Chapter Main Points

  • The United States faces enormous problems in dominant–minority relationships. Although many historic grievances of minority groups remain unresolved, our society is becoming increasingly diverse.
     
  • The United States is a nation of immigrants, and many different groups and cultures are represented in its population.
     
  • A minority group has five defining characteristics: a pattern of disadvantage, identification by some vis­ible trait, awareness of its minority status, a membership determined at birth, and a tendency to marry within the group.
     
  • A stratification system has three different dimensions (class, prestige, and power), and the nature of inequality in a society varies by its level of development. Minority groups and social class are correlated in complex ways.
     
  • Race is a criterion widely used to identify minority group members. Scientists have largely discredited race as a biological concept. However, as a social category, race powerfully influences the way we think about one another as well as how we organize society.
     
  • Minority groups are internally differentiated by social class, age, region of residence, and many other variables. Four crucial concepts for analyzing dominant–minority relations are prejudice, discrimination, ideological racism, and institutional discrimination.