences as a norm that everyone should experience.
According to social scientists, this normative assumption constrains discussions of racial inequality and only discusses the failure of non-white groups to achieve normal social status.
Examples: Historical interpretation, accumulation of wealth, justice, employment, housing, education, self-image, etc.
* If the police stop me, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race. * When I stay in a hotel, the complimentary shampoo
generally works with the texture of my hair.* I can enroll in a class in college and be sure that the
majority of my professors will be of my race.* I can be sure that my textbooks and literature books will reflect people of my race.
Anti-Semitism – religious bigotry against Jews; negative ideas about Jewish people’s beliefs and practices; unique applies to a specific group (there is no other specific word for hatred toward other groups).
Sexism – prejudice or discrimination based on gender.
a) individual sexism – personal beliefs that state one gender is superior to another (i.e., jokes, etc.)
b) institutional sexism – a gender is
treated or paid differently because of their gender.
Explain the sexism...
Homophobia – fear of homosexuals or people thought to be lesbian, gay or bisexual; can lead to violence.› Fear can be exercised through dislike,
feeling uncomfortable, etc.
Diversity – different or varied; the US is made up of diverse cultures and places.
Tolerance – the act or capacity of enduring (I tolerate the noise.) The problem with this definition is that you can still be a
bigot, but tolerate your Otherly neighbors. In this course, tolerance is a fair and objective attitude
toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc. differ from one’s own; it is freedom from bigotry. As described by the United Nations Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, 1995.
Multiculturalism: the concept or philosophy that promotes equal status of all cultural groups.
Emphasizes the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures.
The philosophy of exchanges between cultural groups within a society.
Emphasizes the values of democracy, freedom, liberty, and the respect for universal human rights.
Insists on a ‘common civic culture’ free of discrimination and prejudice; one that accepts cultural difference through tolerance, dialogue, and understanding.
Intercultural Dialogue› The open and respectful exchange or interaction
between individuals, groups, and organizations with different cultural backgrounds or world views.
Purpose: promoting multiculturalism creates a fairer system that allows people to truly express who they are within a society that is more tolerant and adapts better to social issues.
Oppositional Critique: promoting multicultural policies eventually erodes the distinct culture of a nation, it affects social trust, and creates less cohesion between groups.
Political arguments that focus upon the self-interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups; and…
The ways in which people’s politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance.
Identity Politics
Minority group – (within a cultural context) a sociological group that does not make up a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society.– In the US, groups historically considered minorities
include all gender, ethnic and racial groups other than White/Caucasian male.
Dominant group – the sociological group that makes up the politically dominant majority of the total population.– In the US, the group historically considered dominant
are White/Caucasians.
First introduced as a replacement of non-white and minority;
Meant to be an all-inclusive term among non-white groups emphasizing common experience of racism.
Writing guides recommending usage include, American Heritage, Stanford Graduate School of Business, American Psychological Association, Modern Language Association, etc.
An academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism.
It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits.
Researchers concentrate on how a particular message relates to matters of ideology, social class, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, and/or gender.
Approaches subjects holistically, combining feminist theory, social theory, political theory, history, philosophy, literary theory, media theory, film/videor studies, communication studies, art history/criticism, etc.
Cultural Literacy
* knowledge of history, contributions, and perspectives of different cultural groups, including one's own group, necessary for understanding of reading, writing, and other media
* the concept that citizens in a democracy should possess a common body of knowledge that allows them to communicate effectively, govern themselves, and share in their society's rewards.
* According to E. D. Hirsch (1987), to participate fully in society, a person needs more than basic literacy, that is, the ability to read and write.
* Culturally literate Americans should be able o recognize: dates ("1776"), historical persons ("Brown, John"), titles of historic documents ("Letter from a Birmingham Jail"), figures of speech ("nose to the grindstone"), and terms from science ("DNA").
* Critics feared that a cultural literacy approach to education would lead to a Euro-centric culture.
* In cultural studies, cultural literacy is expanded to include knowledge of and ability to discuss the history of and major concepts underlying a culture, particularly one's own and those of one's peers.
Global Awareness
* The recognition and understanding or relationships among international organizations, nation states, public and private economic entities, socio-cultural groups, and individuals across the globe.
Critical Discourse Analysis
* An interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced by text and talk.
* It assumes that all factors in life are influenced by a power structure that can be explained historically, politically, socially, and culturally; often inherited from past generations.
* It questions and analyzes relationships of power within text and talk that explain these processes.
Social Location
The social features of one's identity incorporate individual, community, societal, and global factors... the point where all the features embodied in a person overlap is called social location.
It is where all the aspects of one's identity meet... and can be sometimes contradictory, conflictual, and paradoxical.
Concept also known as “intersectionality.”
Intersectionality or Social Location
These terms will be used consistently throughout the year.
These are functional terms that will inform further study and discussion.
