Chapter 3

1. Chapter 3 Discrimination

2. Understanding Discrimination • Relative Deprivation • Conscious experience of a negative discrepancy • Between legitimate expectation & present actuality • Absolute Deprivation • Standard minimum level of subsistence below which families should not be expected to exist © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

3. Understanding Discrimination • Discrimination • Denial of opportunities & equal rights to individuals and groups • Because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons • Total Discrimination • Combination of current discrimination with past discrimination © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

4. Hate Crimes • Race apparent motivation for the bias in approximately 51 percent of the reports, • Religion, sexual orientation, & ethnicity accounted for 11–20% each • Vandalism & intimidation most common crimes • Crime against people: 58 percent of incidents involved assault, rape, or murder © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

5. Institutional Discrimination • The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups • Results from normal operations of a society • Institutional forms of discrimination are committed collectively against a group • May be unconscious - it is not a function of awareness of discrimination © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

6. Examples of Institutional Discrimination • Standards for assessing credit risks do not work for Hispanics and African Americans • IQ testing favors middle-class children • Many jobs eliminate a person with felony records or past drug offenses, • Which disproportionately reduces employment opportunities for people of color © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

7. Examples of Institutional Discrimination • The criminal justice system is dominated by Whites • Find it difficult to understand life in poverty • Hiring practices often require several years of experience at jobs • Only recently opened to members of subordinate groups © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

8. Discrimination Hits the Wallet • Informal Economy (Irregular/Underground Economy) • Transfers of money, goods, or services that are not reported to the government • Irregular economy - operates outside the boundaries of the regular economy • Job stability, wages, working conditions or benefits © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

9. Discrimination Hits the Wallet • Regular labor market operates according to the principles of the conventional labor market • Dual Labor Market Model • According to this model, minorities have been relegated to the informal economy • Informal economy offers few safeguards against fraud or malpractice © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

10. Discrimination Hits the Wallet • Few fringe benefits such as stability, wages, health insurance, and pension • Criticized for promoting unfair and dangerous working conditions • Workers are ill prepared to enter the regular economy permanently © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. Discrimination Today • Discrimination is widespread in the U.S. • Sometimes results from prejudices held by individuals, but more significantly: • Is found in institutional discrimination and the presence of the informal economy © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. Discrimination Today • Quantifying discrimination is problematic • 1. Identifying the different treatment of minorities • 2. Determining the cost of discrimination • Distribution of income as a measure of discrimination © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

13. Eliminating Discrimination • Two major sources for the elimination of discrimination: • Governmental agencies and policies • Roosevelt’s 1943 and the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) • Supreme court decision - 1954 Brown v. Board of Education © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

14. Eliminating Discrimination • Voluntary associations • State’s Rights • Each state is sovereign in most of its affairs • And has the right to order them without interference from the federal government • Since 1964, several acts and amendments have been made to the Civil Rights Act © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

15. Eliminating Discrimination • To cover the many areas of discrimination left untouched; Criminal Justice and Housing • Redlining • The pattern of discrimination against people: • Trying to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods • Applied to areas other than housing © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

16. Wealth Inequality: Discrimination’s Legacy • Past discrimination carries into the present and future • No inherited wealth is element of the past • Less opportunity of Blacks to accumulate assets © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

17. Wealth Inequality: Discrimination’s Legacy • Income • Salaries and wages • Wealth • Encompasses all a person’s assets, land, stocks, and other types of property © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

18. Environmental Justice • Efforts to ensure that hazardous substances are controlled so that: • All communities receive protection regardless of race or socioeconomic circumstance • Issues of environmental justice not limited to metropolitan areas © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

19. Environmental Justice • Abuse of Native American reservation land • Tribal lands regarded as dumping grounds for toxic waste that go to the highest bidder • Controversy within the scientific community over potential hazards • Complexity of the issues in terms of social class and race are apparent © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

20. Environmental Justice • Executive order (1994) • Requires all federal agencies to ensure that low-income and minority communities have: • Access to better information about their environment and have an opportunity in shaping: • Government policies that affect their community’s health © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

21. Affirmative Action • Positive effort to recruit subordinate-group members, including women • Jobs, promotions, & educational opportunities • Today, has become a catchall term for racial preference programs and goals • Lightning rod for opposition to programs that suggest consideration of women/minorities © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

22. Affirmative Action Explained • Has been viewed as an important tool for reducing institutional discrimination • Federal measures aimed at procedures that deny equal opportunities, even if: • Not intended to be overtly discriminatory • Lack of minority-group/female employees may in itself represent unlawful exclusion © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

23. Examples of Affirmative Action and Institutional Discrimination • Height & weight requirements that are: • Unnecessarily geared to the physical proportions of White males • Seniority rules, when applied to jobs historically held only by white males • Nepotism-based membership policies • Restrictive employment leave policies © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

24. Examples of Affirmative Action and Institutional Discrimination • Rules requiring only English be spoken at the workplace • Standardized academic tests or criteria • Preferences shown by law and medical schools • Credit policies of banks and lending institutions © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

25. The Legal Debate • In the 1978 Bakke case (Regents of the University of California v Bakke) • By a narrow 5-4 vote, ordered the medical school of the University of California at Davis • To admit Allan Bakke, a qualified White engineer who had originally been denied admission • Solely on the basis of his race © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

26. Reverse Discrimination • An emotional term because it conjures up the notion that somehow: • Women and minorities will subject White men in the U.S. to the same treatment received by: • Minorities during the last three centuries © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

27. Reverse Discrimination • Supporters of affirmative action • Informal social networks, personal recommendations & family ties • White men will have a distinct advantage built on generations of being in positions of power © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

28. The Glass Ceiling • Barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified worker • Because of gender or minority membership • Block lateral moves to areas from which executives are promoted • Contribute to women not moving to decision-making positions in nation’s corp. giants © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

29. The Glass Ceiling • Determinants of the Glass Ceiling • Lack of management commitment to establishing system, policies, and practices • For achieving workplace diversity and upward mobility • Pay inequities for work of equal or comparable value © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

30. The Glass Ceiling • Sex, race, and ethnic-based stereotyping and harassment • Unfair recruitment practices • Lack of family-friendly workplace policies • “Parent-track” policies • Limited opportunities for advancement to decision-making positions © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

31. The Glass Ceiling • Glass Escalator • Refers to the male advantage experienced in occupations dominated by women • Men who chose to enter female-dominated occupations are often rewarded with • Promotions and positions of responsibility coveted by their fellow female workers © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.