Kiara M.

Harris

Sociological Imagination

Professor Sharma

Fall 2009

In critically reviewing Chapter 11 in the textbook, which is Race and Ethnic

Relations, I have drawn several conclusions. The chapter explains and outlines racial and

ethnic diversity. Race is a group of people who are thought of as less than others or

inferior or superior, the determining factors of this are characteristics such as skin color,

hair texture and even eye shapes (ex. Chinese tend to have more chink or smaller eyes).

An ethnic group is a group of people, categorized according to their cultures, traits, and

even their ascribed membership. Within these categories there are dominant and

subordinate groups, these terms are indicative of importance of power in relationships. A

dominant group is a group that has better or superior resources and more rights in society.

A subordinate group is a group that has members who are treated unfairly by the

dominant group; this is a form of prejudice. Prejudice is a negative attitude most of the

time based on stereotypes, involving others appearances, behaviors and other

characteristics. Discrimination is similar but it involves acts that harm members of a

subordinate group.

I have formed strong opinions on the ideas and theories expressed in the chapter. I

think that the theories about the authoritarian personality are correct; I think that people

of lower social status tend to conform and be submissive to those of a higher social

status. However, there is some theorization about people being aggressive toward others

because they want to achieve their goals and be the best. I think that there is a big
difference between being competitive and being unfair and unjust. Individual

discrimination is done by individual members of a dominant group to harm members of a

subordinate group or their property. Institutional discrimination includes acts on a daily

basis to harm members of a subordinate group. Through symbolic interactions people

from different groups should have better attitudes and behavior toward each other when

they have equal status, have the same goals, and collectively achieve goals; in addition

they receive positive feedback when interacting. Most members of subordinate groups

assimilate and become part of dominant culture. Inequality will always exist in our

society, and the government substantiality has a direct effect on this.

I consider myself strongly by my race than my ethnicity I think my race says

more about my culture and my background. Subordinate groups have some common

experiences, there is very deep conflict between some of these groups, and there is

competition for the groups to become mainstream. A major change would have to occur

in the United States both individually and institutionally for a positive form of ethnic

pluralism to flourish in the twenty-first century.

I also critically reviewed Chapter 21 which is Collective Behavior and Social

Movements; I have derived many ideas from this chapter. The chapter describes social

movements and social change. Social change is when public policies are changed over

time; this is motivated by activity out of the norm that occurs. Collective behavior occurs

when one common influence receives a response from a large group of people or more

commonly called crowds. Crowds are generally divided into five categories from a

sociologists’ perspective casual, conventional, expressive, acting and protest. When

people respond to the same event in the same way, an example would be gossip and

rumors, is mass behavior. Social movements are when groups act to go against change
collectively. A reform movements’ purpose is to improve society by changing a specific

aspect of social structure, whereas revolutionary movements are intended to totally

change society, an example is terrorism. Religious movements seek to change individual

supernatural or spiritual belief systems. Alternative movements seek limited change of

some aspect of people’s behavior. And resistance movements seek to prevent change that

has previously occurred. Social movements are divided into three stages, in which they

develop. The first stage is preliminary, which is unrest results from a received problem.

The second stage is coalescence, when people begin to organize. And the final stage is

institutionalization, which is when an organization is developed, and staff is paid instead

of consisting of volunteers. The theory that I agree with is the relative deprivation which

says that if people are not content with their accomplishments when compared with

others they are more likely to join a social movement than those who are content with

their status. But, six conditions have to be met in order for a social movement to occur

they are the following. A perceived problem, authorities are not resolving the problem,

awareness of the belief to a large number of people, an incident, and mobilization of

other people by leaders and finally a lack of social control. Successful social movements

occur when support of political and economic elites is gained which is necessary to

maintain the movements. I believe some types of collective behavior in the United States

are influenced by inequalities based on race/ethnicity, class, gender, age or disabilities. I

think that the social unrest theory best explains crowd behavior. There are positive steps

that can be taken in the United States to make our society a better place for everyone in

terms of sociological imagination, different types of collective behavior and/or social

movements may be required in order to take these steps.