Social Group Interactions In Multicultural Cities

Living in a city, that is culturally and ethnically diverse, presents many challenges. When people are exposed to a large number of different cultural ideas, they tend to mentally categorize those they come into contact with, which can lead to discrimination. In order to effectively combat this, people may find it necessary to adopt viewpoints, that support the dominant culture, without intending to.

There are a number of different perspectives, that these issues can be discussed from. One perspective, which will be discussed in this article, is social interactions. This perspective recognizes the interdependence of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other dynamics, that combine to create a given social situation.

That is, race may make it more or less likely that a person will be hired for a particular job, class may shape the kind of education that a person is able to receive, gender may affect which jobs a person chooses, and so on. This perspective takes into account the specific contexts in which social phenomena appear, instead of considering them in isolation from one another.

Social Group Interactions

This section will discuss the ways in which social groups, such as race, class, gender, influence the nature of social interactions. It explains how people's behavior changes based on these characteristics, and how these characteristics are often the product of larger, more complex systems of oppression and inequality. The following four subsections will address these issues.

Race

Race, in addition to affecting a person's physical appearance, impacts their social status, their access to resources and their opportunities in society. As a result, people are judged and treated differently based on their race. The distribution of these effects is uneven, placing members of some races at a social disadvantage compared to others. These patterns are not fixed and do not necessary reflect a persons worth, or the moral status of the entities involved. However, because they do exist they can have a determining influence on the kinds of social interactions that people have, and how those interactions are viewed and received.

Class

Class is also a factor in determining a person's social position in society. In addition to the role it plays in determining a person's material circumstances, it impacts how that person is viewed by other members of society. Because of the extent to which a person is distanced from the "commoners" by virtue of their status, they may be seen as more highly evolved, or deserving of less respect.

Gender

The social distribution of power and privilege is not the same for men and women. Due to the ways in which men and women are socialized to think and act, they have different social roles and different social rewards and punishments. These differences result in different distributions of power and privilege not only between men and women, but also between heterosexual men and women, and between homosexual men and women. As a result, women may face discrimination in terms of both the kinds of roles they are able to play, as well as in terms of who they are allowed to love.

For instance, women may be prevented from publicly owning a business or holding certain political positions, and they may also be penalized in the kind of marriages they can enter into. These patterns of inequality establish a framework of expectations for women's behavior and appearance, and if these norms contradict women's self-image or their perception of their own worth, women may be harmed by them.

The distribution of power and privilege is not the same for all social groups, and the effects of these distributions are not felt equally by all members of a given group. This produces a series of intersecting dynamics, or patterns of influence, that shape who people are and how they relate to one another.

Racial Tensions

There are many forms of racial interaction, that occur in the daily lives of people in large cities. These may include the direct experiences of people of different races with the police or other law enforcement authorities. People may also indirectly experience racial dynamics, through the media or in the larger culture. These forms of interaction may have a significant bearing on how people view themselves and their social world.

A person may, for instance, have a fairly positive attitude towards a race, that they identify with. This may cause them to either identify more with that race, or to see the members of other races more positively, and consequently view them more positively as well. Alternatively, a person may have a more negative attitude towards a race, and consequently see them more negatively.

These kinds of attitudes can, of course, be expressed in many other ways: one may see a race as uncultured, unevolved, primitive, or in any number of other pejorative terms. These views may be internalized and expressed in more direct ways, such as the enforcement of laws and policies designed to keep a certain race out of certain spaces.

As these examples indicate, the formation and maintenance of popular attitudes towards various races is influenced by a multitude of complex social factors. It does not, therefore, represent the expression of a single, coherent set of values.