Racial Inequality, Racism,
and Racial Change
What forces and policies
influence race relations in
what ways? 10/31
Feagin’s view: We are at a fork
in the road:
2 Contradictory dynamics responding
to the coming minority majority in
different ways:
1. Increasing separatism and coercion
•
•
Gated communities
The “Brazilian solution.”
2. A broad coalition to build inclusive
citizenship and “true democracy”
– “Without justice, there cannot be peace”
What are the dynamics that
produce either outcome?
Race and ethnic relations often change
very very slowly, e.g.
– 200 yrs of US race relations
– 2000 yrs of Palestinian relations
Race and ethnic relations often change
very, very fast, e.g.
– Germany: 1925-1935
– US: 1955-1969
The relation of individual
attitudes to social dynamics
Individual actions
society, but in
many different ways.
Society
individual attitudes and
behaviors, , but in many different ways.
Pettigrew** calls the assumption that a
racist society is one that contains a lot of
prejudiced individuals a failure to “keep
our levels straight” or to “think in systems
terms”
Housing segregation and tipping
points
A striking and well-understood example involves
housing segregation.
Suppose that when some black families move
into a neighborhood, all the white families move
out. Does that mean that all the white families
are motivated by prejudice?
Even ignoring the institutionalized policies of
banks, real estate agents and developers,
schools, or politicians, imagine a distribution of
attitudes as follows:
White willingness to live in
neighborhoods of varying mix
Suppose the following mix of attitudes:
19% favor an integrated neighborhood and will remain, so long as they are
not the only whites in the neighborhood.
20% favor an integrated neighborhood and will remain, so long as it
remains 50% or more white.
20% favor an integrated neighborhood and will remain, so long as no more
than 1/3 of the residents are nonwhite.
20% favor an integrated neighborhood and will remain, so long as it does
not become more nonwhite than the country as a whole (i.e. so long as it is
less than 20% non-white)
20% favor an integrated neighborhood and will remain, so long as they do
not observe other families moving out.
1% oppose a integrated neighborhoods and will move out if any non-whites
move in.
What is the dynamic that results?
White flight
1.
2.
3.
4.
If the institutional rule is that each family
makes an independent decision, and if there
are no social policies that produce counterpressures, then:
the move of the one percent that oppose
integration in principle will cause
the next 20% of white families to move out,
which will cause the next 20% of white families
to move out,
and so on, leading to an all black neighborhood.
Another way of looking at it is as a selfreinforcing stampede of white flight.
Does the outcome reflect
wishes?
In one sense, by definition the outcome reflects
wishes (as well as institutional arrangements.)
But by assumption, 99% of the population prefers
an integrated neighborhood.
And the unwillingness of, for example, the last
20% to live in an almost all-black neighborhood
may have nothing to do with prejudice.
The outcome dynamic is the same as that which
would result if all white families wanted to avoid
contact with any black families.
But what would have to be changed to change the
dynamic is very different.
Are race relations and race
inequality stable, unstable or
hyperstable?
Call a structure “stable” if it changes a little if
a small force is placed on it, and it changes a
lot of a large force is applied.
– Structures without feedbacks are often stable.
Call a structure “unstable” if it changes a lot
even when only a small force is applied.
– Positive feedback structures are often unstable
Call a structure “hyper-stable” if, even after it
has been changed, it tends to change back.
– Negative feedback structures are often hyperstable.
The three marbles, again
stable
unstable
Hyper-stable
Myrdal’s reasons for believing that
race relations were unstable.
They have lots of positive feedbacks.
– A decrease in prejudice should create an avalanche
of further changes unraveling the racist structure.
– Just as an increase in racial inequality should create
an avalanche of further changes increasing racism.
Changes in the South were undermining some
aspects of Jim Crow.
Changes in the country were making Southern
regionalism less viable.
Changes in the world were making US failure
to live up to its ideals less viable.
Implications of his analysis of racial
inequality as positive feedbacks
The structure looks inert only because it is
so pervasive.
But policy interventions can be very
powerful.
However they must be broad spectrum
(I.e. health, education, political power,
income, wealth, social participation, etc.
Within a decade, Jim Crow had been dismantled.
Why did so “little” change in attitudes inequality
and social relations result?
On the one hand, the dismantling of Jim Crow
is not “little.” Some people even argue that
the playing field is level today (a position that
Feagin and the text both contest).
On the other hand, many structures of
inequality and segregation have remained,
and have even grown over the past 20 years.
Theory #1: Deeply rooted
sentiments
Some people suggest that attitudes about
race are socialized early and resistant to
change.
But many attitudes appeared to change
quite rapidly
The army
Bennington
“Remember the Titans”
Theory #2: The new racism
Some people suggest that public acceptability
merely made racism take the form of cultural
stereotypes rather than genetic theories:
– “symbolic racism” using code terms of “crime in the
streets,” “welfare,” or “political correctness”
– “sense of group position:” that whites merely shifted
to whatever policies were most likely to maintain their
advantages.
– “laissez faire racism:” that the positions most likely to
maintain white advantage were individualism and
limitation of government policy
Theory #3: countervailing forces
An unstable system can amplify either an
increase or decrease of either racial inequality or
racial prejudice.
Civil rights instituted a beneficent cycle
Deindustrialization, globalization, and
government cutbacks instituted a vicious cycle.
Which increased inequality in the black
community and cancelled each other out.
Theory #4: Backlash
The erosion of privileges (or perceived,
relative privilege)of some whites produced
counter-movements and counter-policies,
and the majority of whites were not willing
to take sides.
My own personal view
I (Peter Knapp) have argued that there are
evidently countervailing pressures
– Both forces are demonstrable,
– And inequality in the black community has
increased.
– See the Symposium in Contemporary Sociology
(26:314-7; 1997)
but that sociology often has difficulty
estimating how large are the effects of such
countervailing feedbacks,
and that is one of the reasons for developing
more systemic theories.
The continued decline of
prejudiced attitudes in the US:
RAC PRES
Intermar
00
60
1980
1990
2000
RAC PRES: % say they would vote for a candidate of the other race, if their
party nominated him.
Intermar: % oppose laws against the marriage of blacks and whites.
The lack of trend on policy
BLACK $
HELP BLACK
40
5
1980
1990
B LACK $: % believe that the government is doing too little to
improve the life chances of blacks.
HELP BLACK: % strongly agree that the government should
help blacks overcome the effects of past discrimination.