Notes for Thursday, February 11, 2010

In class today, we talked about race and ethnicity and they lead to inter-group conflict. Race is defined as a human group with some observable shared biological characteristics. In a given society, features that are historically associated with an ethnic group might become meaningful if people identify with that group in some active way. Conversely,Ethnicity is defined as groups with distinctive heritage and perpetuated cultural markers. Ethnic groups exist due to sentiments which bind individuals into solidarity groups on some cultural basis.

We also talked about racial and ethnic inequality which is defined as a systematic disparity in rights, opportunities, access to goods based on race or ethnicity. That disparity results in inequality of outcomes on key dimensions of stratification that effect life chances. These include:
- Occupation
- Earnings
- Ownership and control
- Political power
- Educational training