1. Contrast historical and recent views of racial categories and ethnic identities in the United States.
    
2. Describe the effects of stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, and the social construction of difference on majority–minority relations.
    
3. Discuss the foundations of racism, including xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and social structures and institutions.
    
4. Describe how globalization is affecting ethnic identities, ethnic conflicts, and migrations.

Summary

Race has historically been defined on the basis of a shared lineage and some real or presumed physical or biological characteristic. In the second half of the 20th century, race began to be defined more as a cultural phenomenon, making it more akin to the concept of ethnicity. Ethnic groups are typically defined on the basis of some real or presumed cultural characteristic such as language, religion, traditions, or cultural practices. Race and ethnicity have always served as a way of stratifying individuals into groups with more or less power. The majority group, even if it has fewer members, has more money, prestige, and power and is likely to exploit members of minority groups. Intersectionality, or belonging to more than one type of minority (e.g., being black and female), often compounds disparities. All races and ethnic groups are active in consumer culture, although engagement may be difficult for minorities, who are surrounded by things they cannot afford and subjected to aggressive marketing of products, some of which are harmful. Members of the majority may appropriate elements of minority culture—as when whites adopt the clothing, jargon, and music of black culture. Majority–minority relations devolve into racism when the majority defines a group as a race and attributes negative characteristics to that group. It is the combination of xenophobia and ethnocentrism that makes racism so powerful. Current racism is more often a matter of hegemony, or the majority group foisting its culture on the minority, than of legal and material constraints on minority groups. There is some evidence that individual-level prejudice and racism against African Americans and other minority groups in the United States are on the decline. However, institutional racism persists, and the white cultural frame is pervasive throughout American society and its structures and institutions. Putting majority–minority relations in a global context, the North has more majority group members and dominates and oppresses those in the South. Majority groups are also better positioned than minority groups to create structures that enhance positive or protective global flows. Greater ethnic diversity within nation-states has opened up more possibilities for internal ethnic conflicts. At the extreme, ethnic conflict leads to expulsion, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of minorities by the majority within a territory