individual assignment

Individual Assignment
Name
Institution

Race and Ethnicity
Race refers to a concept of grouping people according to various sets of physical characteristics that are hinged on their biological traits that are deemed to be socially significant. An example is the grouping of people because of the color of their skin, for example, the black Americans. Another example of the racial category is the Asian who get distinguished because of their facial and body features.
Ethnicity refers to the norm of identifying one’s self with others on the basis of shared cultural practices and traditions, perspectives and distinction that separates one group from another. The distinguishing factors for ethnicity are based on ancestry, language, religion and even dressings (Goldson, 2014). The differences are not inherited instead they get learned an example of an ethnic group is the Khosa people in South Africa who speak with a clicking sound or the Latino people who share a common language.
Minority Group and Ethnic Identity
Minority group refers to a set of people singled out from the social majority because of their physical and cultural characteristics. The group gets unequal treatment from the rest, therefore, making them objects of collective discrimination. An example is the African Americans who have in the past voiced against police brutality.
Ethnic Identity refers to the ethnic group that an individual closely associates with. It involves the gradual development of an individual’s connection to their ethnic group (Goldson, 2014).

As a child starts to interact with their environment they get to know more about themselves. Their identity towards their ethnicity also grows as they learn more.
Prejudice, Individual Discrimination and Institutional Discrimination
Prejudice refers to affective preconceived feeling towards someone else because of their sex, beliefs, age, social class, gender or any other evaluation of the person that one finds unfavorable to them. It also refers to unusual attitude that goes against rationale influence (Shaver et al., 2016).
Individual discrimination is the behavior of individual members of either one gender or ethnic group done with the intention of highlighting differential and harmful effects on a member of another race, ethnicity or gender
Institutional discrimination refers to the systematically embedded policies and practices favorable to the dominant group while unfavorable to other groups. The policies are in the form of norms in an institution or society.
Relevant Theory of Prejudice
The Conflict Theory or prejudice resonates more with me. It explains that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension among competing groups. The theory envisions the world as a competition of groups for the existing few resources. One lashes out through behavior change towards the competing groups they face (Goldson, 2014). It is a way of venting their frustration towards their competition. The theory clearly explains what causes prejudice as a result of competition that’s why I feel so much convinced with it.
Genocide, Population Transfer, Assimilation and Segregation
Genocide refers to violent crimes committed towards a particular group with the intention of destroying the existence of the group. An example is the Rwanda genocide that involved two ethnic groups the Hutus and the Tutsis.
Population transfer is a form forced migration of a huge group of people from one area to another. It is mostly triggered by either a state policy or due to economic development. Assimilation refers to a process where a group of a different ethnic heritage gets absorbed by a more dominant group or culture (Shaver et al., 2016).
Segregation is the separation of humans into racial cocoons or other ethnic groups in their daily living. It majorly involves the separation of minority groups from the dominant majority.
Key Characteristics and Challenges Major Racial/Ethnic Groups in the U.S.
Native Americans
Characteristics. They tend to live in tribal villages and have a clearly defined leadership structure. They contain dark hair and a distinct similarity to Indians hence the name red Indians (Shaver et al., 2016).
Challenge. Shortage of housing. It is estimated that close to 90,000 Native Americans are homeless.
African Americans
Characteristic. They have dark skin complexion
Challenge. Police brutality as a result of stereotyping all African Americans to be gang members.
Asian Americans
Characteristic. They possess and exhibit cultures similar to those of Asian countries like China and Vietnam
Challenge. They have faced racial segregation evidenced by the formation of Chinatowns in big cities.
Hispanic Americans
Characteristic. They are identified by their Spanish language.
Challenge. They mostly get police harassment as they are stereotyped as illegal immigrants and drug dealers (Shaver et al., 2016).
Whites
Characteristic. Mostly identified by their light skin complexion
Challenge. They tend to live in solidarity with no large family to turn to for support.
 

Reference
Goldson, E. (2004). Peer Prejudice and Discrimination. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral
Pediatrics, 25(4), 293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00004703-200408000-00011
Shaver, J., Troughton, G., Sibley, C., & Bulbulia, J. (2016). Religion and the Unmaking of
Prejudice toward Muslims: Evidence from a Large National Sample. PLOS ONE, 11(3), e0150209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150209