Understanding Racial and Ethnic Inequality in the United States

1. Chapter 9Racial and Ethnic Inequality • A Framework for Studying Group Inequalities • The Maintenance of Inequality • Race and Ethnic Inequalities in the United States • Cross-cutting Statuses: Class and Race • Ethic Relations in Comparative Perspectives

2. The Semicaste Model • Derived from the conflict perspective. • Social classes are hierarchically ordered within racial categories. • There is a black and a white upper, middle, and lower class. • Races display very similar orders of internal inequality.  

3. Patterns of Interaction Interaction between majority and minority groups fall into four categories: • Conflict occurs when a struggle over scarce resources is not governed by shared “rules of engagement.” • Accommodation occurs when distinctive cultures or subcultures live in harmony.

4. Patterns of Interaction • Acculturation occurs when members of a minority group take on the culture of the majority group. • Assimilation has occurred when social distinctions between a majority and a minority group have fallen away.

5.  Factors Contributing to Prejudice • Cultural norms - may include hateful norms directed at racial or ethnic categories. • Institutional patterns - related to economic competition or conflict over scarce resources. • Personal factors - some personality patterns appear to encourage prejudice.

6. Personality Factors That Lead to Prejudice • Authoritarianism - tendency to obey authorities however they may be legitimated. • Frustration - may result in seeking out scapegoats to blame. • Ideology of the American dream - encourages prejudice toward the socially disadvantaged.

7. Race and Ethnicity • Race refers to a category of people set apart due to physiological traits. • Ethnicity refers to a social group seen as sharing cultural traits, including language, styles of dress, and religion. • Ethnic and racial identities are social constructions.

8. White Ethnic Groups • Include French, Dutch, Spanish, and English. • Ethnicity is no longer a primary standard for stratification among whites. • The place of “unhypenated whites” in the multicultural mix of the United States is not assured.

9. African-Americans • Largest minority group in the U.S., making up some 13% of the population. • Arrived involuntarily - as slaves. • Most African Americans could trace their ancestry in America to the early colonial period.

10. African-Americans and Social Conditions • Politics - proportion of blacks in public office remains quite small. • Education - 15% of blacks graduate from college (compared with 25% of whites) • Economic disadvantages: Low earnings and the number of female-headed families contribute to lower incomes levels.

11.  Hispanics • Majority are of Mexican heritage, Latinos have also arrived in America from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and many Central and South American nations. • Will make up about 20% of the U.S. population by the year 2050.

12. Hispanics Rapid growth rates raises concerns: • New immigrants are young and poorly educated resulting in lower income levels. • Concerns among non-Hispanic Americans over competition for jobs. • Increasing immigration results in segregation.

13. Asian Americans • 4% of the U.S. population. • From Japan, China, South Asia, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. • Have the highest average household income of any major ethnic group. • Japanese and Chinese-Americans surpass whites in educational attainment.

14. Native Americans • Represent more than 200 tribal and linguistic traditions. • The most disadvantaged of ethnic groups. • Overall rates of suicide, alcoholism, and infant mortality are shockingly high on most Indian reservations.