Prejudice / Discrimination White Privilege Term Paper

Additional (86-87) explanations for racism / discrimination: a) the socialization process (if the parents are racists, the child growing up learns to hate certain racial groups); b) economic competition (when security is threatened, prejudice can come into play; Blacks and Czechs in some instances were biased against Vietnamese immigrants because the Vietnamese were supposedly taking jobs away from those already here in the U.S. And in Czechoslovakia).

Ossman presents a number of explanations as to how people that are blatantly biased (prejudged) against others of different skin color show their feelings. a) Stereotyping (an "oversimplified" and unfair generalization; "Mexicans are lazy," for example); b) ethnophaulisms (expressions that are demeaning, disparaging, meant to hurt; meant to belittle); c) ethnic jokes (clearly intended as negative stereotyping); d) misogyny in rap music (women are "bitches") (98-99).

Reducing prejudice is the goal of every fair-minded individual no matter what ethnicity he or she belongs to. On page 101 Ossman suggests contact hypothesis is a way in which members of various cultural / ethnic groups can work cooperatively and learn to respect each other. The jigsaw classroom can reduce racial prejudice, as can cooperative learning strategies, but there is the ever-present tendency to use selective perceptions (they accept that particular information which doesn't threaten their own beliefs).

Glossary

Confers dominance: suggests one skin color is the more powerful one

Unearned entitlement / unearned advantage: white skin has power / advantage over other skin colors simply because of socially built-in biases

Ethnocentrism: the belief that one's ethnicity is better than all others displaced aggression: being mistreated as a child and later mistreating others to get even scapegoating: blaming a person of another ethnicity when that person is not to blame prejudice: having a biased view of another person or another ethnicity cognitive levels of prejudice: being aware of one's biases, thinking racist thoughts socialization process: if a person's parents were biased against a certain group, chances are the person growing up in that household will pick up the bias through socialization economic competition: when immigrants take jobs that might otherwise go to people that are already in the U.S. It sets up bias based on availability of jobs stereotyping: using unfair generalizations to slap a label on a person or a culture ethnophaulisms: hurtful, mean-spirited words used against persons or cultures contact hypothesis: working together with people of other races or skin colors can improve understanding between people of different backgrounds jigsaw classroom: having several groups in a class each look up part of an assignment and then they come together to share what they have learned with the entire class; it instills a sense of cooperation and peaceful progress selective perceptions: choosing information that the person is comfortable with and ignoring or being biased against information that does not match with what one believes in Works Cited

McIntosh, Peggy."White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." Race and Racism. 1988.

Ossman,….....