Lecture 7 Race and Social Institutions: The Racial Legacy

Social Institutions Social institution: established patterns of behavior organized around particular purposes Economy, Education, Government, Mass Media, Family, etc. Institutions:  Support and reproduce values, norms, and beliefs  Require individuals to fulfill roles and expectations  Both modify our behavior and are modified by it

Intersecting Institutions Institutions do not exist independent of each other Institutions support, shape, and challenge each other  Education & Economy  Family & Economy

Government (the State) State: organized system of power and authority in society  Government, police, military, and the law Government policies have a significant impact on the social and racial ethnic inequalities in our society…whether intended or not

American Opportunity Structure Resources for Social Mobility Wealth High Income Good Neighborhood Good Schools Good Jobs Access to Health Care ↑ ↓ → →

What affects our access to economic resources? In a mixed-class system, our access to economic resources is largely determined by our master status position, which is a social category that takes priority over all other positions and usually determine ones position in the system of stratification Master status positions in American society are socially constructed categories such as race/ethnicity and gender

Race: An American Master Status Position? Devorah Pager, a sociologist at Princeton University asked the following questions in her study:  Does race matter when ex-felons are looking for jobs? Beginning in February 2004, Pager sent 13 white, black and Latino men posing as ex-convicts to more than 3,500 job interviews throughout the city, most of them in Manhattan. Saying they had completed only high school, they applied for a broad spectrum of jobs, from couriers to cashiers, deli clerks to telemarketers. What her study found is that the achieved status position of “Felon” could not override the ascribed status position of “Black Male” in the job market.

The Color of Opportunity What Pager’s study found is that:  Black men whose job applications stated that they had spent time in prison were only about one-third as likely as white men with similar applications to get a positive response.  "It takes a black ex-offender three times as long to receive a callback or a job offer," said Devah Pager  However, most astonishing was that they found that White men who are ex-felons are more likely to be hired that Black men without a criminal record

Under Correctional Control

A growing problem of Inequality? Pager’s study is critically important to understand the system of stratification and the opportunity structure in American society, especially as more people than ever before in are under correctional control in the US We now have more than 7 million people under correctional control or 1 in 31 Americans  However, black men are more likely to be incarcerated than any other social group

Is Immigrant Status a Master Status?

Border Enforcement in the 1990s Border patrol presence and increased fencing, surveillance, magnetic sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles Use of coyotes rises from 15 to 41 percent Price of crossing the border increases from a couple hundred dollars to $ migrants die each year crossing the border

Immigration and Life Chances

“Misery Strategy” in Border States Entering or reentering the US without papers is an aggravated felony  Makes it nearly impossible to enter with documents, apply for asylum, or get permanent residence /citizenship In June 2010, undocumented immigrants represented 14.8 percent of Arizona state prisoners, but accounted for only 7 percent of the state's overall population

“Operation Streamline” Forces undocumented migrants through the federal criminal justice system and into U.S. prisons.  Depriving migrants of due process and effective assistance of counsel According to toChief Judge of the District of New Mexico, Martha Vázquez:  “The increase in our criminal caseload...has caused us to conduct hearings in a way that we’ve never had to conduct them before, and in a way that other jurisdictions don’t have to.... We have... up to 90 defendants in a courtroom.”

Immigration Status and Opportunity: Dream Act Allow ability to attain legal status for children of undocumented immigrants if:  Proof of having arrived in the United States at age 15 or younger.  Live in US for five (5) consecutive years  High school diploma or GED.  "Good moral character" During the six years of conditional status,  graduate from a two-year community college  complete at least two years towards a 4-year degree  serve two years in the U.S. military An estimated 65,000 immigrant students who meet these requirements graduate from high school each year