Racial and Ethnic Inequality Chapter 3 Racial and Ethnic Inequality

Race and Ethnicity Race: A socially constructed category of people Who share biologically transmitted traits that a society defines as important Sociologists view racial categories at best as crude and misleading And at worst as a harmful way to divide humanity © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Race and Ethnicity Ethnicity: Shared cultural heritage While race and ethnicity are different, the two may go together When groups share not only certain physical traits but ethnic traits as well Ex.: Korean Americans and Native Americans © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Race and Ethnicity The racial and ethnic diversity in the United States is a product of immigration The “Great Immigration” extended from the end of the Civil War till the outbreak of WWI “Nativists” opposed immigration Feared that immigrants might overwhelm neighborhoods/schools and threaten the country’s mostly English culture © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Multiracial People 7 million in U.S. describe themselves as multiracial As time goes on, fewer people see one another in rigid racial categories © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Recent Immigration The next great immigration began in 1965 when Congress ended the quota system. Immigrants came mainly from Mexico and other Latin American nations As well as the Philippines, South Korea, and other Asian nations © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Current Immigration Controversy In 2007, the total U.S. population reached 302 million Including about 38 million who are foreign born It is estimated that 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the country each year from Mexico © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Minorities Category of people, identified by physical/cultural traits, subjected to disadvantages Characteristics: They share a distinctive identity They tend to be disadvantaged About one-third of the people in the U.S. fall into a minority racial or ethnic category © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Patterns of Minority – Majority Interaction Genocide – the systematic killing of one category of people by another Segregation – the physical and social separation of categories of people © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Patterns of Minority – Majority Interaction Assimilation – Process by which minorities gradually adopt cultural patterns of the dominant majority Pluralism – State in which people of all racial and ethnic categories have roughly equal social standing © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Social Standing of U.S. Minorities Native Americans African Americans Asian Americans Hispanic/Latino Americans Arab Americans © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Native Americans Conflict marked the relationship between Native Americans and explorers/colonizers Since the late fifteenth century At first the U.S. government saw Native peoples as independent nations Tried to gain land from them through treaties Used military power against those unwilling to bargain © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Native Americans 1871: the U.S. declared Native Americans wards of the federal government Granting them various forms of “assistance” Resulted in many Native Americans becoming dependent on the Bureau of Indian Affairs Native Americans gained full citizenship in 1924. © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Native Americans During the 1990s: Native American organizations reported gains in new membership applications Most Native Americans continue to struggle Share a profound sense of injustice endured at the hands of whites © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of African Descent People of African ancestry arrived in the Americas with early European explorers While slave traders brought 500,000 Africans to the U.S. as slaves Not all people of African descent were slaves © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of African Descent In the Dred Scott case of 1857: the U.S. Supreme Court declared that people of color were not citizens The Civil War brought slavery to an end Jim Crow laws barred black people from: Voting, sitting on juries, and institutionalized segregation policies © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of African Descent By the early 1950s, opposition to segregation was building 1954 case, Brown v. the Board of Education, eliminated “separate but equal” schooling Rosa Parks sparked the bus boycott Desegregated public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of African Descent In the 1960s the federal government passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Together, these laws brought an end to most legal discrimination in public life © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of African Descent Today, the struggle isn’t over below-average incomes rate of poverty is twice that of white poverty rate college completion rate is well below the national average © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of Asian Descent Asian Americans include people with historical ties to dozens of Asian nations. The largest number have roots in China, the Philippines, India, South Korea, and Japan The first Asians to migrate to North America in the modern era came from China and Japan Because of the Gold Rush of 1849 © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of Asian Descent Once the demand for cheap labor lessened: Whites pressured legislatures and courts to bar Asians from certain work World War II brought important change to Japanese and Chinese Americans President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of Asian Descent Forcibly relocated all Japanese Americans to internment camps where they stayed until 1944 Chinese Americans fared better In 1943, the federal government ended the 1882 ban on Chinese immigration Extended citizenship to Chinese Americans born abroad © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

People of Asian Descent Many Asian Americans prospered as the postwar economy grew By the 1980s, called the “model minority” Based on their cultural commitment to study, hard work & outstanding achievement Many Asian Americans have assimilated into the larger cultural mix © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hispanic/Latino People Hispanics came to the United States from; Central & South America, Caribbean, & Spain There is no single Latino culture A high birth rate and heavy immigration have resulted in: Hispanics surpassing African Americans as the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hispanic/Latino People While the social standing of Hispanics is below the U.S. average: Various categories of Latinos have very different rankings The most well off are Cuban Americans, who have greater education and enjoy higher incomes Mexican Americans have lowest relative ranking © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Arab Americans Immigration to the U.S. from many nations has created a culturally diverse population Arab Americans are diverse in terms of social class A number of US Cities have large, visible Arab American communities © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Prejudice Prejudice – Stereotypes – Any rigid and irrational generalization about an entire category of people Stereotypes – Exaggerated descriptions that are applied to everyone in the same category – Greatly contribute to the perpetuation of prejudice © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Prejudice Most serious kind of prejudice is racism The assertion that people of one race are innately superior or inferior to others In today’s society, racism is less blatant than it once was Subtle forms of racism are still very much part of our national life © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Measuring Prejudice: The Social Distance Scale Bogardus developed this scale to measure prejudice among U.S. college students High social distance meant high negative prejudice © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Measuring Prejudice: The Social Distance Scale Today’s students: Are more accepting of minorities See less difference between the various minorities Express the most prejudice toward Arabs and Muslims © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Prejudice Two key factors in the cause of prejudice: Multiculturalism: personality factors societal factors Multiculturalism: Educational programs designed to recognize cultural diversity in the U.S. And to promote respect for all cultural traditions © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Discrimination While prejudice is an attitude, discrimination is a matter of actions Discrimination can be positive or negative Institutional discrimination Built into the operation of social institutions, including the economy, schools, & the legal system © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Discrimination Because prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other: Societies can subject minorities to a vicious cycle of subordination © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Discrimination One strategy designed to break the vicious cycle of prejudice and discrimination: Affirmative Action Policies intended to improve social standings of minorities subject to historical prejudice © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Affirmative Action: Reverse Discrimination or Cure for Prejudice Policies intended to improve the social standing of minorities Targeted to those who are subject to historic prejudice and discrimination University of California Regents V. Bakke (1978) © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Structural-Functional Analysis: The Importance of Culture The Culture of Poverty Criticism Contend that this approach defines people as responsible for their own disadvantage © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: The Personal Meaning of Race When race becomes a master status, it becomes a personal trait Overwhelms all others and defines any person of color Critics contend that race involves more than individual behavior © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Social-Conflict Analysis: The Structure of Inequality The Importance of Class Multicultural Theory Critics contend that social-conflict theory: understates what people in the U.S. have in common © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Social-Conflict Analysis: The Structure of Inequality takes away people’s responsibility for their own lives tends to minimize significant strides that have been made in dealing with social diversity © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Conservatives: Culture and Effort Matter Claim that differences in culture set some parts of the population apart from others People in various racial and ethnic categories have different values and priorities A free society must be an unequal society © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Liberals: Society and Government Matter Liberals contend that cultural differences are not the main reason for inequality View racial and ethnic inequality Resulting mostly from prejudice and discrimination built into society’s institutions They urge people to avoid thinking that minorities are themselves the “social problem” © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Radicals: Fundamental Changes Are Needed Radicals suggest two ways to solve the problem of racial and ethnic inequality: Attack the source of all inequality- capitalism itself Eliminate the concept of race; it provides an ideological basis for dividing people © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.