Racial Inequality and Racism
Structures of Group Inequality
(10/29)
What does it mean to say that
racism is “systemic?”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
It does not mean that most people in the society
are prejudiced, though they may be.
The inequality between slaves and slaveowners
cumulates; it does not end with the death of the
slaveowner or the abolition of slavery.
The system changed its form but not its nature.
It involves many interdependent characteristics.
The Northern elite benefited indirectly.
The relations to Native Americans, Hispanics,
Asian Americans or white ethnics are part of a
system whose distinctive US traits are racist.
What is a “race,” sociologically
A race is any group that is considered (by
itself and by others) to be a race.
Races are socially constructed.
Visible differences are neither necessary
nor sufficient for sociological races.
Therefore relations between ethnic and
religious groups may become or may stop
being treated as racial.
– E.g. Cherokee, South Phil., Israel, U.S. Army
– Access to resources is a main part of those
relations.
The one drop rule in the US.
Traditionally, U.S. black-white race
relations have been governed by the
unusual rule that one is “black” if any of
one’s ancestors is “black.”
This was necessitated by the unique set of
social, legal and political structures of
slavery and Jim Crow.
i.e. gov’t mandated segregation when
most “blacks” had white ancestors.
What are the racial regimes?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Genocide: the attempted extermination of an
entire people.
Expulsion: the forced transfer of a population
to another area or to camps.
Subjugation: the creation of a second class
citizenship.
Segregation: systematic social separation.
Assimilation: social melting pot.
What have been the regimes in
the US?
All five regimes appear in American history.
The text suggests that the elimination of most
Native American tribes was unintended. I
disagree.
Chattel slavery was a unique institution,
although all forms of slavery are extremely
degrading and destructive of the family, etc.
And Jim Crow was a nearly unparalleled
institutional subjugation.
How much is U.S. race is a
matter of black v. white?
Often the central issue is how similar black/white
relations are to ethnicity.
Feagin argues that they are dissimilar, but black/
white relations are central because:
relations of Europeans to Native Americans, Chinese,
and Hispanic Americans were shaped by slavery.
Immigrant groups struggled to define themselves as
“not black” by separating themselves from blacks.
Sociology, Micro, Macro and Mega spends about 4
times as much space on other groups.
Peculiarities of U.S. slavery
Race relations in the US have a distinct dynamic
largely because slavery was unique.
Unlike Latin America, in the U.S. the definition of
slaves as property was not checked by any
structure of family or other kinds of rights.
And it was often accompanied by rituals of
dehumanization.
E.g. slaves eating from a trough,
female slaves as fair game, and
slave testimony or rights as impossible.
Laws against teaching slaves to read.
But isn’t that ancient history?
Many people say that that was then and
this is now; blacks should get over it.
For Feagin, if Fred has stolen money from
Joe, Fred can ask Joe to “Get over it” only
after he has given back the money.
One index of how a society has
progressed is who it honors.
Who is the American that has the most
monuments to his memory?
Bedford Forrest – founder of the KKK.
Why?
The dynamic of race today
Table 21.4 (*p.406) details “four centuries of
legal progress and setbacks.”
different people conceive of that dynamic in
different ways.
There has been a sharp decline of views such
as “There should be laws against intermarriage,”
(though 10% to 20% of the white pop. still
agrees with such items.)
But there has also been a decline in support for
reducing existing inequalities.
The relation of racial inequalities
Myrdal’s argument was that group
advantages reinforce each other,
often as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
+
Resources
Access to further
resources
+
• Example: A businessman who cannot get credit, is
likely to go out of business, and therefore, he is a bad risk.
•Other examples: health, education, crime, social contacts,
addictions, neighborhood quality, work responsibility,
work commitment,
What is the relation between
prejudice and racial inequality
Myrdal’s argument was that racism and
racial inequality reinforce each other.
+
Racism
Racial
Inequality
+
• This is sometimes wrongly interpreted to mean
that “racism” is the individual sentiment that
produces discriminatory behavior.
Myrdal vs. Feagin
Feagin criticizes Myrdal as proposing a model
that seems to suggest an attitudinal model:
Prejudice
Discrimination
Racism
Feagin, as the theorist of institutionalized
discrimination, argues that the relations go:
Race inequality Discrimination Prejudice
For example, profiling has an equally strong
effect whether or not it is based on fact.
Implications of Cumulative
Causation for Myrdal:
1. The system is pervasive
It creates a cascade of pervasive differences
that appears as second nature,
but is socially produced
2. The system is modifiable
Such systems are unstable
and amplify interventions.
3. But only by broad spectrum interventions
It has the inertia of an avalanche
These qualitative dynamic conclusions
follow even when one cannot estimate
specific component paths.
Institutional discrimination and
systemic racism
Feagin suggests that over American
history, racism, as a pervasive
institutional system has maintained itself
as a structure of inequality and privilege.
Racism is not a matter of prejudice.
It is can be maintained by relatively little
individually prejudiced action (except
opposition to change efforts).
How much racial inequality is
there?
Feagin Racism directly or indirectly costs the
average black American about 10% of their
life span; 40% of their income; and 90% of
their wealth.
Sociology, Micro, Macro and Mega: 1990
White
Black Hispanic
% 4 yrs col. 22%
11%
9%
% in poverty 11%
32%
28%
Median income $36,915 $21,423
$23,431
Individual, Institutional and
Cultural racism
Individual racism is individual prejudice and/or
discrimination
Institutional racism are institutionalized
structures that disadvantage a group, and which
are often maintained for reasons having little to
do with prejudice.
Cultural racism is a belief in the superiority of
European culture.
Can blacks be racist
Obviously anyone can be individually
racist or prejudiced.
But if racism is defined as the use of
or connection with a monopoly of
society’s institutionalized power,
then you can only do that if you have
that monopoly.
Pit bull liability is not a matter of
intent
The relation between
prejudice and discrimination:
LaPierre
In a classic study (from 1934) LaPierre
p.*398 found almost no correlation
between the willingness of hotels and
restaurants to discriminate in practice and
their saying that they would do so.
Situational constraints and pressures were
more important than set individual
motives.
Merton on the relation between
prejudice and discrimination:
Merton’s typology *p.398
Situational pressures may produce all four
cases:
Prejudice
Discrimination
No
Discrimination
“Active
Bigot”
“Timid
Bigot”
No prejudice
“Fair weather
liberal”
“All weather
liberal”