Stratification by Race and Ethnicity

 

 

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Introduction:  The Distinction Between "Race" and "Ethnicity":
 

Racial distinctions refer to physical differences that can be used to separate one group of people from another:
 

    • The most obvious of these differences is skin color, but other visible characteristics may also be used, eg., hair texture, eye shape, etc.
    • Generally, social scientists today don't spend much time looking for racial distinctions, but in the past (1800's and early 1900's much effort was spent trying to create racial taxonomies.  (Some came up with as many as 2000 different races of humankind).
    • The idea of "race" is relatively new to western society, having emerged during the age of exploration (1500's) when European explorers sought some explanation for all the different peoples they discovered in their journeys.

 
Ethnic distinctions refer to national or cultural differences between groups. These are not as readily observed.
 

 

Definition and Characteristics of Minority Groups:

 

Basically, the main point is that a minority group lacks power in society which makes it vulnerable to the action of a dominant group.  (It does not have to be the numerical minority).

Characteristics of minority groups

    • The group has visible (ascribed) physical or cultural traits that make it easily identifiable.
       
    • As a result of these differences, the group receives differential treatment--unequal treatment-- from the rest of society.
       
    • Generally speaking, membership in the group is ascribed-- you're born into it. But there are exceptions to this, e.g., people who change their religious faith; people who "come out"; people who adopt a new cultural life-style, etc.
       
    • The group possesses a self image around its identity and shares a sense of people hood commonality of culture with others in the minority.
       
    • Minority group members tend to practice endogamy-- they marry within their group. 

Dominant group needs criteria in order to distinguish themselves from minority.  These may be physical differences that tend to distinguish humans--skin color, hair texture, eye shape.  Social and cultural characteristics that are easily observed-- (Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels-- people who crack their eggs on the small end versus the big end).
 

 

 Theories of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination:
 

Functional Theories:

Manning Nash's three functions that racially prejudiced beliefs have for dominant group:
 

    • providing moral justification for dominant group to suppress minority
    • prejudiced belief system prevents minority from questioning moral order and thus overthrowing society
    • introduces argument that correcting system would increase inequality

 
This ties in with stratification, poverty and wealth.   Remember the functions of poverty proposed by Herbert Gans?
 

    • The poor do society's dirty work.
    • The poor work for cheap wages subsidizing economic activities that benefit the wealthy.
    • Poverty creates jobs that "service the poor".
    • The poor can be identified and labelled as "deviant" in order to uphold the legitimacy of conventional norms.
    • The poor buy goods that the rest of society doesn't want-- (government subsidies)
    • They offer vicarious participation for the rest of society in uninhibited sexual behavior, alcoholic, and narcotic behavior when these behaviors (true or not) are reported in the media.
    • They can serve as "cultural heroes" for the rest of society.
    • Poverty guarantees the status of those above the poor-- someone has to be at the bottom!
    • The poor add to the upward mobility of groups just above them-- providing social services to the slums is an example. (Korean shop keepers in black ghettos, for example).
    • The poor help keep the aristocracy busy and feeling good about itself through charity drives, etc. (Richmond's Christmas Mother, e.g.)


 

Conflict theories emphasize the role of power in racism and ethnism:

 

(POWER DIFFERENTIAL [LIEBERSON] --Important here is the relative power of the dominant and minority groups. In many former colonies, the dominant power succeeded at first in controlling the "minority" of original inhabitants. However, as time progressed and a class consciousness developed among the subordinate groups, they were able to use their vast numerical advantage to overthrow the colonizing power. If the indigenous (resident) group is more powerful, then the colonizing power will be forced to assimilate, give in, or depart. (British colonialism in India is an example)

 

INTERNAL COLONIALISM THEORY [ROBERT BLAUNER] (Our text refers to this as "exploitation theory")--  In North American society,  dominant group's treatment of its own Black (Hispanic, Native American) citizens was comparable to European Colonial Powers in their treatment of people in the lands they occupied.

Take, for example black and asian ghettos. They are longer lasting than the white ethnic ghettos. Asian ghettos were able to take over their economic and political control. Some argue that black ghettos were not able to do this largely because their traditional ethnic culture was destroyed by slavery. [Others have argued that white discrimination has been directed more heavily against blacks in the areas of financial loans, for example, which hinders black enterprise in the ghetto.]
 

 SPLIT LABOR MARKET THEORY [EDNA BONACICH]  Much of ethnic antagonism is NOT based on ethnicity and race, but rather on the conflict between higher-paid and lower-paid labor. What happens is that dominant group employers exploit minorities and several minorities may compete for scarce jobs. The conflict results over these pay differentials. Ethnic groups will attempt to restrict other groups from entering the country (especially Asians and Blacks) if they perceive them to be a threat to their own economic security.  According to Bonacich, the one characteristic shared by all societies high in ethnic antagonism is that they have an indigenous working class that earns higher wages than immigrant workers. Bonacich has been criticized because her theory overlooks racial discrimination. (Based upon racial and ethnic hatred-- not upon economics).
 

Symbolic Interactionist Theories are also valuable in understanding Racism and Ethnism.
 

We discussed labelling theory in the section on deviance-- it also applies in minority studies.  The dominant group applies labels to a minority-- lazy, dishonest, unwilling to work, intellectually inferior, etc.  If the minority group internalizes these attitudes and comes to believe the ideas of the dominant group, it will behave as expected and not challenge the dominant group-- i.e. THE SELF-FULFILLING PROPHESY. This has also been referred to as the "VISCIOUS CIRCLE".
 
Our text also mentions the CONTACT HYPOTHESIS as an example of the interactionist approach. People from different racial backgrounds of "equal status" interacting in a "pleasant, noncompetitive atmosphere" may abandon their stereotypes and become less prejudiced.
 

 


The Equation of Racism:
 

PREJUDICE-- preconceived notion (not derived from rigorous and impartial study of a subject).. an attitude.

 
Prejudice + ACTION = discrimination.

 
Discrimination + POWER = racism; ethnism; sexism; etc.

 


Patterns of Intergroup Relations:
 

 Assimilation: This was considered the "model" for American society before the 1960's.

    • The "melting pot" ideal.
    • Assumed consensus of values and equality of opportunity for all.
    • Held that all Americans would melt down in the great cultural pot and emerge as the "standard"
    • Did not assume different physical characteristics (race) would merge like amalgamation does.
    • A+B+C=A ("A" is the basic American cultural ethos) 

Amalgamation: This is a total blending of races and cultures-- (Brazil is a good example)-- through intermarriage.

    • A+B+C=D ("D" is something entirely new made up of all the races and ethnic groupings)

Pluralism: This is the "official" model of U. S. society today. Society is made up of many different races, ethnic groups, cultures, etc. they are not forced into one "American" mold as in Assimilation; nor are they forced to blend together into something entirely new as in amalgamation.

    • A+B+C=A+B+C (The idea is that many different racial, ethnic, and cultural forms co-exist peacefully in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect).

 


The Color "Line" vs. the Color "Gradient":
 

In North American society, there is a color line-- "either or" (You are either black or white, etc.) This is an example taken from Virginia law in the 1930's.

 

1930. "Chapter 85. Every person in whom there is ascertainable any Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more American Indian blood shall be deemed an American Indian; except that members of Indian tribes living on reservations allotted them by Virginia, having one-fourth or more of Indian blood and less than one-sixteenth of Negro blood shall be deemed tribal Indians so long as they are domiciled on reservations."
 

However, in Latin America a "color gradient" exists where race is not an "all or none" phenomenon and mixing of the races is far less stigmatized.


Statistics:
 
 

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The effects of racial and ethnic discrimination are reflected in U.S. Census statistics on income, poverty, and unemployment.

    • Black Americans have made great strides closing the educational gap between the races, but these gains have not been transferred into overall improvements in income relative to whites.
       
    • Native Americans suffer the highest rates of poverty, infant mortality, and alcoholism.
       
    • Even for those who achieve a high degree of success, e.g. the "model minorities" (Asian Americans); The success achieved by the few masks the misery of the majority. (They have to work far harder than whites in parallel positions; they are under-represented at the highest positions in society. The intense pressure to succeed (from the family) will often cause severe emotional problems in young Asian Americans).

 


Immigration:
 

Historically, U.S. immigration has favored western Europeans. However, increasing numbers of Asian and Hispanic immigrants will significantly alter this country's racial and ethnic composition in the next century. The proportion of non-Hispanic whites will decline from about 70 percent (today) to around 50 percent by 2050 if current trends hold firm.

Hispanics are this country's most rapidly growing minority and will comprise nearly a quarter of the population by 2050.
 
Black Americans and Asian Americans will comprise 15 and 8 percent of the population (respectively) by the middle of the next century http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/usinterimproj/natprojtab01a.xls.  By the year 2100, if current trends continue; 40% of the U.S. population will be white, non-Hispanic; 33% will be Hispanic; 14% will be Asian; and 13% will be African American (Schaefer, p. 243).  
 
As a result, American will become an increasingly pluralistic society in the 21st century. (However, it has always been highly pluralistic, especially at the beginning of this century where it experienced the greatest influx of immigrants in its history (a trend exceed only at the end of the 20th century).  For example, in the early 1900s, many of this country's largest cities-- New York, Boston, Chicago, etc. had a majority of foreign-born residents.