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Lectures 16 & 17 March 13 & 15 Race in America

Explore the social constructs of race and racism, their impact on society, and proposed solutions for poverty. Learn about decoupling standards of living from market earnings and enhancing social welfare to combat systemic oppression and inequality.

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Lectures 16 & 17 March 13 & 15 Race in America

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  1. Lectures 16 & 17 March 13 & 15 Race in America

  2. Solutions to Poverty: • Four kinds of structural proposals • Partially decouple standards of living from market earnings by increasing the social wage • Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist market through public sector jobs • Partially decouple income from earnings with Unconditional Basic Income • Make the minimum wage a living wage

  3. I. Race: Introductory Remarks

  4. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Race is a: • Classification system of human beings that is • socially created (“socially constructed”) • on the basis of culturally-defined • biologically-transmitted group characteristics. Typically, but not invariably, these are connected to visible attributes (skin color, physical characteristics, etc.).

  5. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Race is a: • Classification system of human beings that is • socially created (“socially constructed”) • on the basis of culturally-defined • biologically-transmitted group characteristics. Typically, but not invariably, these are connected to visible attributes (skin color, physical characteristics, etc.).

  6. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Race is a: • Classification system of human beings that is • socially created (“socially constructed”) • on the basis of culturally-defined • biologically-transmitted group characteristics. Typically, but not invariably, these are connected to visible attributes (skin color, physical characteristics, etc.).

  7. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Race is a: • Classification system of human beings that is • socially created (“socially constructed”) • on the basis of culturally-defined • biologically-transmitted group characteristics. Typically, but not invariably, these are connected to visible attributes (skin color, physical characteristics, etc.).

  8. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Race is a: • Classification system of human beings that is • socially created (“socially constructed”) • on the basis of culturally-defined • biologically-transmitted group characteristics. Typically, but not invariably, these are connected to visible attributes (skin color, physical characteristics, etc.).

  9. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Race is a: • Classification system of human beings that is • socially created (“socially constructed”) • on the basis of culturally-defined • biologically-transmitted group characteristics. Typically, but not invariably, these are connected to visible attributes (skin color, physical characteristics, etc.).

  10. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Racism: Racism is a set of beliefs and social practices in which culturally-defined racial classifications intersect forms of social oppression. Racism always involves linking evaluative judgments to these classifications: • superior/inferior • worthy/unworthy • dangerous/not dangerous • honest/dishonest.

  11. I. Introductory Remarks 1. What is “Race”? What is “Racism”? Racism: Racism is a set of beliefs and social practices in which culturally-defined racial classifications intersect forms of social oppression. Racism always involves linking evaluative judgments to these classifications: • superior/inferior • worthy/unworthy • dangerous/not dangerous • honest/dishonest.

  12. I. Introductory Remarks • 2. Racism in America hurts not only minorities, but whites as well • Racism reduces social solidarity and weakens social movements for all oppressed groups: “Divide & Conquer” • Racism weakens support for Universal Programs

  13. I. Introductory Remarks • 2. Racism in America hurts not only minorities, but whites as well • Racism reduces social solidarity and weakens social movements for all oppressed groups: “Divide & Conquer” • Racism weakens support for Universal Programs

  14. I. Introductory Remarks • 2. Racism in America hurts not only minorities, but whites as well • Racism reduces social solidarity and weakens social movements for all oppressed groups: “Divide & Conquer” • Racism weakens support for Universal Programs

  15. I. Introductory Remarks • 3. Racism is a form of Oppression: it imposes real harms on people and communities • In the original US Constitution, Indians, blacks and other nonwhites were counted as less than full persons. • Slaves were denied virtually all legal protections. • full citizenship for blacks was not enacted until 1964, just over half a century ago. • Native Americans have been massively displaced from their original lands, subjected to murderous repression and marginalization. • All of this is not just “ancient history”; it is an on-going reality today

  16. I. Introductory Remarks • 3. Racism is a form of Oppression: it imposes real harms on people and communities • In the original US Constitution, Indians, blacks and other nonwhites were counted as less than full persons. • Slaves were denied virtually all legal protections. • full citizenship for blacks was not enacted until 1964, just over half a century ago. • Native Americans have been massively displaced from their original lands, subjected to murderous repression and marginalization. • All of this is not just “ancient history”; it is an on-going reality today

  17. I. Introductory Remarks • 3. Racism is a form of Oppression: it imposes real harms on people and communities • In the original US Constitution, Indians, blacks and other nonwhites were counted as less than full persons. • Slaves were denied virtually all legal protections. • full citizenship for blacks was not enacted until 1964, just over half a century ago. • Native Americans have been massively displaced from their original lands, subjected to murderous repression and marginalization. • All of this is not just “ancient history”; it is an on-going reality today

  18. I. Introductory Remarks • 3. Racism is a form of Oppression: it imposes real harms on people and communities • In the original US Constitution, Indians, blacks and other nonwhites were counted as less than full persons. • Slaves were denied virtually all legal protections. • full citizenship for blacks was not enacted until 1964, just over half a century ago. • Native Americans have been massively displaced from their original lands, subjected to murderous repression and marginalization. • All of this is not just “ancient history”; it is an on-going reality today

  19. I. Introductory Remarks • 3. Racism is a form of Oppression: it imposes real harms on people and communities • In the original US Constitution, Indians, blacks and other nonwhites were counted as less than full persons. • Slaves were denied virtually all legal protections. • full citizenship for blacks was not enacted until 1964, just over half a century ago. • Native Americans have been massively displaced from their original lands, subjected to murderous repression and marginalization. • All of this is not just “ancient history”; it is an on-going reality today

  20. I. Introductory Remarks • 3. Racism is a form of Oppression: it imposes real harms on people and communities • In the original US Constitution, Indians, blacks and other nonwhites were counted as less than full persons. • Slaves were denied virtually all legal protections. • full citizenship for blacks was not enacted until 1964, just over half a century ago. • Native Americans have been massively displaced from their original lands, subjected to murderous repression and marginalization. • All of this is not just “ancient history”; it is an on-going reality today

  21. II. Historical Trajectory of Forms of Racial Domination

  22. II. Historical Trajectory 1. Genocide: A systematic policy to exterminate a particular category of persons, because of their race, religion, ethnicity or some other characteristic. In US history the treatment of Native Americans was often genocidal.

  23. Theodore Roosevelt, 1886: “I suppose I should be ashamed to say that I take the Western view of the Indian. I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.” Quoted in Race: the history of an idea in America, by Thomas Gossett (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 238

  24. II. Historical Trajectory 2. Slavery: A system of social relations in which one person is the private property of another and can be bought and sold on a market. U.S. slavery was an extreme form of this: • Children could be taken from parents and sold • Slaves could be tortured and killed with almost no restraint • Rape of slaves was never a crime

  25. II. Historical Trajectory 2. Slavery: A system of social relations in which one person is the private property of another and can be bought and sold on a market. U.S. slavery was an extreme form of this: • Children could be taken from parents and sold • Slaves could be tortured and killed with almost no restraint • Rape of slaves was never a crime

  26. II. Historical Trajectory 3. Second Class Citizenship A system of giving different categories of people different citizenship rights on the basis of some attribute. In the U.S., “Jim Crow Laws” in the South after the Civil War officially gave blacks and whites different rights. In the North, different treatment unofficially conferred different rights.

  27. Lynchings of Blacks per year, 1882-1964

  28. II. Historical Trajectory 4. Semi-free labor A system for including non-citizens in a labor market without giving them the rights and protections of citizenship. In the 19th century this was true for Chinese labor (“Coolie” labor). In the 21st century this is the case for “illegal aliens”.

  29. II. Historical Trajectory 5. Discrimination A form of racism in which persons are accorded full citizenship rights, but in various ways they face systematic private discrimination in various contexts. This may be officially illegal, but widely tolerated in practice.

  30. III. Current Situation of Race in America

  31. III. Current Situation • Historic Achievement: Dismantling of the machinery of legal racial segregation and oppression and erosion of cultural supports for racism. Progress is real: • African-Americans in ads and on TV • Acceptability of inter-racial marriage • Emergence of a vibrant black middle class • Positive images are common • Political visibility: Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Barak Obama

  32. III. Current Situation • Historic Achievement: Dismantling of the machinery of legal racial segregation and oppression and erosion of cultural supports for racism. Progress is real: • African-Americans in ads and on TV • Acceptability of inter-racial marriage • Emergence of a vibrant black middle class • Positive images are common • Political visibility: Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Barak Obama

  33. WOMEN MEN Managers Professional & technical Managers Professional & technical Black Racial differences in managerial, professional and technical occupational distributions, 1950 and 2000 White

  34. III. Current Situation • Continuing realities of significant economic disadvantage for racial minorities • Stagnation of advances • Household Poverty • Poverty wages • Unemployment • Lack of wealth

  35. Ratio of Black to White Average Wealth

  36. III. Current Situation 3. Continuing realities of active discrimination • Petty harassment: taxis, surveillance in stores, etc. • Housing • Employment: the problem of “statistical discrimination” • Criminal justice system: prison sentencing • Lending • Education: Central cityschools

  37. III. Current Situation: Housing Data are from a “housing audit” study in which black and white couples acted as “testers” seeking rentals and home purchases.

  38. III. Current Situation: employment “Statistical discrimination”: A situation in which an employer makes a hiring decision about an individual on the basis of beliefs about the average characteristics of a social category rather than the characteristics of the specific individual. Why? Because it is less costly to do so, not because of an dislike of people in that category. Example: Employers believe that on average a young black man will be a less reliable employee than a young white man with the same formal qualifications, and since it is difficult to get precise information about individual reliability, the employer will rely on presumed group traits to make the choice.

  39. III. Current Situation: employment Rates of “call backs” in Employment discrimination audit study Data from Devah Pager Sociology dissertation, 2002

  40. III. Current Situation: education Spending per pupil in rich suburbs and cities, 2010-11 school year

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