Chapter 16

Ideology

An ideology is a set of beliefs, values, and ideas that shape an individual's or a group's worldview, guiding their actions and interactions with society. Ideologies often encompass political, social, economic, and cultural aspects, offering a framework for understanding the world and suggesting how it should be organized. Below are some examples of common ideologies:

• Capitalist ideology values the private ownership of wealth, such that the poor become minority groups.

• White supremacy values whites over other races and ethnic groups, such that non-whites become racial and ethnic minority groups.

• Patriarchy values the experiences of men, such that people who are not men become minority groups.

• Heteronormativity grants legitimacy to heterosexual relationships, such that people who are not heterosexual become members of minority groups.

• Cisnormativity grants legitimacy to people who are cisgender. Cisgender people identify with the gender that was assigned to them at birth. Through cisnormativity, anyone who is not cisgender, including people who identify as transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary, become minority groups.

• Mononormativity grants legitimacy to people who are in monogamous relationships. Through mononormativity, anyone who is not mononormative, including consensually non-monogamous people and people in various polyamorous relationships, become minority groups.

Identity

An identity is a complex and multifaceted concept that refers to how individuals perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others. It encompasses various aspects, including but not limited to:

• Personal Identity: This includes individual characteristics such as personality traits, interests, values, and beliefs.

• Social Identity: This relates to the groups or categories to which individuals belong, such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, and socioeconomic status.

• Collective Identity: This refers to the shared sense of belonging and common experiences among members of a group, community, or society.

Identity is often shaped by both internal factors, such as personal experiences and self-perception, and external factors, such as societal norms, cultural influences, and interactions with others. It is dynamic and can evolve over time in response to changing circumstances and experiences.

Identity Formation

Identity formation refers to the process through which individuals develop a sense of self and establish a coherent understanding of who they are in relation to the world around them. This process is influenced by a variety of factors, including cultural, social, and personal experiences. Sociological and anthropological theories provide insights into how identity formation occurs:

• Symbolic Interactionism: This theory, developed by sociologist George Herbert Mead (1962), emphasizes the role of symbols and interactions in shaping identity. According to this perspective, individuals develop a sense of self through interactions with others, who serve as mirrors reflecting back their own identities.

• Social Identity Theory: Proposed by social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner (1979), this theory suggests that a person's identity is shaped by their membership in social groups. People categorize themselves based on group membership (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender) and derive a sense of self-esteem from the status of their group.

• Identity Theory: Developed by sociologist Sheldon Stryker (1980), this theory posits that society is a stable structure reflected in patterns of behavior. Individuals both shape and are shaped by these patterns, receiving feedback that influences their behavior and reinforcing their place within the social structure they help create. This theory underscores the dynamic interplay between individual identity and societal structures.

• Intersectionality: Coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), this concept emphasizes that an individual's identity is shaped by the intersection of multiple social categories (e.g., race, gender, class) and that these intersecting identities interact to create unique experiences of privilege and oppression.

Identity formation is a complex and ongoing process that is influenced by a wide range of factors, including cultural norms, social interactions, historical context, and personal experiences. It is important to recognize that identities are not fixed or static but are dynamic and can change over time in response to new experiences and social contexts.

Amplification of Identity

We can amplify our identities through our expressions of them.  Think of turning an identity up or turning it down. Around St. Patrick's day, a lot of people turn up their Irish identity that remains turned down much of the rest of the year. Brekhus (2003) interviewed many gay men to get an understanding of how they experience their identities. He identified three ways in which the men described their identities:

• Commuters

  • 100% gay 15% of the time. It's turned up full blast part of the time.

  • Travel to the city to be gay, but back home and live a straight life.

• Lifestylers

  • 100% gay 100% of the time. It's turned up full blast all of the time.

  • Out to any and everyone, primarily gay social networks.

• Integrators

  • 15% gay 100% of the time. It's not really loud, but it's always on.

  • Being gay is just one part of identity.

Identity as Performative

You may have heard of someone's actions as being "performative" as though superficial. For instance, in the summer of 2020 during the protests against police killing black people (including George Floyd, Briana Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, Daniel Prude, Jacob Blake, Walter Wallace Jr., and others), many people changed their profile pictures on social media to be a black square.  This was often criticized as a form of slacktivism (slacker activism) if that's all people were doing. A word to describe this pretense for concern is performative.

Inequality

These ideologies and identities are often associated with inequalities.  Social inequalities refer to the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges within a society or between societies. These inequalities can manifest in various forms, such as:

• Economic Inequality: Disparities in income, wealth, and access to resources like education and healthcare.

• Social Class Inequality: Differences in social status, prestige, and power based on one's socioeconomic position.

• Racial and Ethnic Inequality: Discrimination and unequal treatment based on race or ethnicity, leading to disparities in opportunities and outcomes.

• Gender Inequality: Differential treatment and access to resources based on gender, often resulting in disparities in pay, representation, and access to leadership positions.

• Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Inequality: Discrimination and marginalization based on sexual orientation or gender identity, leading to disparities in rights, opportunities, and social acceptance.

• Physical Appearance Inequality: Disparities in treatment and opportunities based on physical attractiveness or appearance, leading to biases in hiring, social interactions, and overall life outcomes.

Social inequalities often result in the formation of dominant and minority groups within a society. A dominant group is a social group that holds a higher position in terms of power, privilege, and social status compared to a minority group. It's important to note that minority groups, despite the term, may not necessarily be the smaller in numbers; instead, minority groups have less power and influence in society compared to dominant groups. The poor, while a statistical majority of the population, are considered a minority group since they lack relative power compared to the dominant group.

Representations in Mass Media

When social groups become constructed, those differences are reinforced through mass media, which include movies, television, newspapers, magazines, etc. Dominant groups tend to be disproportionately overrepresented. In other words, the percentage of representation of dominant groups is higher than their percentage in the population. For instance, men are a dominant group, and they are overrepresented as the central character in children's books (McCabe et al., 2011). Similarly, the dominant groups also have a broad representation. This means that the dominant groups are likely to be shown in lots of different ways. The dominant groups can be funny or boring, smart or stupid, nerds or jocks, etc.

Minority groups tend to be portrayed differently in mass media. Whereas the dominant groups are disproportionately overrepresented, the minority groups are disproportionately underrepresented. In other words, their percentage of representation is lower than their percentage in the population. For example, women and racial/ethnic minorities appear in television and movies at lower rates than they do in the general population (Hunt et al., 2018). When examining representations of women in mass media, we could explore the Bechdel-Wallace test (Bechdel, 1985). When an item of mass media passes the Bechdel-Wallace test, there must be two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Surprisingly, many popular movies fail the Bechdel-Wallace test. There are countless movies in which men talk to each other about something other than women. They talk to each other about sports, politics, war, and money. However, it seems that when women talk to each other, it is most often about men. Finally, whereas the dominant group tends to have a broad representation, the minority groups tend to be represented stereotypically. For instance, Arabs are often portrayed as terrorists, gay men are portrayed as having a keen fashion sense, and Asians are often portrayed as nerds or experts in martial arts.

Let's do a very simple example of the chart above based on sexuality. Recognize straight women as the dominant group and lesbians as a minority group. Straight women are overrepresented in mass media. There are 100% of Disney princesses who are straight, even though not 100% of women are straight. Lesbians are underrepresented among Disney princesses. There are 0% of Disney princesses who are out as lesbians, despite lesbians existing in the general population. Now think of how lesbians are represented in mass media (when they are).  Lesbian portrayals are often limited to stereotypical, masculine visions of lesbians. Meanwhile, straight women might exist in lots of different ways, such as friends, moms, aunts, grandmas, sex symbols, girly-girls, tom-boys, etc.

Prejudice and Discrimination

A prejudice is an idea, thought, or belief about a group of people. Prejudices can include stereotypes. Stereotypes can be negative (trying to say something bad about a group of people) or positive (trying to say something good about a group of people). Regardless of whether the stereotype is positive or negative, it is still problematic, because stereotypes tend to overgeneralize and lump everyone of a category together. Prejudices can include ideas about which groups of people are good, bad, clean, dirty, smart, and stupid. Vartanian et al. (2016) found that, when presented with images of people who are obese and people who are not obese, the obese person elicits more disgust, more negative attitudes and stereotypes, and a greater desire for social distance among research subjects.

Discrimination is the unfair treatment that a category of people experiences. Whereas prejudice is something that a person has, discrimination is something that a person does. Discrimination can occur at the individual, micro level and the institutional, macro level.

Interpersonal Discrimination

Interpersonal discrimination refers to the unfair treatment of individuals based on characteristics such as race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other personal attributes. This type of discrimination occurs in social interactions between individuals and can take many forms, including verbal abuse, exclusion, harassment, and violence. Interpersonal discrimination is often rooted in prejudice and stereotypes, leading to differential treatment and negative consequences for the targeted individuals. It can occur in various settings, such as schools, workplaces, communities, and public spaces, and can have significant impacts on the well-being and opportunities of those affected.

Microaggressions

Initially, microaggressions were defined as “subtle, stunning, often automatic, and non-verbal exchanges which are 'put downs'" (Pierce et al., 1978, p. 66). Over time the concept was reconceptualized by Sue (2010, p. xvi) as “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership." Microaggressions may be intentional or unintentional, verbal or nonverbal, and good intentioned or bad intentioned. There are many forms of microaggressions including the examples below.

One example is minority interrogation. This occurs when members of a dominant group persistently ask questions to members of a minority group about who they are. For instance, in the United States, people who are not white may be constantly asked where they are from (Kothari, 1993). Even if they were born in the United States, people will ask where they are "really" from. This leads to an experience of being a "perpetual foreigner" even though their families may have been in the United States for generations. Minority interrogation can happen to any minority groups. Gay people are often asked questions about when they first realized they were gay or how they knew for sure that they were gay.

Being posed these questions on a regular basis is often tiresome for members of a minority group. In response to this interrogation and to highlight the absurdity of many of the questions, many members of minority groups have created dominant group questionnaires. A dominant group questionnaire is a list of questions posed to a member of some dominant group. Importantly, the questions are reversals of the questions that are often asked of members of minority groups. For instance, a "white questionnaire" would pose the following questions to a white person: Where are you from? Where are you really from? Open each of the following links, and take note of a few questions that you find interesting: heterosexual questionnaire, cisgender questionnaire, and Christian questionnaire.

Assumptions of Inferiority

People also make assumptions of inferiority about minority groups (Nadal, 2011). This means that people often assume minority groups are somehow "less than" the dominant group. People often believe that women are not as strong as men. As discussed earlier, racial scientists in the United States believed that non-whites were less advanced than whites in terms of evolution. Adolf Hitler was very clear that his ideas about racial purity were derived from and consistent with American race scientists.

Systemic Discrimination

We can also study institutional, or systemic discrimination, which is the discrimination that occurs within institutions and systems, such as government, education, healthcare, and criminal justice, and is embedded in their policies, practices, and procedures. This form of discrimination can lead to unequal access to opportunities and resources for certain groups based on their race, gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics. Systemic discrimination can be more difficult to detect than interpersonal discrimination but can have far-reaching and long-lasting effects on individuals and communities.

Criminal Justice System

There are many examples of institutional discrimination that occur within the criminal justice system. For instance, there appears to be a two-tiered criminal justice system, one for the rich and one for the poor (Reiman, 2004). Take, for instance, people who experience drug addiction. Wealthy people who are addicted to drugs are more likely to go to rehab, while poor people who are addicted to drugs are more likely to go to jail.

Discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities within the criminal justice system is well-documented. There are decades of studies that show Black males, particularly young, Black males, receive harsher penalties compared to other groups (Steffensmeier et al., 1998; Steffensmeier et al., 2017). The result is a situation in which racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately overrepresented in prison. In 2015, of the 1,476,847 people in prison, 34% were White, 35% were Black, and 22% were Hispanic (Carson & Anderson, 2016). Meanwhile, in the 2010 census, 72% of the population was White, and only 12% were Black, and 16% were Hispanic.

We could also explore the many examples of Black people killed by police... and how the initial statements from police departments often differ from what is later revealed to be true. Below are just a few of such examples.

Healthcare

There are also inequalities based on health. We could also explore how specific groups get targeted for unhealthy products. Take, for example, cigarettes produced by R. J. Reynolds company. That company had a project called Subculture Urban Marketing (SCUM), which was primarily designed to encourage cigarette smoking among people who identified as gay (Fallin et al., 2015). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forbids sexually active gay men from donating blood at blood drives (Morrison, 2015). Researchers also found that, Black children receive less pain medication than White kids when suffering from appendicitis in the emergency room (Goyal et al., 2015). While there was no policy to give black kids less medicine, it is a form of institutional discrimination because it is a widespread problem in the health system. Health concerns are also related to environmental racism, which is the practice of polluting where poor racial and ethnic minorities live. For instance, in Chicago's Altgeld Gardens neighborhood, there are many polluting facilities, such as coal smelters, trash incinerators, and various refineries. The residents of Altgeld Gardens are primarily poor and African American and have significantly higher rates of various illnesses, which are directly related to the toxins in their neighborhoods (White & Hall, 2015). These polluting industries do not appear in wealthy parts of the city, such as the Gold Coast neighborhood.

Ethnic Cleansing

Ethnic cleansing is the systematic and violent removal of an ethnic or religious group from a certain area with the intent to create a region ethnically homogenous. In the United States, examples include the forced removal and relocation of Native American tribes, such as the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, where thousands of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to territories west of the Mississippi River, resulting in thousands of deaths. Another example is the forced displacement of Palestinians during the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This event, known as the Nakba (catastrophe), resulted in 750,000 Palestinians being expelled from or fled their homes, leading to the creation of a significant refugee population that remains displaced to this day.

Privilege

A privilege is a special right or advantage that is shared by a group of people. Most frequently, dominant groups enjoy privileges that minority groups do not receive. For instance, Christians who celebrate Christmas will never be expected to attend class that day, but Muslims who celebrate Eid may be expected to come to class on their holiday. Thin people can eat in public without being shamed, which isn't the case for people who aren't thin. Open at least three or four of the following links, and take note of a few items that you find interesting. Make sure to look for examples of privilege that you experience and examples of privilege you do not experience.

1. Middle to Upper-Class Privilege

2. White Privilege

3. Christian Privilege

4. Male Privilege

5. Cisgender Privilege

6. Heterosexual Privilege

7. Ability Privilege

8. Youth Privilege

9. Thin Privilege

10. Right-Handed Privilege

Members of dominant groups also have the privilege of not experiencing all of the forms of discrimination listed in the previous sections of this lesson. An interesting thing to note about privilege is that people who have it often don't recognize that they have it. They may even deny having it.

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