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Race & Ethnicity. "America was settled by peoples of all nations....You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world. We are not a narrow tribe." -- Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. Some Initial Distinctions. Race usually considered biological
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Race & Ethnicity "America was settled by peoples of all nations....You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world. We are not a narrow tribe." -- Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick
Some Initial Distinctions • Race • usually considered biological • e.g. Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid and sometimes Australoid • But note, there is no genetic basis for this; human subspecies do not exist; no race has exclusive possession of any gene or genes; there is as much genetic variation among one race as there is between races • Race becomes a social construction when societies assign meaning to physical differences • Ethnicity • refers primarily to social and cultural forms of identification and self-identification
Introduction • “What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this is working very well for them.” – Barbara Bush about refugees from Hurricane Katrina staying in the Houston astrodome • The question of race continues to divide our society • We have widely divergent views on whether a problem even exists • Most African-Americans see racism as a problem and many feel it has gotten worse. • The majority of white Americans see racism as disappearing and as no longer a significant problem in the United States. • 60% of blacks, but only 12.5% of whites believed race was a factor in the New Orleans disaster relief failures • The Invisibility Thesis: Racism is often invisible to the majority for several reasons • They suffer less from it • They don’t attribute their misfortune to race • They don’t always see the suffering that people of color endure.
Definitions • Prejudice:suspicion, intolerance, or irrational hatred of others in a group by virtue of their membership in a group • Racism: • A system of (sub) consciously held beliefs asserting biological racial differences in character, intelligence, etc. and the superiority of one race over another or others • any program or practice of racial discrimination, segregation, etc. that upholds the political or economic dominance of one race or ethnicity over another or others • Feelings or actions of hatred and bigotry toward a person or persons because of their race • Discrimination:behavior that denies equal treatment to people because of their membership in a group, paralleling the beliefs/motivations of prejudice.
Causes of Prejudice • Psychological • some studies show a strong correlation between rigid child rearing and authoritarian personalities with high levels of prejudice • Frustration/aggression hypothesis postulates that goal-directed people who are frustrated seek out a scapegoat who is weak, convenient, and a socially-approved target • Social • people are not born with prejudices, but acquire them during the socialization process; prejudice and interaction patters are mutually reinforcing: we avoid members different from our own group and thus rarely have the opportunity to modify our prejudices
Minority vs. Majority • Minority group - any group who is singled out in society based on physical or cultural characteristics and is treated differentially and unequally. A minority group may or may not be a numerical majority, but the defining features are a lack of social, political, and economic power, which is determined by the dominant, majority group. • Majority group - any group that holds the social, economic, and political power to influence and determine who will have access to the benefits, privileges, and opportunities of the society.
Above: postcard of a lynching, 1920s Left: burning body, Waco, TX 1916
Left: Lynching of Clyde Johnson, California Caption reads: “Killer of Jack Daw, August 2, 1935” Right: Diluth, Minnesota 1920
In the Declaration of Independence native Americans are referred to as “merciless Indian Savages” a view publicly shared by several early U.S. Presidents
Anti-Arab/Muslim Racism Planet of the Arabs Out of 1000 films that have Arab & Muslim characters (from the year 1896 to 2000) 12 were positive depictions, 52 were even-handed and the rest of the 930+ were negative.
Percentage of whites who responded “I agree” with the following: • There should be laws against marriage of whites and blacks: 15% (1/3 of college students agree) • White people have a right to keep blacks out of their neighborhoods if they want to, and blacks should respect that right: 16% • Blacks shouldn’t push themselves where they aren’t wanted: 43% • Laws should allow a homeowner to decide not to sell to blacks: 35% (in fact such laws exist) • Blacks get “much more” attention than they deserve from government: 18% • 59% of white people agreed with at least one of the five statements.
Five Pillars of Racist Thinking • Biological races exist in the human species. • Races have genetic differences that determine their intelligence. • Races have genetically determined differences that produce unique diseases and cause them to die at different rates. • Races have genetically determined sexual appetites and reproductive capacities. • Races have genetically determined differences in athletic and musical ability. Although not always stated openly, most or part of these views are widely held by many Americans.
Types of Racism • Individual Racism: • Overt Example: An Arabic male student who is brutally murdered out of hate. • Covert Example: An employer who decides not to hire an Asian American employee because she believes that the employee might drive away business, but tells the person that there are no more openings available. • Institutional Racism: • Overt Example: A country club that has clearly written rules which preclude any non-White members. 500,000+ American children are waiting to be adopted; 2/3 are Black or Hispanic (until the 1940s neither group was permitted to use state adoption services) • Covert Example: An academic curriculum that only emphasizes European American history and does not address the history of other ethnic/cultural groups. Aptitude and achievement tests disadvantaging some groups. While over 50% of the nation has Internet access at home, only 32% and 30% of Hispanics and African Americans, respectively, have access. • Cultural Racism: • Overt Examples: The extermination of Jews in the Holocaust. The enslavement of African Americans. Clauses in property deeds preventing property from being sold to people of color. • Covert Example: The unrealistic and stereotypical portrayal of ethnic minorities in the media.
Official and Unofficial Racism • Distinguish between • Racism sanctioned by the U.S. government (e.g., in laws & policies) • Racism that occurs in the U.S. which is not perpetrated by the government • We may all as citizens be responsible as a nation for official racism in a way in which we are not all responsible for it when it was not official.
The Civil Rights Movement • Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a society beyond racism • Initially, the civil rights movement centered around injustices to African Americans.
The Movement Expands 1960s-70s Two additional civil rights movements emerged into the public eye Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Russell Means first national director
Hispanics by the Numbers • 39.9 millionThe estimated Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2003, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest race or ethnic minority. Hispanics constitute 14.1% of the nation’s total population. (This does not include the 3.9 million Hispanic residents of Puerto Rico.) • 102.6 millionThe projected Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2050. According to this projection, Hispanics would constitute 24% of the nation’s total population on that date. • Nearly 67 million The number of people of Hispanic origin who will have been added to the nation’s population between 2000 and 2050, according to this projection. The projected percentage increase—188%—would amount to a neartripling.
Some things to note • Racial categories appear biological, but their significance is often social. • Racial categories in the United States often appear mutually exclusive, but may in fact be overlapping. • The 2000 census was the first that allowed individuals to claim multiple racial affiliations—e.g., African-American and Native American.
Power & Privilege • Having power means having the capacity to create desired effects or to influence others for one’s own benefit. • Social power refers to the capacity that a particular group has in being able to effect desired changes, but also refers to the potential of such a group exploiting those who hold less power. • Having this power is a privilege which is unearned and only afforded to those who fit the mold of the dominant group.
Long History of Racial Preferences: For Whites • When indentured servitude was replaced by slavery, lower-class Europeans won new rights, entitlements, and opportunities from the planter elite • White Americans were also given a head start with the help of the U.S. Army. The 1830 Indian Removal Act, for example, forcibly relocated Cherokee, Creeks and other eastern Indians to west of the Mississippi River to make room for white settlers. • The 1790 Naturalization Act permitted only "free white persons" to become naturalized citizens, thus opening the doors to European immigrants but not others. Only citizens could vote, serve on juries, hold office, and in some cases, even hold property. • Only once was monetary compensation made for slavery, in Washington, D.C. There, government officials paid up to $300 per slave upon emancipation - not to the slaves, but to local slaveholders as compensation for loss of property. • Economists who try to place a dollar value on how much white Americans have profited from 200 years of unpaid slave labor, including interest, begin their estimates at $1 trillion.
Jim Crow laws, instituted in the late 19th and early 20th century and not overturned in many states until the 1960s, reserved the best jobs, neighborhoods, schools and hospitals for white people. • The landmark Social Security Act of 1935 provided a safety net for millions of workers, guaranteeing them an income after retirement. But the act specifically excluded two occupations: agricultural workers and domestic servants, who were predominately African American, Mexican, and Asian. As low-income workers, they also had the least opportunity to save for their retirement. They couldn't pass wealth on to their children. Just the opposite. Their children had to support them.
the 1935 Wagner Act helped establish an important new right for white people. By granting unions the power of collective bargaining, it helped millions of white workers gain entry into the middle class over the next 30 years. But the Wagner Act permitted unions to exclude non-whites and deny them access to better paid jobs and union protections and benefits such as health care, job security, and pensions. Many craft unions remained nearly all-white well into the 1970s. • the Federal Housing Administration, that helped generate much of the wealth that so many white families enjoy today, made it possible for millions of average white Americans - but not others - to own a home for the first time. The government set up a national neighborhood appraisal system, explicitly tying mortgage eligibility to race. Integrated communities were ipso facto deemed a financial risk and made ineligible for home loans, a policy known today as "redlining." Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $120 billion of home loans. More than 98% went to whites. Of the 350,000 new homes built with federal support in northern California between 1946 and 1960, fewer than 100 went to African Americans.
One result of the generations of preferential treatment for whites is that a typical white family today has on average eight times the assets, or net worth, of a typical African American family, according to New York University economist Edward Wolff. Even when families of the same income are compared, white families have more than twice the wealth of Black families. Much of that wealth difference can be attributed to the value of one's home, and how much one inherited from parents. • But a family's net worth is not simply the finish line, it's also the starting point for the next generation. Those with wealth pass their assets on to their children - by financing a college education, lending a hand during hard times, or assisting with the down payment for a home. Some economists estimate that up to 80 percent of lifetime wealth accumulation depends on these intergenerational transfers. White advantage is passed down, from parent to child to grand-child. As a result, the racial wealth gap - and the head start enjoyed by whites - appears to have grown since the civil rights days.
From a recent article (2002): The latest census figures released this week show a wide gap in the values of homes owned by African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics than those owned by white Minnesotans. State demographers say the disparity may be caused by a number of factors. But whatever the causes, the disparity could perpetuate the economic gap for future generations of Minnesotans of color. For most Americans, the value of their home is their prime source of wealth. Families often use that wealth to send their children to college, or help their children put down payments on their own homes.
In 1865, just after Emancipation, it is not surprising that African Americans owned only 0.5 percent of the total worth of the United States. But by 1990, a full 135 years after the abolition of slavery, Black Americans still possessed only a meager 1 percent of national wealth. • And half of that 1% was Oprah
Language difficulties and discrimination constrain earning and assets, making it hard to secure homeownership, which historically has “bootstrapped” household wealth. Further adding to the challenge is the tension between the mortgage industry’s trend toward standardization and efficiency and the traditionally underserved market’s tremendously diverse needs, which often require time-consuming, custom-crafted responses. Even though African-American and Hispanic homeownership grew at six times the net rate of increase for non-Hispanic whites between 1995 and 1999, minority ownership still stands at only about 63 percent of the level for whites. The differences are stark: In 1999, 73.2 percent of whites owned their homes compared with 46.7 percent for blacks and 45.5 percent for Hispanics. Fannie Mae Foundation (2000)
African-Americans earning $90,000 a year are 60% more likely to be denied a mortgage than whites earning only $37,700
There are also sharp differences in the average quality of neighborhoods experienced by whites and African Americans. As reported by the Lewis Mumford Center, in many metro areas, blacks with incomes over $60,000 live in less advantaged neighborhoods than whites earning under $30,000. This all has a tremendous impact on health. African American kids are more likely than white kids to live in houses with dangerous lead levels. Not surprisingly, African American children are more likely to have dangerous lead levels in their blood than is true for white children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22% of black children living in housing built before 1946 have elevated blood lead levels, as opposed to 6% of white children living in comparable housing.Higher lead rates create potential education problems, which lessen job opportunities, etc. Predominantly poor and African American neighborhoods have a higher prevalence of alcohol and fast food outlets compared to wealthy and predominantly white neighborhoods, while the opposite is true for access to supermarkets that stock a variety of fresh produce. Residents of minority neighborhoods may also have fewer opportunities to be physically active, due to higher crime rates and limited availability of green space, sidewalks and bike paths.In addition to the impact of housing conditions on health, there is evidence that, on average, homeowners have better health than renters.
It is widely recognized that race permeates many aspects of housing markets (not just the loan approval stage) in American cities from the search process onward and that discrimination in one market may reinforce and multiply discriminatory effects in other markets. These effects are by no means trivial. Yinger (1997) estimates that racial inequalities in housing search processes impose a discrimination “tax” of nearly $4,000 on black and Hispanic households every time they search for a home to purchase. And the search process is just the beginning of a racial gauntlet. A 1993 Cleveland (Ohio) Residential Housing and Mortgage Credit Project identified many areas of the home-buying process in which discriminatory acts were most likely to occur.
Even without the “American dilemma” of racial divide and discrimination, the limited assets of minorities would severely limit their ability to secure homeownership. According to the 1995 Survey of Income and Program Participation, white (non-Hispanic) renters had an average household income of $30,196 and an average $11,368 in assets. By contrast, black and Hispanic renters had average household incomes of $20,917 and $23,026, respectively; their average assets were a paltry $1,601 and $2,000, respectively. Such constrained resources severely limit minority renters’ economic capacity to realize the American Dream. Fannie Mae Foundation (2000)
It is true that, on average, crime involvement in the U.S. is higher among blacks than whites. Importantly, however, once you control for income, the likelihood of growing up in a female-headed household, having a teenage mother, and how urban the environment is, the importance of race disappears for all crimes except homicide. (The homicide gap is partly explained by crack markets). In other words, for most crimes a white person and a black person who grow up next door to each other with similar incomes and the same family structure would be predicted to have the same crime involvement. Bill Bennett and Freakonomics, Steven D. Levett
True (T) or False (F) ____1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time. ____2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live; my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me. ____3. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. ____4. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented. ____5. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is. ____6. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race. ____7. I can go into any music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into any supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into any hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair. ____8. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability. ____9. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them. ____10. I can swear, or dress in secondhand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.
____11. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race. ____12. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. ____13. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion. ____14. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider. ____15. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge," I will be facing a person of my race. ____16. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race. ____17. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race. ____18. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared. ____19. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of race. ____20. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. ____21. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones. ____22. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.
The top 10% own 71% of all private wealth. • The top 1% now own more than the bottom 90%. • Among the industrialized nations, the U.S. has the highest concentration of individual wealth -- roughly 3 times that of the No. 2 nation, Germany. (UN Human Development Report, 1998)
In 1998, the last year for which figures are available, it took over $250,000 to be in the top 10% of wealth holders. It took over $3,000,000 to reach the top 1%. In the 22 years between 1976 and 1998, the share of the nation's private wealth held by the top 1% nearly doubled, going from 22% to 38%. During those two decades, the size of the overall "wealth pie" grew, but the ownership of that wealth is now more concentrated than at any time since the 1920s.
