DISCRIMINATION CHAPTER 3 Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ All rights reserved.

Understanding Discrimination Discrimination o The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons Two patterns of deprivation - relative and absolute o Relative Deprivation The conscious experience of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities o Absolute Deprivation Implies a fixed standard based on a minimum level of subsistence below which families should not be expected to exist

Total Discrimination The combination of current discrimination with past discrimination created by poor schools and menial jobs

Institutional Discrimination The denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a society o Institutional forms of discrimination are committed collectively against a group o May be unconscious - in that it is not a function of awareness of discrimination

Examples of Institutional Discrimination Standards for assessing credit risks do not work for Hispanics and African Americans IQ testing favors middle-class children The entire criminal justice system, from the patrol officer to the judge and jury, is dominated by Whites who find it difficult to understand life in poverty areas Hiring practices often require several years of experience at jobs only recently opened to members of subordinate groups Many jobs automatically eliminate a person with felony records or past drug offenses, which disproportionately reduces employment opportunities for people of color Alumni First Policies: University policies that giver preferential treatment to students who family members attended the institution Tracking: The practice of putting students in curriculum groups based on test scores or other criteria

Low-Wage Labor Informal Economy (Irregular/Underground/Shadow Economy) o Consists of transfers of money, goods, or services that are not reported to the government – legal and illegal babysitting lemonade stand selling Avon freelancing drug dealing prostitution counterfeiting o The regular labor market operates according to the principles of the conventional labor market o Irregular economy - operates outside the boundaries of the regular economy as it relates to job stability, wages, working conditions or benefits

Dual Labor Market Model o According to this model, minorities have been relegated to the informal economy o Informal economy offers few safeguards against fraud or malpractice o Few fringe benefits such as stability, wages, health insurance, and pension o Criticized for promoting unfair and dangerous working conditions o Workers are ill prepared to enter the regular economy permanently

Informal Economy and Discrimination Subordinate groups have often been used as an elastic part of the labor force and relegated to the informal economy o last hired – first fired o White male seniority Because of past discrimination, workers are unable to secure traditional employment Many workers driven into such jobs as better- paying jobs move far away or as globalization creates more international trade Financial refuge for poor and immigrants

Discrimination in Job Seeking

Discrimination Today Discrimination is widespread in the U.S. Sometimes results from prejudices held by individuals, but more significantly, is found in institutional discrimination and the presence of the informal economy Quantifying discrimination is problematic o 1. Identifying the different treatment of minorities o 2. Determining the cost of discrimination Distribution of income as a measure of discrimination o Income gaps remain between Whites and other people of color

Median Income by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Even at the very highest levels of schooling, the income gap remain between Whites and Blacks. Education also has little apparent effect on the income gap between male and female workers. Even a brief analysis reveals striking differences in earning power between White men and other groups in the U.S. Furthermore, the greater inequality is apparent for African American and Hispanic women.

Housing Discrimination Steering : The process by which racial ethnic minorities are steered away from predominately white neighborhoods and toward areas that are predominately of the same racial ethnic category. Redlining : A banking practice initiated by the Federal Housing Administration to assess the risk a bank incurred from providing home loans in an area. Neighborhoods that were predominately white were marked on a map with a green line. Areas that were predominately not White were marked with a red line and declared too risky to provide loans to. Blockbusting : The predatory realtor practice where realtors would sell a house to a family of color in a predominately white neighborhood at a inflated price. These realtors would then go to the neighboring home owners and offer to buy their house in cash at a below market value price.

Eliminating Discrimination Two major sources for eliminating discrimination: o Voluntary associations Organized to solve racial and ethnic problems Many formed after WWII Church groups, fraternal groups, political parties, legal defense funds o Federal Government agencies and policies Roosevelt’s 1943 and the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) o Weak and ineffective 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas o Supreme court decision desegregating schools Civil Rights Act of 1964 o Prohibited discrimination in voting, public accommodations, and federally supported programs

Since 1964, several acts and amendments have been made to the original Civil Rights Act to cover the many areas of discrimination left untouched o Criminal Justice and Housing State’s Rights o Each state is sovereign in most of its affairs and has the right to order them without interference from the federal government

Wealth Inequality: Discrimination’s Legacy Past discrimination carries into the present and future o No inherited wealth is element of the past o Less opportunity of Blacks to accumulate assets Income o Salaries and wages Wealth o Encompasses all a person’s assets, land, stocks, and other types of property

Wealth Inequality Median Income by Race and Sex, Holding Education Constant

Environmental Justice Refers to the efforts to ensure that hazardous substances are controlled so that all communities receive protection regardless of race or socioeconomic circumstance Executive Order (1994) o Requires all federal agencies to ensure that low-income and minority communities have access to better information about their environment and have an opportunity in shaping government policies that affect their community’s health

Issues of environmental justice not limited to metropolitan areas o Abuse of Native American reservation land o Tribal lands regarded as dumping grounds for toxic waste that go to the highest bidder Controversy within the scientific community over potential hazards o Complexity of the issues in terms of social class and race are apparent

Affirmative Action The positive effort to recruit subordinate-group members, including women, for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities o Today, has become a catchall term for racial preference programs and goals o Lightning rod for opposition to any programs that suggest special consideration of women and racial minorities

Affirmative Action Explained Affirmative Action has been viewed as an important tool for reducing institutional discrimination Federal measures aimed at procedures that deny equal opportunities, even if not intended to be overtly discriminatory Lack of minority-group or female employees may in itself represent unlawful exclusion

Examples of Affirmative Action and Institutional Discrimination Height and weight requirements that are unnecessarily geared to the physical proportions of White males Seniority rules, when applied to jobs historically held only by white males Nepotism-based membership policies Restrictive employment leave policies Rules requiring only English be spoken at the workplace Standardized academic tests or criteria Preferences shown by law and medical schools Credit policies of banks and lending institutions

The Legal Debate In the 1978 Bakke case (Regents of the University of California v Bakke), by a narrow 5-4 vote, ordered the medical school of the University of California at Davis to admit Allan Bakke, a qualified White engineer who had originally been denied admission solely on the basis of his race

Reverse Discrimination An emotional term because it conjures up the notion that somehow women and minorities will subject White men in the U.S. to the same treatment received by minorities during the last three centuries Supporters of affirmative action o As long as businesses rely on informal social networks, personal recommendations, and family ties, White men will have a distinct advantage built on generations of being in positions of power

The Glass Ceiling Refers to the barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified worker because of gender or minority membership Additionally, they face glass walls that block lateral moves to areas from which executives are promoted o Barriers contribute to women not moving into ultimate decision- making positions in the nation’s corporate giants

Determinants of the Glass Ceiling o Lack of management commitment to establishing system, policies, and practices for achieving workplace diversity and upward mobility o Pay inequities for work of equal or comparable value o Sex, race, and ethnic-based stereotyping and harassment o Unfair recruitment practices o Lack of family-friendly workplace policies o “Parent-track” policies o Limited opportunities for advancement to decision-making positions

Glass Escalator o Refers to the male advantage experienced in occupations dominated by women o Men who chose to enter female-dominated occupations are often rewarded with promotions and positions of responsibility coveted by their fellow female workers Glass Wall o Refers to a barrier to moving laterally in a business to positions that are more likely to lead to upward mobility

Glass Ceilings and Glass Walls Women and minority men are moving up in corporations but encounter glass ceilings that block entry to top positions. In addition, they face glass walls that block lateral moves to areas from which executives are promoted. These barriers contribute to women and minority men not moving into the ultimate decision- making positions in the nation’s corporate giants.