ROOTS OF ETHNIC CONFLICT

A. Prejudice and Discrimination

1. Prejudice is the devaluation of a given group based upon the assumed characteristics of that group
2. Discrimination is disproportionately harmful treatment of a group; it may be de facto or de jure. De facto means practiced, but not legally sanctioned such as unequal treatment of black and white policemen. It isn't legal but it happens anyway. De jure means part of the law.

Forms of Discrimination:
1. Attitudinal - discrimination against a group based only upon its existence as a group.
2. Institutional - formalized pursuance of discriminatory practice by a government or similar institution.
3. Genocide - "the deliberate elimination of a group through mass murder". This is the most extreme form of discrimination.

PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE
1. Assimilation - occurs when a minority group adopts the patterns and norms of a more powerful culture, as when a migrant ethnic group conforms itself to its host culture, abandoning their own.
2. The Plural Society - refers to a multiethnic nation-state wherein the sub-groups do not assimilate but remain essentially distinct, in stable coexistence.
3. Multiculturalism - is the "view of cultural diversity in a country as something good and desirable. This is opposed to assimilationism.