RACISM IN AMERICAN LIFE
JIM & HUCK ON THE MISSISSIPPI
PAINTING BY
THOMAS HART BENTON
SEXISM AND RACISM: BASIC QUESTIONS


WHAT FACTORS BEST ACCOUNT FOR SEXISM AND RACISM?
WHAT ARE THEIR MANIFESTATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES IN
CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SOCIETY?

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO COMBAT THEM?

WHAT IS DIVERSITY?

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF DIVERSITY IN THE SOCIAL WORK
PROFESSION?
CAUSES
THERE ARE OF COURSE MANY CAUSES ATTRIBUTED
TO RACISM AND SEXISM. AMONG THE MOST WIDELY
NOTED ARE THE FOLLOWING:
THEY
RESULT FROM SHEER IGNORANCE. RACISM
AND SEXISM ARE MOST BLATANT AMONG THE
UNEDUCATED. IT FOLLOWS THAT EDUCATION IS
OFTEN TOUTED AS THE KEY TO DISPELLING THEM.
PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPENSATION IS ALSO
FREQUENTLY CITED AS A CAUSAL FACTOR:
OTHERWISE LOW STATUS INDIVIDUALS (E.G., POOR
WHITES) MAY FIND IT SELF- GRATIFYING TO
CONSIDER THEMSELVES “A CUT ABOVE” THOSE
STIGMATIZED AS INFERIOR BY REASON OF
GENDER, SKIN COLOR OR ETHNICITY. (SEE #4/7
FOR EXAMPLES.)

CAUSES (2)


ANTHROPOLOGICAL: SOCIAL COHESION OFTEN HINGES ON
BELIEF IN THE ALLEGED SUPERIORITY OF “INS” AS
CONTRASTED WITH STIGMATIZED “OUTS.” PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC RACIAL NAZI THEORY, IN WHICH ALL SO-CALLED
“NON-ARYANS” WERE CONDEMNED AS “RACIALLY”
INFERIOR, WERE THE SUPREME EXPRESSION OF THIS
TENDENCY. MALE BONDING AMONG HUNTERS AND
WARRIORS HAS SIMILARLY OFTEN INVOLVED REJECTING
FEMALES AS “OUTS”, DUE TO THEIR ALLEGED INABILITY TO
ATTAIN MALE LEVELS OF STRENGTH, COURAGE, AND
ENDURANCE. NOTE, HOWEVER, THAT SUCH EXCLUSIVISM
TENDS TO FADE ONCE THERE IS NO LONGER A FUNCTIONAL
RATIONALE FOR IT. (E.G., WHEN GUYS NO LONGER HUNT
ANIMALS OR EACH OTHER IN THE “OLD-FASHIONED” WAY.)
IN THE MATERIALIST VIEW, DISCRIMINATION IS ULTIMATELY
BASED ON THE DESIRE OF DOMINANT “INS” TO EXCLUDE
“OUTS” IN ORDER TO PROTECT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
PEROGATIVES THREATENED IF “OUTS” WERE GRANTED
EQUAL STATUS AND OPPORTUNITY. RACISM AND SEXISM
CAN BOTH BE CONSTRUED IN THESE TERMS.
(#S 4/20/21).
A BITTER BUT INSIGHTFUL COMMENT ON
THE FAILURE OF POST CIVIL WAR
RECONSTRUCTION
CAUSES (3)


THE SCAPEGOAT THESIS. INCORPORATING ELEMENTS FROM
SEVERAL OF THE ABOVE THEORIES, THE SCAPEGOAT THESIS IS
NONETHELESS DISTINCT IN ITS TREATMENT OF RACIAL AND
ETHNIC PREJUDICE. IT TAKES ITS NAME FROM THE ANCIENT
ISRAELITE PRACTICE OF SACRIFCING A GOAT TO AMEND FOR THE
SINS OF THE COMMUNITY. HENCE THE MODERN NOTION OF
COLLECTIVE “SCAPEGOATS,” I.E., MINORITIES SINGLED OUT FOR
MISTREATMENT BECAUSE OF THEIR ALLEGED RESPONSIBILITY
FOR DISASTERS SUFFERED BY THE ENTIRE SOCIETY.
THE SCAPEGOAT THESIS IS BOTH A DESCRIPTION AND AN
EXPLANATION. IT IS THE FORMER BECAUSE IT SUMMARIZES THE
ROLE ASSIGNED TO VARIOUS MINORITY GROUPS IN ACTUAL
HISTORICAL SITUATIONS---IRONICALLY, THE MOST FAMOUS CASE
PERHAPS BEING THAT OF THE JEWS THEMSELVES, WHO HAVE
OFTEN BEEN “SCAPEGOATED” OVER THE LAST TWO THOUSAND
YEARS. THE SCAPEGOAT THESIS IS, HOWEVER, ALSO AN
EXPLANATION BECAUSE IT CONTAINS SUBTLE LESSONS ABOUT
POWER RELATIONS. THE MOST IMPORTANT SUCH LESSION IS THE
TENDENCY TO ASSIGN BLAME DOWNWARDS RATHER THAN
UPWARDS: WHEN THINGS GO BADLY WRONG (E.G., DEFEAT IN
WAR), MINORITY GROUPS ARE OFTEN BLAMED BECAUSE
ATTACKING THE POWERFUL AND PRESTIGIOUS TRUE CULPRITS
WOULD BE TOO DANGEROUS.
RACIAL HATRED IN ACTION
DETROIT
RIOT
SCENE
1967
“The man ran from the crowd
as people threw rocks at him. He
was trying to get away, but there
was nowhere to go….’Kill the
nigger.’ my neighbor shouted. That
was Molly’s mother, running to join
the commotion. Everyone made fun
of Molly at school because…she
was so poor. But she wasn’t as bad
off now as the black man, who was
clenching his fingers onto the
railing of the house before the
boys dragged him onto the
payment and beat his skull with
baseball bats and hockey sticks.”
Description of a racial incident in
South Boston (“Southie”), a poor
Irish-American neighborhood, from
MacDonald, M.P. (1999) All Souls. A
Family Story from Southie. Boston:
RACISM (1): HISTORICAL ORIGINS
“THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO RELIVE IT.”
GEORGE SANTAYANA, AMERICAN PHILOSOPHER



Racism can of course be analyzed from many perspectives: as the
previous slides showed, there are diverse views on its social role.
This presentation employs the historical approach to racism:
instead of being viewed abstractly, as if it were a permanent feature
of human psychology, racism is situated in its actual temporal
context. Understanding its past evolution can in particular help us
understand why it has remained so prominent and tenacious a
feature of contemporary American life---in the classic phrase of
Swedish social scientist,Gunnar Myrdal, “an American dilemma.”
That dilemma did indeed emerge at a particular point in history:
namely, coincident with the emergence of modern black slavery.
Previously, in antiquity and the Middle Ages, racism, as we currently
understand it, did not exist: negative stereotypes based on skin
color were rare and racial prejudice as such was virtually unknown.
HISTORICAL ORIGINS (2)




In ancient times defeat in war typically resulted in
enslavement of the vanquished. Slavery often entailed cruel
conditions, but there were few questions raised about the
slaves essential humanity---perhaps because slaves were
often racially and culturally similar to their enslavers.
Lacking the rights and protections of citizenship, slaves were
nevertheless still perceived as a human being.
Modern slavery was fundamentally different in that white
European/American enslavers exclusively recruited their
victims from among racially and culturally distinct groups,
notably (but not exclusively) black Africans.
Paradoxically, the tendency to view slaves as subhuman was
further accentuated by the Judeo-Christian prohibition on
ownership of human beings. Slaves thus had to be assigned
allegedly subhuman characteristics if they were to be bought
and sold like any other form of “property.”
The Civil War was in part fought to free the
slaves, yet Union victory brought only
nominal and transitory equality: in both
North and South, whites still tended to
regard blacks as inherently inferior.
HISTORICAL ORIGINS (3)




During the post-Civil War period (1865-1914), most blacks remained
in the South and on the land as tenant farmers (“sharecroppers”), a
status only one step up from outright slavery.
Employment opportunities occasioned by the world wars (especially
the second) dramatically altered this situation, as rural blacks
migrated northwards to fill wartime industrial jobs. Many found
work, but housing discrimination largely confined the newcomers to
ghetto neighborhoods.
A perhaps even larger number of blacks migrated northwards
following WWII (c.1945-55), as southern landowners replaced field
hands with machines.
Tragically, this last and greatest migratory era coincided with the
initial phase of blue collar job reduction. As a result, once relatively
healthy ghetto neighborhoods (e.g. Harlem and Chicago’s South
Side) began to exhibit the social pathologies with which they are
now associated. Federal attempts to assist the new migrants (the
so-called “War on Poverty”) were underfunded then undermined by
entrenched urban political machines and white trade unionists, who
were fearful that black progress would deprive them and their
children of job opportunities. However, the “war” did foster
emergence of a greatly expanded “black bourgeoisie” (i.e., middle
class) of civil servants, technical workers, and professionals, many
of whom benefited from federal/state affirmative action programs.
The Lessons of History
What, then, does the past teach us about American racism?
 Race - based oppression has been and remains the central
reality of Afro-American life.
 Racism is not just personal prejudice but rather is an
objective social fact that reflects and contributes to unequal
power relations between whites and blacks.
 More specifically, racism is the ideological tool that has
justified the otherwise unjustifiable subordination of blacks
within the social hierarchy. At every stage in American history
(see previous panels) it has helped to rationalize political and
economic oppression on the viciously false premise that black
people are “naturally” inferior and therefore deserve their
comparably inferior place in the social order.
 There can be no solution to the race problem outside of a
sustained attack on poverty, inequality, and job scarcity. At
minimum, these conditions exacerbate racial antagonisms, as
relatively advantaged but nevertheless hard-pressed whites
seek to maintain their positions by resisting black social
mobility which they perceive as a threat to their own status. It
follows that racism will only be eliminated if and when there
are ample opportunities for all, regardless of color. (see
slides#s 20/21 for more on this crucial point.)
THE PRESENT SITUATION (1)

The modern civil rights movement confirmed the legal
equality of black Americans but did not eradicate white
racist attitudes. Instead, despite emergence of a large black
middle class, blacks and other minorities continue to suffer
discrimination in housing and employment. Full social and
economic equality thus remains a long way off (#s13-14),
despite the current economic boom. Meanwhile poor blacks
and Hispanics continue to confront a “vicious cycle of
racism,” which can be depicted as follows:
Racial
prejudice
Confirmation of
Racial prejudice.
Underground Economy
(crime/drugs, etc.
Economic/social
exclusion
THE PRESENT SITUATION (2)
AVERAGE
WEALTH
1983
1989
1995
BLACK
46.0
48.6
43.0
WHITE
244.6
289.4
255.3
HOUSEHOLDS
W/ ZERO OR
NEGATIVE
WEALTH
1983
1989
1995
BLACK
34.1
40.7
31.3
WHITE
11.3
12.1
15.0
SOURCE: E. WOLF (1998)
THE FOLLOWING 3 SLIDES
TOP HEAVY
(11-13) ILLUSTRATE THE EXTENT
OF BLACK ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
THE PRESENT SITUATION (3)
AVERAGE
 One in
three
WEALTH




1983
1989
1995
black Americans,10m out of 30m
people,
is living in
poverty. This
times the
BLACK
46.0
48.6 is three
43.0
white poverty rate.
WHITE
244.6
289.4
255.3
Blacks are only fifteen percent of the total
population but almost forty percent of all poor
HOUSEHOLDS
Americans.
1983
1989
1995
W/ ZERO OR
Black
men had a 1994 annual median income of
NEGATIVE
$23,350,
which was only 72 percent of that of nonWEALTH
Hispanic white men.
BLACK
34.1
40.7
31.3
Black unemployment rates have consistently been
WHITE
11.3
15.0
double
those of whites
over12.1
a thirty year
period.
The income of black high school graduates is only
86% of white high school graduates’
income.
SOURCE:
E. WOLF (1998)

THE FOLLOWING 3 SLIDES
TOP HEAVY
(11-13) ILLUSTRATE THE EXTENT
Source: Jeffries, J.M. (1996) Changes in the economy and labor
OF BLACK ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
market status of black Americans, The State of Black America.
IDEALIST AND MATERIALIST PERSPECTIVES
ON
RACISM
RACISM: IDEALIST AND MATERIALIST VIEWS



Like all social issues, racism can be construed
from either of these opposing vantage points.
As we shall see in detail, below, liberals view
racism from an idealist perspective that stresses
the importance of “diversity,” as variously defined,
in eroding racial hostility, or at least
misunderstanding. “Diversity” has of course also
been officially endorsed by NASW and CSWE as the
official social work perspective. It is therefore
essential that MSW candidates understand its
meaning and significance as an antidote to racism.
The materialist view of racism is predictably at
odds with the “diversity” approach. As we’ll see,
radical – materialists indeed propose quite a
different cure for racism.
CULTURAL DIVERSITY (1)




WHILE “DIVERSITY” IS SUBJECT TO VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS,
ITS CULTURAL DIMENSION IS CLEAR, NAMELY: SUPPORT AND
APPRECIATION FOR ALL GROUP CUSTOMS AND PRACTICES
CONSISTENT WITH HUMAN DIGNITY AND RESPECT FOR OTHERS’
BELIEFS & VALUES. PARTISANS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY CAN
THUS DELIGHT IN AFRICAN TRIBAL DANCES, WHILE CONDEMNING
FEMALE CIRCUMCISION, PRACTICED IN SOME AFRICAN SOCIETIES,
AS AN AFFRONT TO HUMAN DIGNITY.
BOLSTERING COMMITMENT TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY IS
AWARENESS THAT, AS A MATTER OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACT, THE U.S.
IS NOW A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY VULNERABLE TO RACIAL AND
ETHNIC STRIFE UNLESS ITS CULTURAL HETEROGENEITY IS
ACKNOWLEDGED, ACCEPTED, AND CELEBRATED.
MORE POSTIVELY, “DIVERSITY” PROPONENTS ALSO URGE THAT
CONSTITUENT AMERICAN SUBCULTURES BE PROMOTED BECAUSE
KNOWLEDGE OF THEM IS BOTH PERSONALLY AND COLLECTIVELY
ENRICHING.
“DIVERSITY” OF COURSE HAS A SPECIAL MEANING FOR SOCIAL
WOKERS. IT HARMONIZES WITH THE LEGACY OF JANE ADDAMS
AND OTHER PIONEER SOCIAL WORKERS, WHOSE SETTLEMENT
HOUSE WORK FEATURED EARLY EXPRESSIONS OF “DIVERSITY” IN
ACTION. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS WITH SOCIAL WORK’S
VARIED CLIENTELE LIKEWISE DEPENDS ON A “HUMAN BEHAVIOR
IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT” COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY.
INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY



Most educated Americans probably support cultural diversity;
to do otherwise risks appearing provincial and narrowminded. At least in this limited sense, then, they are (or
remain) “liberals,” even when holding conservative views on
social welfare policy, as many do.
However, diversity becomes a much more controversial
matter when applied to institutional---especially, academic--contexts, where the aim is on expanding representation by
previously underrepresented minorities. To cite one familiar
example, despite attempts to “right the balance,” black and
Hispanic students still constitute a disproportionately small
segment of the Ivy League student population.
Affirmative action policies, initiated in the Sixties, and still
widely used today, are intended to assure affected minorities
their “place at the table.” Such policies work differently in
different places and situations, but, minimally, give
preference to individuals from underrepresented groups in
situations where their credentials are comparable to white
job or school applicants. Under such circumstances,
“historical” injustices provide an appropriate rationale for
giving the competing minority members an opportunity of a
kind almost certainly unavailable to their forbearers.
CRITICISMS OF DIVERSITY

“DIVERSITY,” AS JUST SUMMARIZED, ALSO HAS ITS CRITICS, WHO
CONTEND THAT:
• DIVERSITY IS ESSENTIALLY A REFLECTION OF LIBERALISM IN
DECLINE; IT FOCUSES ATTENTION ON CULTURAL MATTERS AND
INDIVIDUAL AMBITION RATHER THAN ON THE COLLECTIVE
POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING MINORITY PEOPLES. FROM
THIS PERSPECTIVE, INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY CAN EVEN
BEEN SEEN AS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE, INSOFAR AS IT
DEPRIVES MINORITIES OF THEIR MOST GIFTED MEMBERS.
• DIVERSITY ULTIMATELY REFLECTS THE IMPACT OF
GLOBALIZATION. AS NATIONAL COHESION, AND THE NATIONSTATE ITSELF, FADE, PEOPLE INCREASINGLY SEEK “DIVERSE”
FORMS OF COLLECTIVE IDENTIFICATION.
• THE UNITY AND COHERENCE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY
INEVITABLY DEPEND ON A CLEAR SENSE OF NATIONAL
IDENTITY AND PURPOSE. YET DIVERSITY IS AN AMBIGUOUS
CREED THAT ULTIMATELY PROMOTES FRAGMENTATION RATHER
THAN UNITY. ITS REAL SIGNIFICANCE IS AS A DANGEROUS
SIGNAL THAT AMERICANS HAVE LOST FAITH IN THEIR ONCE
SACROSANCT IDEALS, PURPOSES, & TRADITIONS.
The Relationship Between Poverty &
Racism: A Materialst Interpretation (1)
The connection between racism and poverty is often
misunderstood. Poverty is of course the more general
phenomenon. Indeed, the current economic system results in
material deprivation for a sizeable part of the population, composed
of Americans of all colors. Poverty is so widespread because the
institutions of capitalist society reliably defend and promote the
interests of that tiny portion of the population who own “capital,”
i.e., who possess productive assets. Also benefitting are the
indispensable elite managers and professional in charge of daily
operation of the capitalist system. (For details, see relevant
Session#4 slides.) The growing economic gap between this upper
20% and the rest of the population is actively sustained and
promoted through an elaborate combination of cultural/ideological
values (broadly, the “individualist-consumerist ethic”) and
institutional arrangements (campaign financing, lobbying, tax and
social policy, candidate recruitment, etc.) intended to assure
stability of the class order. In other words, materialists essentially
view existing society as an elaborate design for perpetuating that
order. The courts and police are the most obvious expressions of
this purpose; but ultimately virtually every institution directly or
indirectly functions towards the same end.
A Materialst Interpretation (2)
As we have also seen, racism has had a tragically prominent role in
American history, and remains a source of vast social waste and
personal anguish. The perpetuation of racial injustice is not fully
understandable, however, except as one aspect of the overall
system of inequality outlined above (#20). Although profound
inequalities are rooted in the very nature of the capitalist economic
and political order, racial inequality is, for a number of reasons,
quite compatible with it. Particularly “helpful” in this regard is the
almost automatic association, among middle class whites, between
race and poverty, thereby ideologically reinforcing the existing
class system. In other words, while a distinct phenomenon in its
own right, racism promotes the overriding upper class goal of
preserving that system. From the viewpoint of the powerful, there is
thus no compelling motive to attack, and many reasons to tolerate,
racial inequality, as long as its violent manifestations are
adequately contained and social mobility, legitimated under the
rubric of “diversity,” is provided for the most talented, and
therefore, potentially most disruptive elements in minority
populations. This last observation indeed more or less summarizes
the existing American situation. It follows that there can be no
solution to racism w/out a simultaneous attack on poverty and,
most basically, on the ineradicably inegalitarian capitalist system.
DISCUSSION QUESTION #1

HAVING
COMPLETED THE
ASSIGNMENTS FOR
THIS SECTION:
Which of these
theories strikes
you as the most
plausible? Why?
DISCUSSION QUESTION #2

APPLY THIS SAME
HISTORICAL
APPROACH TO THE
STUDY OF SEXISM.
ARE RACISM AND
SEXISM MERELY
TWO SIDES OF THE
SAME COIN, OR ARE
THERE
FUNDAMENTAL
DIFFERNCES
BETWEEN THEM?