RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY: IS THE
SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE DECLINING?
By: Kristin Robinson
SOC 521
THE ANSWER IS NO!
To be VERY specific only a select
group of minorities are being elevated
to higher positions of prestige, while
the majority of minorities do not have
the same “advantage(s).”
RACE VS. ETHNICITY
Ethnicity is a concept referring
to a shared culture and way of
life. This can be reflected in
language, religion, material
culture such as clothing and
food, and cultural products such
as music and art. Ethnicity is
often a major source of social
cohesion and social conflict.
A Race is a group of people
thought to share certain
distinctive physical
characteristics, such as facial
structure or skin color. Racial
characteristics are thought to
be biologically inherited
(unlike ethnic characteristics,
which are cultural).
WHY ISN’T THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE
DECLINING…
Race and Ethnicity are social constructs that have been
built into our formal and informal institutions, which
represent the very fabric of our societies.
Race is not a real thing in that there are no distinctive genetic or
physical characteristics that truly distinguish “races” from one
another, many of these “races” share overlapping characteristics.
The belief that there are different races is the basis of racism and
the perpetuation of inequality amongst groups of people.
INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
Institutional racism is a pattern of social institutions — such as governmental
organizations, schools, banks, and courts of law — giving negative treatment to
a group of people based on their race. Institutional racism leads to inequality
Race is a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by
referring to different human bodies.
 Racial signification is much deeper, it is tool for social and historical
distinctions that otherwise would never exist.
 The concept of race fundamental has a fundamental role om structuring
and representing our social world.
 Element of social structure, not something that resides within our society, a
constructed dimension of human representation.
RACIAL FORMATION [ OMI & WINANT]
Racial formation is the socio-historical process by which racial
categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and
destroyed.
From this perspective race is both a social structure and
cultural representation.
To just say that race is just a structural entity is not fair, you
must account for origins, patterning, and transformation of
inner racial differences.
A BETTER way to look at it is a linkage between structure and
representation.
RACIAL FORMATION CONTINUED….
[ OMI & WINANT]
Racial Projects is a simultaneous
interpretation, representation, or
explanation of racial dynamics, and an
effort to reorganize and redistribute
resources along particular racial lines.
Simply meaning it connects what race
means in discursive practices and the
ways social structures and everyday
experiences are racially organized
based upon that meaning.
RACIAL FORMATION CONTINUED…. SOME MORE
 Social Structure and racial
dimensions in the case of state
activity and policy.
 State actions both past and present
have treated people very
differently and organized them
according to their race and thus the
government feels a sort of policy
responsibility in the area.
 Therefore race continually signifies
difference and structure inequality.
RACIAL INEQUALITY
[OLIVER & SHAPIRO]
Racialization of State Policy
 Refers to how state policy has impaired the
ability of many black Americans to
accumulate wealth and even discouraged
them from doing so from the beginning of
slavery throughout American history.
 Codified decisions to enslave African
Americans to local ordinances that barred
blacks from certain occupations to the
welfare state policies of modern times that
discourage wealth accumulation, the state
has erected major barriers to black
economic self sufficiency.
The racial wealth gap kept widening well after
the Civil Rights era.
RACIAL INEQUALITY
[OLIVER & SHAPIRO]
Economic Detours
Low levels of entrepreneurship and
businesses owned by African Americans.
Even though African Americans have
tried to gain access to funds etc. to start
their own businesses they have often
faced a hostile environment, in which
they were restricted by law from
participating in the open market.
Explicit state/local policies restricted the
rights of blacks as free economic agents.
RACIAL INEQUALITY
[OLIVER & SHAPIRO]
Sedimentation of Racial Inequality
simply meaning that in a very
centralized way the cumulative effects of
the past have seemingly cemented
blacks to the bottom of society economic
hierarchies.
A perpetuation of low wages, poor
educational opportunities, and
segregation has affected practically all
generations of African Americans well
into modern times.
Best indicator of the sedimentation of
racial inequality is wealth.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CLOSE THE INEQUALITY
GAP? [OLIVER & SHAPIRO]
Policy Changes:
First, policies need to directly address the plights of African Americans (i.e.
Minorities). These polices need to address historically generated disadvantages and
the current racially based policies that have limited the ability of blacks, as a group
to accumulate wealth.
Second, policies need to directly promote asset opportunities for those at the very
bottom of the social structure, both black, white, etc. who are lokeced out of the
wealth accumulation process. Calling for a mass redistributional policies in order to
reform the links between achievement, reward, social equality, and democracy. These
policies take aim at those at the very top (1%) who hold the majority of wealth.
WORK CITED
1. Covert, Bryce. "Black Small Business Owners Get Left Out Of Loans." ThinkProgress
RSS. ThinkProgress, 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.
2. Goyette, Braden. "15 Charts That Prove We're Far From Post-Racial." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Feb. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.
3. Oliver, Melvin L., and Thomas M. Shapiro. Black Wealth/white Wealth: A New
Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge, 1995. Print.
4. William, William J. "1-9, 12-23, 183-185." The Declining Significance of Race:
Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1978. N. pag.
Print.
5. Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the
1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.