As with racial qualities, it is not the cultural characteristics that sets the people apart, but our definition of these characteristics and how we use them to assign people to places in relation to ourselves.
"While it is important to bear in mind that biases may be pro as well as con, it's, nonetheless, true that ethnic prejudice is mostly negative." Stereotypes, which categorize groups of people, are usually the basis of prejudice. .
III. Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States Today.
The United States has divided its population into five racial/ethnic groups, namely: European-Americans or Caucasian (74%); African-Americans (12%); Latinos (10%); Asian-Americans (3%); and Native-Americans (1%). For years, other ethnic groups have had to react to this institutional and cultural dominance of Western Europeans, and this still sets the stage for current ethnic relations.
A. Hate Crimes.
One of the most abhorrent and damaging forms of racial and ethnic discrimination in the United States is "hate crime." Racially motivated, hate crimes are more than just isolated incidences of violence against one individual or institution. These acts affect every member of the targeted group and create tension and undermine race relations not only in the locality where they occur, but, throughout the country. A most publicized example of hate crime is that of James Byrd, Jr., an African-American from Jasper, Texas, who was dragged to death behind a truck in 1998.
B. Minority Groups.
We may define a minority group as a group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from others in the society, in which they live, for differentially unequal treatment . The key to minority status in the community is that a group is defined socially within the community; and on that basis, denied access to the goods and services of that community (e.g. residence, schools, jobs, etc ), simply because of the group's identity.
