RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY: IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE DECLINING? By: Kristin Robinson SOC 521

THE ANSWER IS NO! To be VERY specific only a select group of minorities are being elevated to higher positions of prestige, while the majority of minorities do not have the same “advantage(s).”

RACE VS. ETHNICITY Ethnicity is a concept referring to a shared culture and way of life. This can be reflected in language, religion, material culture such as clothing and food, and cultural products such as music and art. Ethnicity is often a major source of social cohesion and social conflict.  A Race is a group of people thought to share certain distinctive physical characteristics, such as facial structure or skin color. Racial characteristics are thought to be biologically inherited (unlike ethnic characteristics, which are cultural).

WHY ISN’T THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE DECLINING… Race and Ethnicity are social constructs that have been built into our formal and informal institutions, which represent the very fabric of our societies. Race is not a real thing in that there are no distinctive genetic or physical characteristics that truly distinguish “races” from one another, many of these “races” share overlapping characteristics. The belief that there are different races is the basis of racism and the perpetuation of inequality amongst groups of people.

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM Institutional racism is a pattern of social institutions — such as governmental organizations, schools, banks, and courts of law — giving negative treatment to a group of people based on their race. Institutional racism leads to inequality Race is a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different human bodies.  Racial signification is much deeper, it is tool for social and historical distinctions that otherwise would never exist.  The concept of race fundamental has a fundamental role om structuring and representing our social world.  Element of social structure, not something that resides within our society, a constructed dimension of human representation.

RACIAL FORMATION [ OMI & WINANT] Racial formation is the socio-historical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed. From this perspective race is both a social structure and cultural representation. To just say that race is just a structural entity is not fair, you must account for origins, patterning, and transformation of inner racial differences. A BETTER way to look at it is a linkage between structure and representation.

RACIAL FORMATION CONTINUED…. [ OMI & WINANT] Racial Projects is a simultaneous interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines. Simply meaning it connects what race means in discursive practices and the ways social structures and everyday experiences are racially organized based upon that meaning.

RACIAL FORMATION CONTINUED…. SOME MORE  Social Structure and racial dimensions in the case of state activity and policy.  State actions both past and present have treated people very differently and organized them according to their race and thus the government feels a sort of policy responsibility in the area.  Therefore race continually signifies difference and structure inequality.

RACIAL INEQUALITY [OLIVER & SHAPIRO] Racialization of State Policy  Refers to how state policy has impaired the ability of many black Americans to accumulate wealth and even discouraged them from doing so from the beginning of slavery throughout American history.  Codified decisions to enslave African Americans to local ordinances that barred blacks from certain occupations to the welfare state policies of modern times that discourage wealth accumulation, the state has erected major barriers to black economic self sufficiency. The racial wealth gap kept widening well after the Civil Rights era.

RACIAL INEQUALITY [OLIVER & SHAPIRO] Economic Detours Low levels of entrepreneurship and businesses owned by African Americans. Even though African Americans have tried to gain access to funds etc. to start their own businesses they have often faced a hostile environment, in which they were restricted by law from participating in the open market. Explicit state/local policies restricted the rights of blacks as free economic agents.

RACIAL INEQUALITY [OLIVER & SHAPIRO] Sedimentation of Racial Inequality simply meaning that in a very centralized way the cumulative effects of the past have seemingly cemented blacks to the bottom of society economic hierarchies. A perpetuation of low wages, poor educational opportunities, and segregation has affected practically all generations of African Americans well into modern times. Best indicator of the sedimentation of racial inequality is wealth.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CLOSE THE INEQUALITY GAP? [OLIVER & SHAPIRO] Policy Changes: First, policies need to directly address the plights of African Americans (i.e. Minorities). These polices need to address historically generated disadvantages and the current racially based policies that have limited the ability of blacks, as a group to accumulate wealth. Second, policies need to directly promote asset opportunities for those at the very bottom of the social structure, both black, white, etc. who are lokeced out of the wealth accumulation process. Calling for a mass redistributional policies in order to reform the links between achievement, reward, social equality, and democracy. These policies take aim at those at the very top (1%) who hold the majority of wealth.

WORK CITED 1. Covert, Bryce. "Black Small Business Owners Get Left Out Of Loans." ThinkProgress RSS. ThinkProgress, 20 Mar Web. 28 Apr Goyette, Braden. "15 Charts That Prove We're Far From Post-Racial." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Feb Web. 28 Apr Oliver, Melvin L., and Thomas M. Shapiro. Black Wealth/white Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge, Print. 4. William, William J. "1-9, 12-23, " The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Chicago: U of Chicago, N. pag. Print. 5. Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge, Print.