Healey, Diversity and Society
Challenges of the material: page 48
Reactions—guilt, anger, denial and indifference—are common, and I ask you to consider them. First, the awful things I will discuss did happen, and they were done largely by members of a particular racial/ethnic group: white Europeans and their descendants in America. No amount of denial, distancing, or disassociation can make these facts go away. African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans and other groups were victims and they paid a terrible price for the early growth and success of American society. Some members of minority groups assisted in oppression; some members of the dominant group protested the oppression of minorities.
Avoid “good guy/bad guy” approach.
Guilt, anger, denial or indifference are common reactions to this material, but these emotions do little to advance understanding and they often impede communication between members of different groups. I believe that an understanding of America’s racial past is vitally important for understand the present. . .
I will try to present the often ugly facts neutrally and without extraneous editorializing. As scholars, your goal should be to absorb the material, understand the principles, and apply them to your own life and the society around you—not to feel guilt, indulge yourself in elaborate moral denunciations of American society, develop apologies for the past or deny the realities of what happened. By dealing objectively with this material, we can begin to liberate our perspectives and build an understanding of the realities of American society and American minority groups.
Dominant-Minority Relations
American minority groups are inseparable from American society.
Racism and prejudice are as American as equality and freedom.
Chapter 1 Diversity in the US
Unresolved issues: gaps still exist in income, poverty rates as a generation ago
Increasing Variety of minority groups
- non-Hispanic whites declining
- Asian and Pacific Islanders growing
- Hispanics will double in next 50 years; Hispanics became largest minority group in 2001
- We are becoming less white and more culturally and linguistically diverse, more like the world as a whole.
Some see diversity as a threat; some see opportunity.
Goal: carefully consider the issues and grievances of minorities. We will never make progress unless we confront issues honestly and with accurate base of knowledge. We can’t resolve issues if we ignore them (5).
Concepts
Minority Group: not size of group but distribution of resources and power
5 characteristics of a Minority group
- Members of group experience a pattern of disadvantage and inequality
- Members of the group share a visible trait or characteristic that differentiates them from other groups
- The minority group is a self-conscious social unit (awareness/view of world/society)
- Membership in the group usually is determined at birth
- Members tend to marry within the group
Stratification: unequal distribution of valued goods and services (exists in all societies)
Horizontal layer/Social Classes: differences in amount of valued goods and services they command (education, age, gender, talent affect your class position and opportunities)
Minority group membership is one criteria with powerful impact on distribution of resources
Inequality: a pattern of disability and disadvantage is the most important defining characteristic of a minority group
Genocide/slavery ------no left-handed desks
Theories of Stratification
Karl Marx/Marxism: (19th Century); most important source of inequality is the system of economic production or means of production: materials, tools, resources and organization by which society produces and distributes goods and services.
2 main social classes struggle over means of production
One class (ruling elites/capitalists/bourgeoisie) owns/controls means of production
Working class (proletariat) does the work
Conflict inevitable. Ultimate result will be revolution, victory of working class; classless society
Max Weber: (19th C.); Marxism too narrow
3 Part Stratification System
1. Economic: based on wealth, property, income
2. Prestige: honor, esteem, respect given us by others. Class position determines prestige
3. Power: ability to influence others, have impact on decision making, pursue one’s own goals
Wealthy, prestigious groups have more power than low income groups with little prestige.
G. Lenski: contemporary; sees Stratification in context of societal evolution, or level of development of a society. Inequality is closely related to
Subsistence Technology: means by which society satisfies basic needs
Pr-Industrial/Agricultural: human and animal labor; control of land and labor
Industrial: ownership of manufacturing and commercial enterprises; control of capital, not land
Post-Industrial: develop new technology, computer related fields, information processing and scientific research. Education required; those with less education get fewer opportunities/resources
Key Concepts in Dominant-Minority Relations
Prejudice: tendency of an individual to think about other groups in negative ways, to attach negative emotions to those groups, and to prejudge individuals on the basis of their group membership.
Discrimination: unequal treatment of a person based on group membership
Ideological Racism: group of societal equivalent of personal prejudice (e.g. elaborate system of beliefs used to rationalize slavery)
Institutional Discrimination: a pattern of unequal treatment based on group membership, a pattern built into the daily operation so society, whether or not it is consciously intended. Outcomes, not intentions are what matter. Whenever a decision-making process has unequal consequences for dominant and minority groups, institutional discrimination may be at work.
The relative advantage of the dominant group is maintained from day to day by widespreadinstitutionaldiscrimination and ideologicalracism.
2 levels: individual and group
Dimension IndividualGroup
Thinking/feelingPrejudiceIdeological racism
DoingDiscriminationInstitutional discrim
Causes of Prejudice
Competition between groups
Endures through time via socialization; “caught, not taught”
Questions
1, 2, 3, 5, 6
C. Test Your Individual Level of Racial Prejudice
Results?
Chap 2: Assimilation and Pluralism
Assimilation and pluralism are 2 broad pathways of development for inter-group relations.
Assimilation: process in which formerly distinct and separate groups come to share a common culture and merge together socially. Differences decrease.
Pluralism: exists when groups maintain their individual identities; groups remain separate and their cultural and social differences persist over time.
Assimilation and Pluralism are in some ways contrary processes, but they may appear together in a variety of combinations.
Two Types of Assimilation
Melting Pot
(coercive) Anglo-conformity. The latter historically has been the dominant value in the US
Types of Pluralism
Cultural: groups have not acculturated and each maintains its own identity
Structural: groups have acculturated but have not integrated
Integration without acculturation: success without becoming Americanized: enclave/middleman
Gordon theorizes that assimilation occurs through a series of stages, with integration being the crucial stage. In his view, it is common for American minority groups, especially racial minority groups, to be acculturated but not integrated. Once a group has begun to integrate, all other stages will follow in order. See p. 28 Exhibit 2.1
The past few decades have shown increased interest in pluralism. The 3 types of pluralistic situations are cultural or full pluralism, structural pluralism and enclave of middleman minority groups.
According to many scholars, white ethnic groups survived decades of assimilation, albeit in altered forms. New ethnic (and racial) minority groups continue to appear and old ones change form and function as the society changes. At the dawn of the 21st century, white ethnicity may well be fading in salience for most people, except perhaps as a context for criticizing other groups.
In the US today, assimilation may be segmented and have outcomes other than equality with and acceptance into the middle class.
Question 4: Define pluralism v. assimilation
Chapter 3: Development of Dominant-Minority Group Relations Pre-industrializedAmerica
Land and Labor
- The nature of dominant-minority relations at any point in time is largely a function of the characteristics of the society as a whole.
- The contact situation—the conditions under which groups first come together--is the single most significant factor in the creation of minority group status.
Noel Hypothesis
Ethnocentrism
Competition
Differential in Power
Exhibit 3.1 p. 53
Blauner Hypothesis
Colonization/conquest vs. Immigration
Groups created by colonization and conquest will experience more intense prejudice, racism and discrimination than those created by immigration. The disadvantaged status of colonized groups will persist longer and be more difficult to overcome than the disadvantages faced by groups created by immigration.
Minority Groups create by Colonization/Conquest
African Americans, Native Americans Mexican Americans
See Main Points, p 69
Question 4:
Apply Noel and Blauner hypotheses to Native Americans and African Americans
Chapter 4: Industrialization and Dominant-Minority Relations
De Jure Segregation
Jim Crow
The North
Assimilation and Integration: subcultures
Origins of African American Protest
Modern Institutional Racism
Main Points
Questions
2. Paternalistic and rigid competitive relations
3. Great Migration and how it changed race relations
5. Modern institutional discrimination?
What is past-in-present discrimination?