Racial And Ethnic Inequality
(Discussion Points From Chapter 3)
1. What is
the difference between a color line and a color gradient? |
|
2. The
text states that “…race is a socially constructed category of people who
share biologically transmitted traits that a society defines as imprtant” (p.
60). Is there biological evidence that
supports the notion of separate and distinct races of people? Is there such a thing as a pure race? (Look at the text’s commentary (p.
61): Virtually all African Americans
have some white ancestors and almost ten percent of White Americans have some
African American Ancestry (Palen, 2000). |
|
3. One
sociologist, John Palen, distinguishes between race as a biological,
political, and administrative concept.
Political distinctions stem from the power of the dominant group over
the subordinate group. Hitler defined
Jews as a race of people and set about exterminating them. At the same time his Japanese allies were
politically defined to be “Honorary Aryans.”
Administrative categories of race are created by bureaucrats to gather
data, etc. Today, the |
|
4. How
race has made a difference in the |
Group |
% of Population (2000) |
% in “official” poverty (2007) |
|
White (non-Hispanic) |
71 |
8.2 |
|
White |
|
10.5 |
|
Black |
12 |
24.5 |
|
Hispanics |
12 |
21.5 |
|
Asians and Pacific Islanders |
4 |
11.1 |
|
American Indians and |
1 |
25.7 (2000 data) |
|
5. You
will find the course web notes (“The Color Line”) helpful here. http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jmahoney/colrline.html In Virginia, by the second half of the 17th
century, laws had emerged prohibiting racial intermarriage. The most recent “anti-miscegenation” law in
|
|
6. Equation
of racism—Prejudice + Action = Discrimination; Discrimination + Power + Racism. What is institutionalized racism? |
|
7. Institutionalized
discrimination: Inequality is
inherently built into the social structure and is an integral part of the
social system. Segregated facilities,
poll taxes, literacy tests, etc. are all examples of institutionalized
discrimination. |
|
8. Patterns
of African American migration from the end of the Civil War to the present: |
|
9. Racial
Segregation: De facto; De jure;
restrictive covenants; redlining; and steering. What is affirmative action? Should the |
|
10. The
widening gap in the African Community between rich and poor—Two Black |
|
11. Discuss the
relationship between the disappearance of work in the city and hyper
segregation (p. 40; 414), also referred to as “hyperghettoization” by some
researchers, because it is occurs in urban areas. |
|
12. In
general, how do sociologists define “minority”? Discuss patterns of majority/minority
interaction. Understand Bogardus’s
social distance scale (p. 78). |
|
13. What are the
key points in the debate between multiculturalism and pluralism? Discuss conservative and liberal views on
racial inequality. |
|
14. Discuss the
interaction of race and social class in determining one’s life chances in the
|
|
15. Understand
the major theoretical perspectives as they approach the problem of racial
inequality. |
|
16. Regarding
the politics of racial and ethnic inequality-- Compare the radical left;
liberal; conservative; and radical right views. |
Some Notes on Ethnicity |
1. It
is important to distinguish between the three models of Racial and Ethnic
integration in the U.S.: |
|
A. Assimilation--- (A+B+C=A) |
|
B. Pluralism--- (A+B+C=A+B+C) |
|
C. Amalgamation (A+B+C=D) |
|
2. Of
these three models, which is the “official” policy of the U.S. at this time? Which model did it replace and why? |
|
3. According
to your instructor, “amalgamation” is the really the “true” melting pot
model, but throughout the first half of the 20th century, the
“melting pot” was used to refer to the assimilation of all ethnic groups into
a standard American who resembled what the text calls, “an English-speaking
WASP.” In this sense, we are speaking
of “cultural assimilation.” |
|
4. Why
does your instructor say that a “civil rights perspective” is the best
approach to take when examining race and ethnic relations in the U.S.? Explain. |
|
5. Distinguish
between behavioral and structural assimilation. Which of them means essentially the
elimination of a minority group as a separate entity in the larger society? |
|
6. The text
describes three separate waves of immigration to the United States—1820-1880;
1880-1920; and 1990 to the present.
Germans and Irish were very prevalent in the first wave of
immigration. What was the “Know
Nothing Party” and when was it popular in U.S. history? |
|
7. The
second wave of immigrants, largely from southern and eastern Europe. By 1910 southern and eastern Europeans
comprised over 70 percent of all immigrants to the U.S. In fact, between 1880 and 1920, immigration
accounted for approximately one-third of this country’s growth in
population. Between 1880 and 1920
close to 25 million people migrated to the U.S. (By 1900, approximately 33
percent of the entire U.S. population consisted of first-or second-generation
Americans). |
|
8. The third
wave consists largely of Hispanic and Asian immigrants. In terms of numbers, we have the following
data from the U.S. Census: In the
decade of the 1980’s, 7.3 million people immigrated to the U.S.). According to data provided by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), during the 1990’s,
approximately 8.7 million people immigrated to the U.S. (http://www.ins.usdoj.gov). According to the U.S. Census, U.S.
population grew by more people in the 1990s than in any other decade in its
history—approximately 32.7 million people.
So, in the decade of 1990 alone, 25 percent of U.S. population growth
was due directly to immigration and the percentage of this growth attributable
to immigration and the children of immigrants is even higher. |
|
9. Note
the statistics on U.S. ethnic and racial groups: Between 1990 and 1995 the non-Hispanic
white population grew by 3 percent; African American population by 8 percent;
Hispanics by 20 percent; and Asians by 31 percent. |
|
10. Hispanics
now are this nation’s largest minority numbering over 35 million. This ethnic group is younger than the
non-Hispanic population and has higher fertility rates ensuring rapid growth
even should immigration drop off. More
than half of all Latinos in the U.S. are found in just two states—California
and Texas. Look at the section on
Mexican Americans—What three sub-groups does the text divide them into? Compare Hispanics’ educational attainment
with that of other groups described in the chapter. |
|
11. Asian
Americans have been the nation’s most rapidly growing minority group and
number over 12 million according to the 2000 census. Where is this minority most heavily
concentrated in the U.S.? Compare
Asian Americans status with that of the white Americans regarding poverty
levels, median household income, education, etc. |
|
12. The
population of Native Americans, once estimated to be as many as 20 million
people at the time of European discovery declined to 250 thousand in the
1890s and now number over 2.7 million (2003 Census estimates). Where are they located? How do they compare with other minorities
in terms of education, poverty, and average age? |