Sociology

Question one

i)Race
The term race refers to the biological difference such as the color of the skin, body build or the facial features which exist among people. These characteristics are passed from the parents to their offspring and therefore preserved in all generation. These biological features are permanent and identify a certain group of people. However, the idea of differences in races makes very little sense biologically because these features are not significant biologically. These features are as a result of some differences in alleles on the genes which do not determine any of the basic functions of the body. In addition, there are no distinctive boundaries between these features which define a race. For example, it is not easy to determine whether a child born of a white American mother and an African American father is white American or African American (Aguirre  Turner, 2009).

ii) Sociological importance of biological differences
These are biological differences between races though superficial and therefore cannot define boundaries between individuals, they have sociological importance. People more or less believe that they have biological distinctiveness which determines how they respond to others. People therefore respond to individuals based on these biological differences. They associate the variation in biological features with individuals intelligence, behaviors and psychological makeup which justify their discriminative actions against a certain racial group. For example, having a dark skin has been associated with a difference in personality resulting in discrimination of black people.

Differences between race and ethnicity
While race is the biological difference between individuals, ethnicity is exhibited when a certain group of people among the bigger population share historical or chronological experiences and have a unique behavior, organizations as well as other cultural and social characteristics. For example, a group in the population can be distinct in their place of origin, language, cultural beliefs and values characterizing a certain ethnicity. In many, cases the concept of race has been incorporated in the wider description of what is meant by ethnicity. The biological characteristics of individuals have in many cases been associated with ethnicity. For example in the American society, when somebody is marked as black, the labeling goes beyond the color of the skin where the individual is associated with certain experiences, cultural values and behaviors. The same applies to other races such as the whites, Indians, and Latinos (Myers, 2003). Therefore, the ideas of race and ethnicity can be seen as self fulfilling social constructions where a group of people reacts to discrimination based on these labels by developing distinct behaviors.  However, if the distinctiveness of an ethnic group is more pronounced in the population, there are more likely to be treated differently by people from other ethnic communities.

Ethnic group and minority group  
A group can be defined as a gathering of people who can interact face to face. An ethnic group can therefore be defined as a number of individuals who can interact where ethnicity distinguish them from other individuals. The interactions between members of an ethnic group may not be exclusively face to face. An ethnic group is labeled with their distinct behaviors and culture within a population and can therefore be seen as a subpopulation with a particular ethnicity.

A minority group is a group of individuals which is singled out from the rest of the population based on their distinctive physical and cultural differences. They are regarded as objects of discrimination and receive imbalanced and differential treatment by the society. However, some unfairly treated groups for example in South Africa were the majority and therefore the term minority group is not very appropriate. Moreover, it is not the group that suffers unfair treatment but its members. Therefore, a better definition of a minority group is an ethnic group whose members are subject to discrimination by members of other powerful ethnic groups.

Question two  
Racial and ethnic discrimination
Discrimination or unequal treatment is any act that denies access to a resource that is highly valued. The act may be by an individual or a particular subpopulation and the acts may be against an individual or a particular subgroup. Therefore, ethnic discrimination is an act of a more dominant ethnic group that denies less dominant ethnic group recourses. On the other hand, racial discrimination is a form of discrimination based on the biological features and not on ethnicity.

Reverse discrimination
The effects of members of particular dominant subpopulation discriminating against another less dominant subpopulation in the past have resulted in discrimination against the dominant subpopulation. This form of discrimination is often referred to as reverse discrimination. This has been a controversial issue because the victims of these discriminations never took part in the past discriminations.    

Types of discrimination
Genocide is a form of ethnic discrimination in which individuals from a particular sub population or ethnic group are subjected to torture and killed with the main aim of eliminating the ethnic group. This is the most intense discrimination to have ever been done against an ethnic group. Examples includes the holocaust, ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda.

Expansion is another form of discrimination though not as intense as genocide where a subpopulation is exiled from their homeland by a more powerful subpopulation. In this case, the aim is not to eliminate the less powerful subpopulation but to displace them. For example, different presidents of the United States in the past had proposed to create a state in Africa where all the free black Americans would be settled. Expansion may be forced or voluntary as a result of torture or when life becomes miserable.

Segregation is isolation of subpopulations such that their members do not have access to same and equal valued resources as they would normally do. For example, African Americans have been segregated in the United States where they were denied access to housing facilities, schools and jobs which were enjoyed by the more dominant white Americans subpopulation. Indians reservations in America and segregation in South Africa are other examples of segregation.    

Exclusion is a form of discrimination where members of a subpopulation are denied positions in a society where there is no segregation. For example, in the period of slavery, slaves were denied their basic rights by their masters. Moreover, exclusion of African Americans in trade and industrial unions has existed in America for many years. They have also been excluded from exercising their political right through voting.

Selection inclusion is excluding a subpopulation some positions while excluding them from others. For example, immigrants from China in America were only allowed to either run small services enterprise or work on the railroads. These immigrants have also been denied influential positions in big companies while they are allowed to run businesses.

Abusive practices are discriminative actions against a subpopulation by members of other subpopulations especially the law enforces. These abusive practices may be intentional or unintentional. For example, disposal sites in American cities are located in the poor neighborhood which has been referred to as environmental racism. There are also several cases of racial profiling by the American law enforcers (Aguirre  Turner, 2009).

Question three
Ethnic stratification
The effects of ethnic discrimination in the society are the creation of ethnic stratification. Discrimination of a subpopulation limits the valued resources that are accessible to members of a subpopulation which determines the location of the discriminated group in the stratification system. Therefore, ethnic stratification denotes some interrelated processes. These processes include the amount and type of valued recourses available to a subpopulation and the level to which they can be accessed. These valued resources include quality education, well paying jobs, healthcare, political power and money. The degrees to which these valued resources are shared determine the location of subpopulation in the hierarchy. The distinct behaviors and systems of the subpopulation are determined by the extent to which the subpopulations share these resources. This distinctiveness provide the more powerful and dominant subpopulation with a justification for their discriminative actions (Aguirre  Turner, 2009).

Question four
Ethnic prejudice
Discrimination and prejudice are closely related. Prejudice is a situation where someone develops certain beliefs and stereotypes about a group of people. Ethnic prejudice can therefore be defined as stereotypes and beliefs about a particular ethnic group. Prejudice against an ethnic group emphasizes on the undesirable characteristics of the group and is a clear justification that discrimination is cruel. A person who is prejudiced is not necessarily discriminative. For example, a person may have bad beliefs and stereotypes about Asians but treat them equally with other members of the population. However, in some cases, it leads to actual discrimination or potential discrimination. Moreover, discrimination can result into prejudice or reinforce it.

Relationship between prejudice and discrimination
While trying to analyze how prejudice and discrimination are related, Robert Merton categorized people into four groups. The first group was the all weather liberals whom he suggested that they do not have any prejudice and are not discriminative. The reluctant liberals are people who discriminate for their well being but are not prejudiced. Another category of people who are prejudiced but fears showing it are known as timid bigots. The active bigots are people who are prejudiced and are willing to act discriminatively.

Adaptation to prejudice and discrimination
Passive acceptance If the magnitude of ethnic discrimination is very large and the disadvantaged group has little power, they have no option but to accept it. For example, during the slavery era, the slaves had no choice but to accept suppression.

Marginal participation In some cases, the subordinate group can find mechanisms where they use creativity to prosper even with limited access to resources. A very good example is the Jews community which has always prospered while living in societies that discriminate against them.
Assimilation is a situation where the subordinate group loses its distinctive characteristics and its members are absorbed into the dominant group. This applies especially to groups that do not have pronounced biological and cultural distinctiveness.

Other adaptations to prejudice and discrimination include self segregation and withdrawal of the subordinate groups, rebellions which may result into organized protests and ethno genesis.