Race and Ethnic Inequality

1. Race and Ethnic Inequality Social Inequality

2. ON THE AGENDA FOR TODAY • What is the racial ethnic make-up of the United States? • What is the history of race/ethnic relations in the United States? • What are some basic concepts? • What is the evidence on inequality today? • How do we explain racial/ethnic inequality? • How does White Man Falling fit into all of this?

3. SO WHAT IS THE ETHNIC AND RACIAL MAKE-UP OF THE UNITED STATES?

7. History of Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States • Native Americans • enslavement failed policy • colonization • ethnocentric/racist ideologies • genocide or assimilation • African Americans • cheap source of labor • forced immigration and enslavement • ideology of racism to justify • Jim Crow Laws • Civil Rights Movement

8. History of Race and Ethnic Relations Continued • Mexican and other Latin Americans • colonization and exploitation • cheap labor • immigration policies • Asian • cheap labor • exploitation • legal exclusion

9. The Ideology Of Racism • Ideology of racism • Belief and narrative that justifies and legitimizes social arrangements related to race and ethnicity. • Racial ideologies that were developed to justify the subjugation and exploitation of native people and other nonwestern peoples in the colonies after Columbus included: • Savage v civilized • Christian v heathen

10. Evidence of Modern Day Inequality • Income and wealth • Occupation • Education • microineqaulities • media • language • face to face interaction • social interaction • Violence

12. Race/Ethnic Inequalities of Wealth and Income WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

16. Race/Ethnic Inequalities of OCCUPATION WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

19. Race/Ethnic Inequalities of Education WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE? EDUCATION DATA ON DEGREE EDUCATION AND EARNINGS

22. Everyday Inequalities Media Material Culture -audio Language Social Interaction

25. Prejudice and DiscriminationKnow the difference • Discrimination • An unfair ACTION directed against someone • Prejudice • Prejudging, usually in a negative way Copyright 1999Allyn & Bacon

26. Glossary • PREJUDICE • Prejudging, usually in a negative way, which tends to exaggerate the virtues of a group • LEVELS OF PREJUDICE • Cognitive level (belief system) • Affective level (emotional ties) • Behavioral level (action stage) • Prejudice can be positive which also acts to bias opinion • Growing sense of intolerance in America • Racism on campus; hate groups Copyright 1999 Allyn & Bacon

29. Characteristics Shared By Most Minority Groups • Often distinguishable due to physical characteristics • A sense of oneness • Common sense of destiny • Subjected to discrimination • Tend to marry within group • Numeric superiority? Copyright 1999 Allyn & Bacon

30. Minority Groups and Dominant Groups • Minority group • People who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of discrimination • Dominant group • Those with the greatest power, privilege and social status Copyright 1999 Allyn & Bacon

34. What is race? Is it biological? • RACE - BIOLOGY • Physical traits which distinguish one • group from another Is it social? Race - Social Race and the meaning attached to it varies by culture and time. No such thing as a pure race!

35. Glossary ETHNICITY - CULTURE A person or group’s cultural heritage; sense of belongingness

36. The Myth of Race • A group with inherited physical characteristics that distinguishes it from another group is called a race • However our race depends more on the society in which we live than on our biological characteristics

37. Two Major Myths: • One race is superior to another • Pure races exist Ferber deals with how myth is created and maintained

38. Theories of Race Relations and Inequality • Biological Explanation • Cultural Explanations • Structural • Caste • Class • Dominance

39. Biological Theories of Race/Ethnic Inequality • There are measurable biological differences between races that are socially relevant • Inequality is result of this differences • one race, the white race, is inherently superior • inequality is a natural consequence • How do you fix race/ethnic Inequality?

40. Cultural Theories of Race/Ethnic Inequality • Something different about the culture of minorities • Minority subculture does not support mainstream values necessary for success. • Minority culture is pathological and this culture is passed on from one generation to the next through early socialization in dysfunctional families. • How do you fix racial/ethnic inequality?

41. Caste Theory Of Race InequalityMyrdal • Race is like caste because in the U.S there were • segregation laws • endogamy laws and customs • occupational segregation • stability of status over time • notions of purity • No mobility between castes groups

42. Caste Theory Of Race InequalityVan den Berghe update toMyrdal Different intergroup relationship characterized by two time periods • Pre-Civil War Period • agricultural society • acquiescent intergroup relations • paternalism by dominant group • dominant are benevolent • Post-Civil War Period • caste relations remain but class within caste more important • industrial society • aggressive intergroup relations • competition • Who benefits from inequality? • How fix inequality?

43. Oliver CoxCriticism of Caste Theory • India is an agrarian society • race consciousness is different from caste consciousness • oppressed group is not acquiescent • caste order is assumed to be natural and not challenged • racial order contradicts U.S. notions of equality • Ways to re-assert race order are covert • Rules of intermarriage • Doesn’t explain only describes the race order

44. DOMINATIONS THEORIES • CLASS BASED THEORIES • NOEL’S THEORY • IMPERIALIST/COLONIAL EXPLANATION CRUCIAL ROLE OF POWER DOMINATION

45. Class Theories of Race RelationsOliver Cox • Exploitation of group for labor is at the core of race inequality • Race is used to proletarianize another group • Blacks provide reserve labor army that is cheap and dispensable • Race is used by employers to divide workers • Ghettos are used to • control blacks • subjugate blacks • promote self-defeating lifestyles • Only white capitalists benefit from racial order • How fix Inequality? Revolution

46. Noel’s Theory of Ethnic Stratification-- dominance theory • Requires prolonged contact between groups • Requires all of the following conditions • Ethnocentrism • Competition for same scarce resource • more shared goals between groups the more fierce the competition • Differential power • group with the most resources dominated other • power is used to subordinate and regulate other and maintain advantage through institutions

47. Internal Colonialism • Character of relationship defines the process • Whites hold direct rule • Blacks are sapped of resources • lack economic power • limited access to services and goods • ghettos sap resources • All whites benefit

48. Theory of Colonization ComplexRobert Blauner -- dominance theory Why black racial inequality has not evolved into an assimilation experience • Dominant-subordinate relationship began with involuntary entry • indigenous culture of dominated group is altered • dominant gains control through the government, legal system and other institutions • Racism is used an ideology to justify oppression • colonized and colonizer occupy different position in the labor structure • All whites benefit from inequality • How fix the problem? Revolution

49. Social Constructionist Theory of Race Inequality • Assimilation has failed • Race is a social construct • Construction can be understood through texts of culture • Gender is a social construction • Race, sex, and sexuality are interconnected • interracial sexuality is boundary maintenance • Binary Categories of race and sex • Race and gender order are portrayed as natural • Race and gender order are hierarchical • Construction of norm and other • Process that creates gender/racial order • loss of white of white privilege=victim-hood • Racial and sex differences as immutable, natural, and meaningful • Linking of masculinity with white-heterosexuality and dominance of others • Raced ways of seeing non-racial events.