Race and Ethnic Relations (4/16)

Race and Ethnic Relations (4/16) Systems dynamics (review) Categorical Inequalities The Issue of Exploitation

Race and Ethnic Relations in American 20th c. Sociology • Park worked for a while as Booker T. Washington’s assistant • Washington was a conservative Souther black intetgrationist • Figures such as DuBois and Cox • Did path breaking work • But were marginalized in sociology • And eventually left the discipline. • Myrdal’s An American Dilemma was one of the founding documents of 20th c. sociology.

Conflict theory Marx (DuBois) Positive feedbacks Alienation Rich groups get richer… Functional theory Durkheim (Gordon) Negative feedbacks Anomie Functional needs: universalism, solidarity and integration Dynamic core of Classical Theory in terms of feedbacks - +

+ rents properties + Conflict theory as a game of monopoly Or, more generally, + Resources Wealth, property, social position, power influence, health… Access to further resources + This dynamic insures, that no matter what the abilities or attitudes of the players, rich will get richer and acquire more advantages and privileges, so that the structure will polarize

Real world Monopoly • In Marxian analysis, property income is one part of class polarization • Which also involves exploitation: the income at the top comes from below. • But life-chances, power, status and ideology are also important. • E.g. income wealth education Consolidation of social position involves multiple resources: power, influence, status, etc

Functional theory as thermostats • We have seen that 20th c. functionalism took the maintenance of homeostasis in a biological organism as its model. • Parsons argued that the normative system maintains social functions. • There is a process of integration and inclusion • Norms develop toward universalistic inclusive modern norms that are good for eve3ryone + Negative santions Violation of a norm -

Types of dynamic: • Conflict theory in race relations: • Positive feedback leads to exploitation and domination • E.g. a game of monopoly • Rich and privileged groups get richer and poor ones get poorer and exploited. • E.g. slaves, Indians, Hispanics. • E.g. education, status, power, etc. + resources Access to more resources +

The dynamic of monopoly: • The dynamic of such positive feedbacks is polarizing and discontinuous. • but besides rents there is health, education, status, power, etc. • People are always influenced by the impact of policy choices on their life chances and that of their kids.. resources Access to more resources + Rents (i.e. $ to buy and improve properties) properties +

Types of functional dynamic: 2. Functionalist theory in race relations: • Negative feedback from normative system • E.g. controls in an organic system • Any goal directed or control system can be analyzed as self-maintaining feedbacks. • E.g. a thermostat. • Parsons consolidated the notion of a movement toward universalism and inclusion (assimilation.) + Violation of norms Negative sanctions -

An example: An American Dilemma (1944) • Gunnar Myrdal had developed various economic feedback models in the 1930’s. • His massive and influential analysis of US race relations, An American Dilemma, • was based on the concept of “cumulative causation” i.e. positive feedbacks. • He developed the analysis in the 1950’s and 60’s to deal with Third World development, • And in 1978 he received the Nobel Prize.

1st Positive feedback: the vicious cycle of minority deprivation • He argued that disadvantage produces further disadvantage in a vicious, cycle. • The advantages of an advantaged group cumulate, and the disadvantages of a disadvantaged group cumulate. low income low wealth poor health high crime rate low educational attainment family disorganization

Implications of cumulation • Many of these relations have been clearly demonstrated. • The system is self-reinforcing. • The response to a group’s disadvantage must involve the many kinds of disadvantage • Race relations involve class.

2nd Positive feedback: racism and minority deprivation • Myrdal also argued that the poverty, unemployment, crime or other disadvantages of a disadvantaged group tend to generate or reinforce stereotyping, prejudice, segregation and political marginalization. • And they are reinforced by them • Minority deprivation leads to racism • (Stereotyping, attitudes, sentiments, segregation, political marginalization and structures of white supremacy). • Racism leads to minority deprivation + Racism Minority deprivation +

Implications of Positive feedbacks • Myrdal argued that the cumulative consequences of these feedbacks was a cascade that appeared “natural” • but that was socially produced, highly unstable, • and amenable to social policy in the long run. • In the same way that in increase in racism or in minority deprivation produces a cascade of further increases, • A decrease in racism or in minority deprivation produces a cascade of further decreases. • The system is ameliorable precisely because of positive feedback amplifications.

Negative feedback in An American Dilemma • Myrdal argued that the main control system was the value system he called “the American Creed.” • It calls for all persons and groups to have equal opportunity, equal treatment by the law, and equal life chances. • The operation of cumulative causation violates the American Creed, generating pressure for reforms. Pressure for reforms to reduce racism and racial inequality + Racism and racial inequality -

Gordon: assimilation and the melting pot • Milton Gordon argued that there was a long term tendency to assimilation. • There is. • This analysis was firmly rooted in the Chicago school. • He was also aware of the problems and limitation of “melting pot assimilation” as a kind of domination. • And of the obstacles to any assimilation.

Parsons: Inclusion and the limits of Civil Rights. • Parsons developed the analyses of Myrdal and of various people like Gordon to argue that modern values are inclusive, and that sociology is crucially concerned with integration and solidarity • This was the main message of the pattern variables analysis. • It was contested and non-trivial in the 1950’s • It was limited to “civil rights”

Wilson, Tilly, and Feagin • All the late 20th c. sociologists have stressed ways that the structure of institutionalized group inequality is cumulating. • It does not undo it to stop the original conditions. • One needs reparations, affirmative action, or proactive dismantling of the structure.

W.J.Wilson • President of the ASA 1990 • Clinton policy advisor • Analysis of the “Truly Disadvantaged” as subject to a vicious cycle • Analysis of Institutional racism • Analysis of the employment origins of the underclass.

Parts of the Wilson model Concentrated Urban poverty Racial discrimination Jop flight Inequality Anger Few positive role models unemployment Economic cycles Underclass formation: Unemployment Welfare, drugs, crime, violence Anti-bias laws Illegitimacy Flight of black middle class Limited aspirations Increased no. of poor Smaller pool of employed men Weak labor force attachment: Social isolation, networks, work habits and histories.

The basic cycle of Wilson’s model unemployment Underclass formation: Unemployment Changes in family structures Changes in the social structure of opportunities

Implications: It’s jobs; it’s jobs • Short version: • Ghetto poverty is largely a matter of black and white, but that is because of history • drain out the jobs, and you have a pathological structure 20 years later. • The patholgoical structure is self-reinforcing • But it can only be addressed in conjunction with supplying jobs and access to jobs.

Implications: Culture and Social Structure • The social structure of opportunities has a powerful affect on family and community structure and on the family structure and attitudes. • And those further influence the job performance and skills. • Neither can be changed in isolation. • Both are central to racism.

Family and COP in Wilsons model Concentrated Urban poverty Anger Few positive role models Underclass formation: Unemployment Welfare, drugs, crime, violence Illegitimacy Weak labor force attachment: Social isolation, networks, and histories.

Civil Rights Law in Wilson model Concentrated Urban poverty Racial discrimination Jop flight Few positive role models unemployment Anti-bias laws Flight of black middle class Limited aspirations Weak labor force attachment: Social isolation, networks, work habits and histories.

Institutional racism • The analyses that focus on culture are blaming the victim • But the analyses that ignore or excuse ghetto behavior are supporting a pathology. • One needs proactive policy that address segregation and social isolation as part of a job policy.

Why CR failed Wilson model Concentrated Urban poverty Racial discrimination Jop flight Inequality unemployment Economic cycles Underclass formation: Unemployment Welfare, drugs, crime, violence Illegitimacy Flight of black middle class Limited aspirations Increased no. of poor Smaller pool of employed men Weak labor force attachment: Social isolation, networks, work habits and histories.

Civil Rights failed to address • Segregation (e.g. Gattraux Project) • Social Isolation • Jobs • Overall inequality • I.e. the Myrdal analysis does not say things must get better, and when last hired are first fired, then in the absence of social policy, they will get worse.

The problem of Exploitation • Do some people benefit from the arrangements that hurt others? • Does the question whose bull is being gored influence one’s policy responses? • Has white wealth been built on black poverty? • What is the leverage?

Leverage based on Exploitation • In what ways does the benefits to the rich provide leverage? • One could say, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian?” • One could not say, “the only good worker is a dead worker” • One could not say, “the only good slave is a dead slave” • One could not say, “the only good wife is a dead Stepford wife”

Tilly’s model of categorical inequality • Exploitation: the privileged group benefits from the labor of the exploited group and creates divisions in it. • Eg. South Africa, Women in the Corporation • Opportunity Hoarding: the privileged group benefits from maintaining restricted access to jobs, etc. • E.g. long Island vs. Marseilles

Race and Ethnic Relations (4/16)