SOC 215 Exam 2
Assimilation
- "Optional Ethnicity" -> Irish identity is largely symbolic -Religion continues to serve as an identity marker -Interethnic marriage rates increasing -Evidence suggests complete assimilation will occur -21st century stereotypes softened to fun-loving drunk and brawlers -"New Immigration" The Second Great Wave (1880-1910s) -Most from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia) -Food Shortages and high unemployment -Increased labor opportunities in Britain and Germany reduced their need to migrate -Labor demands in US industries -Non-Protestant (Catholic, Jewish) -Primarily peasants from poorer countries -Most expected to sojourn -Primarily men expecting to return home
Arab Does Not Equal Muslim
-95% of Arabs in the Middle East are Muslim -Most Muslims in the world are not Arab -Most Muslims live in South and Southeast Asia -Most Arab Americans are Christian -Number of Muslim Arab Americans is growing -25% of Muslims in the US are African Americans
Hart-Cellar Act 1965
-Abolished national quotas -Replaced with hemispheric quotas -Set criteria based on family reunification and occupational skills -Lawmakers predicted that the main beneficiaries of the new law would be immigrants from Italy Greece, and Poland
Arab Americans
-About 3.5 million live in the U.S. (Less than 1%) -22 Nations of Origin -Arabic language is single most unifying force -Most Middle Easterners are Arab -Largest Arab Americans groups: -Lebanese (37%) -Egyptian (12%) and Syrian (12%)
Health and Mortality
-African Americans live 5 years less than whites. -Infant mortality rate is higher amount minority groups than whites. -American indians live 3 years less than three than whites -African Americans and Hispanics get sick more than whites
The Great Dismal Swamp
-African slaves began populating as early as 1620s -Established settlement by 1680 through the Civil War -Estimated 50,000 residents during that time (10 generations) -Panthers, bears, birds, deer, amphibians, venomous snakes, biting insects, high heat, and humidity -All labor was communal -Day Sayers, Historical Archeologist, American University currently excavating one 20-acre island since 2003.
White
-American Indians could more easily -White depended on American Indians could more easily escape Institutionalized of Paternalistic Caste Relations (plantations became the dominant mode of economic productions over the next 200 years.) -Anti-black ideology and racism increased over that time to justify slavery -Biologically and intellectually inferior to Whites -Prejudices against other groups were more political or religious
A Trail of Broken Treaties
-An American Indian Protest -Indians were forced to move off of their land -Whites saw the land as strictly theirs and didn't let the indians pass through it, while the indians thought they were just sharing their land with the whites. -As the white population grew, they forced the indians even farther (from Georgia to Oklahoma) -1/4 of Cherokees died on this "trail of tears"
Discrimination and Prejudice
-Anti-Catholicism at the core of nativists antagonism - "No Irish Need Apply" -Many of the same negative portrayals of blacks were aimed at the Irish -Caricatures of the Irish as "apelike" -Inferior culturally and biologically
Assimilation today
-Assimilation the preeminent pattern of White ethnic groups -Indications of cultural assimilation -As class rises, assimilation increases -Interethnic marriage rates increasing for all White ethnics
The Reservation System
-Became prison-like. -Stripped indians from their rights (1871) -heavily guarded by US army -Denied to vote, had to speak english -white behavior was shaped by paternalism and ethnocentrism.
Origins of Ethnic Stratification
-Both Hispanis and Anglos favored the latter approach and sided w/ the federalist. Why did conflict happen? -Texas's independence from Mexico accelerated the influx of white immigrants, mostly from the south. -Mexicans were deprived of their land, which served Anglos not Mexican interests.
Asian Americans
-Chinese Exclusion Act (1982) eventually expanded to include all Asian immigration in 1924. -Economic Order 9066 (1942) -The US government argued that the relocation campus were vital to the national security of the US. -Applied almost exclusively to persons of Japanese descent -110,000 Japanese were relocated to internment camps. -Two-thirds of those interned were American-born second- and third- generation.
Irish and Whiteness
-Demonstrate the fluidity of "race" -The first racially in-between group later assigned to the "White" race -Other Catholic and Jewish immigrants encountered similar stages - "White" decided through government policy and employer preferences -In order to authenticate their "white" status, Irish workers refused to work with Blacks and monopolized occupations previously filled by free black laborers
Changes in Economics
-Development of sizable middle-class among all groups -Closing educational gaps -Increase in social mobility -Class stratification within the black community (and other minority groups) -Underclass Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, American Indians -Trapped in poverty for generations, frequently isolated
Mexican Americans
-Dual-wage system and segregation -Bracero program (1942-47, 1951-64) -Mexican workers allowed to enter the US for low-paying jobs (farm and transportation) but could not relocate permanently. -Targets of mass violence following WWII fueled by the media
African Americans
-Early to mid-17th century; Black initially held the status equal to white indentured servants -Chattel slavery legally established in 1660s. -Both functionalism and conflict necessary to understand the enslavement of Africans (plantation system, easier to enslave than other groups, ethnocentrism).
Causes of Anglo-Chicano Inequality
-Ethnocentrism -Competition- for land in Texas. -Racist stereotypes were developed -Manifest Destiny, which was used to justify annexation of Mexican territory and to displace both Mexican Americans and Indians from their land. -Unequal power (whites had more) -As the Anglo population grew, they gained political power.
Causes of the Subordination of Indian People
-Ethnocentrism, Competition, Unequal Power.
Internal Colonialism
-Forced to participate in a different society -Subjected to some form of unfree labor -Typically isolated form the dominant group -Culture and social institutions of the colonized group are subjected to attack -More intense prejudice than experienced by immigrant minorities -Caste like patterns of intergroup relations
Mendez v. Westminster (1947) and the California Education Code
-Governor Earl Warren, Thurgood Marshall
Poverty
-In 2015, 41.2% of all those in poverty were Non-Hispanic White (compared to 63.9% of the total population)* (because they are the largest group) -2015 Household Poverty Rates: Blacks 24.1% Hispanics 21.4% Asians 11.4% Non-Hispanic whites: 9.1%
Factors Causing the Changes in Race Relations
-Industrialization and urbanization -Geographic and social mobility required to maximize efficiency in a modern society -Rising levels of education -Economic growth -New opportunities for minorities in expanding economy -Reduced competition and greater economic security -Increased assertiveness of minorities -Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s.
Demographics Today
-Irish Americans the largest White ethnic group -Italian Americans the second largest group -Northeast, heavily urbanized -3rd and 4th generation solidly middle class -More working class Italians than Jews, Irish, and other White ethnic groups
Social Class
-Irish working-class upward mobility -The rise of labor unions -Urban political machines -GI Bill led substantial mobility -Median household income lower than most White ethnic groups but solidly in the middle class
Irish Women
-Large component of Irish immigration was single women -Greater likelihood of finding a husband in the US -Readily available for employment -Live in domestic servants
Italian Americans
-Largest group of the "new" immigrants -Archetypal White ethnic experience -Primarily from southern Italy -Poor and uneducated -Mainly agricultural peasants -Limited economic opportunity, poor health conditions -1880-1915: 4m to US -Most did not expect to stay (and many returned)
Consequences of colonized status
-Less Assimilation -Greater Exploitation -Lower Status
Jewish Americans (religion and ethnic group)
-Less than 2% of the US population -Intermarriage rates are higher than 50% -Higher levels of educational attainment and higher median incomes than the national population -Almost half live in the Northeast -Highly urbanized
Famine Irish
-Mass immigration of Irish Catholics -Famine and disease were rampant -Failing rural economy -Religious oppression -1845-55: 25% of Ireland's population emigrated overseas -1.5m to the US
Mexican Americans
-Mexcian and Anglo residents in the early stages of southwestern settlement lived side by side w/ similar status and cooperative relationships -Three major areas: Texas, California, Nuevo Mexico (present-day Arizona and New Mexico) -In these areas the lifestyles and modes of production are mostly one of equality and cooperation, although both group were oppressed in different ways.
Shift to Fluid Competitive Race Relations
-Mixture of caste and class -Less restricted intergroup competition -Open discrimination less common and typically prohibited
Geography
-More than half of African Americans live in the South 91% live in urban areas -Hispanics more urbanized than Blacks -More than half in CA and TX -Puerto Ricans in the Northeast -Cubans in Florida -Native Americans live primarily in the West, more likely to live in rural areas than other groups -OK, CA, AZ -Asians concentrated in the West: CA and HI -Also NY, IL, and TX -The most urbanized group
Changes in Attitudes
-Overt prejudice has declined -Cognitive, affective, and conative -Decline in racist ideology -Cultural racism has increased the belief that minorities have developed cultural characteristics that place them at a disadvantage -Cultural inferiority at the extreme -Symbolic racism an unwillingness to make the necessary changes to eliminate racial inequality
Exploitation of Labor
-Paternalistic pattern of race relations similar to African Americans -Ethnicity largely determined status and economic position (mines, farms) -Farm workers were not allowed to unionize until the 1970s (still illegal in most states) -Assumption about Mexican American skill sets and well-being. -Geographic mobility distinguished them from other paternalistic system
Ethnocentrism alone cannot explain the enslavement of Blacks
-Prejudice was primarily against non-Christians -Many White indentured servants, were Scottish, Irish, or Catholics
Postbellum North
-Prejudice, discrimination, and racist ideology against racial and ethnic minorities intensified - "Sundown towns" were more common in the North -Unrestricted capitalism led to widespread exploitation of labor -Great Migration coincided with increased immigration on both coasts -Intense competition for jobs and housing -Strikebreakers -Desperate for work -Some blacks mistrusted unions because they excluded Blacks -The only access to better jobs -Employers exploited these tensions -Tension and discrimination intensified -Outbreaks of racial violence and riots
Irish Settlement and Work
-Primarily poor peasants with low levels of education and job skills -Railroad and canal construction, stevedores, building projects in cities -Cities in the Northeast -Urban slums produced higher death rates than in Ireland -Blatant discrimination by Anglo Protestants -Many turned to alcohol and crime -strengthened the stereotypes of the Irish as corrupt, violent, drunken, and unassimilable
Plantation System
-Primary cause of slavery (US and the Western Hemisphere) -Plantation owners became the dominant economic and political elite. -More than half the slaves were owned by just 3% of Southern White families -Required cheap, dependable labor to a mass wealth (exploitation)
Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act)
-Prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and sex.
Immigration Act of 1924 (National Origins Act)
-Restrictive quotas on all southern and Eastern Europeans -Prohibited all Asians except Filipinos (Filipinos excluded 10 years later) -Mexican Americans exempt until 1930 in response to the Great Depression
The Church
-Second strongest Irish impression is the Catholic Church -Took control of the church hierarchy -Establishment of parochial schools at all educational levels
Settlement
-Settled in cities -Low-paid unskilled labor: roads, rail lines, subways, factories -Chain migration process -Urban slums vacated by earlier ethnic groups -Economic necessity -Ethnic enclaves Prejudice and Discrimination -Anti-Catholicism -Italians replaced the Irish as the chief target group -Viewed as ignorant, lazy dirty, violent, and criminally oriented -The most enduring negative stereotype is the connection to organized crime
Resurgent Nativism and the End of the Second Wave
-Sharp cultural and class differences -Popular notions of Social Darwinism led to wide assumptions of cultural inferiority -Nativist feelings and racist theories climaxed in the 1920s
Institutionalization of Paternalistic Caste Relations
-Status based on race -Complex racial etiquette -Little outward racial conflict (uprisings were feared) -Blacks were outnumbered, scattered, slave codes, escaping whites was difficult -Prohibited from reading, writing, unauthorized traveling (e.g. Alabama Slave Code, 1833) -Did exercise agency in other ways
Unequal Power
-Supply of servants were less likely to continue from Western Europe -Blacks were racially identifiable compared to Whites -Instituting enslavement or challenging with large numbers of freed (former servants)
Urban Politics
-The most significant mark of Irish immigrants -No ethnic group ever more successfully exploited urban politics -Took command of the Democratic Party and created an effective(corrupt) political machine -Served as key supports for individuals and families -Initially served Irish interests and later Poles, Italians, Jews and others
Lynching
-There must be evidence that someone was killed; - The killing must have occurred illegally; -Three or more persons must have taken part in the killing; and -The killers must have claimed to be serving justice or tradition -Between 1877 and 1950: over 4,000 -Led to the mass exodus of Blacks to the North (aka the Great Migration)
Native Americans
-Three major groups of Europeans-Spanish, French, and British were involved in the conquest and settlement of North America by whites. -The greatest influence on Indian-White relations was the British -Spanish (Florida, Southwest had a wider effect because of the spread of horses). -French (Northeast) -Spanish came mainly to seek wealth, and to convert souls to Christianity -It was important to the French and British to trade with the Indians. (French wanted fur) -The pilgrims couldn't survive the winter without natives. -The British mainly wanted to settle -Adding in ethnocentrism, conflict broke out between British and american indians. -Reservations the equivalent of internment camps (guarded by the US Army, Unable to leave without a pass) -More Indians died due to European disease then they did from warfare.
Arab American Immigration
-Two Waves: -1890s-1920s -Christian: Lebanese and Syrian -Peddlers, shopkeepers, factory workers -rapid assimilation -Tremendous growth since 1980 -Iraqi, Yemeni, Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian -Fleeing political unrest -Muslims Predominate -Absorption problematic
Other White Ethnics
-White Ethnics Groups that immigrated to the US since 1900 (Southern and Eastern Europe) -Not Protestant -Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox
Optional Ethnicity (Mary Waters)
-Whites have the option of highlighting their ethnic identity or just being "White" or "American" -The option of choosing which ancestry to highlight for personal gain (and which cultural traits) -Whites often portrayed as culture-less or boring so ethnic pride feels "special" or "interesting" -Whites can shed these identities as needed, at any time
The Indian Reservation and the Slave Plantation: A Comparison
-status was based totally on racial or ethnic identity -neither group could travel freely -the use of paternalism -Blacks were exploited for labor and Natives were exploited for their land.
Origins of Ethnic Inequality (Noel 1968)
1. Ethnocentrism 2. Competition or opportunity for exploitation 3. Unequal power
1. Most likely to own a home? 2. Least Likely?
1.Non-Hispanic whites 2. Blacks
Rigid Competitive Race Relations
Also similar to a caste system. They are allowed to to compete, such as for jobs and housing. The competition tends to lead to more discrimination toward the minority group. There is extensive open conflict.
Education:
Asian Americans advance more than any other group -At every level Hispanics are least likely to complete any degrees -High school (Non-hispanic whites have the most graduates)
Native Americans top three
Cherokee, Navaho, and Choctaw -The largest American Indian reservation is Navaho
Largest Asian Group
Chinese, then Asian Indian, and Pilipino
Internal Colonialism (Blauner)
Distinguishes between conquered peoples who became part of the US involuntarily and those who entered voluntarily.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin
Fluid Competitive Race Relations
Has more elements of the class system. The main difference between fluid and rigid competitive race relations is that in the fluid pattern, open and formalized discrimination usually has been outlawed. Minority groups start off with fewer resources because of past discrimination. Some majority groups still discriminate even though it is not socially approved. When there is competition, people tend to act on what race they are, which leads to racial conflict. -Although minorities are less restricted, there still is inequality. -racial competition (even more than rigid competitive race relations).
Largest minority group
Hispanic
Largest Hispanic Group?
Mexican, followed by Puerto Ricans, then Cubans
System of Production
Paternalistic system- Agricultural, usually plantation or feudal Rigid Competitive- Early urban industrial Fluid Competitive- Advanced industrial and corporate
Division of Labor
Paternalistic- By race; simple division of labor Rigid Competitive- Variable, but dominant group is often numerically small Fluid Competitive- Complex specialization; race is moderately related to typeof work; wide variation within all racial groups
Stratification
Paternalistic- Caste; group determines status. Rigid Competitive- Unstable caste; group usually determines status with some exceptions Fluid Competitive- Mixture of caste and class; within-group status variation but still racial stratification
Relative Size of Groups
Paternalistic- Dominate group is usually the numerical majority Rigid Competitive- Variable, but dominant group is often numerically small. Fluid Competitive- Dominant group is usually the numerical majority
Consensus vs. Conflict
Paternalistic- Little outward conflict, apparent consensus on most issues Rigid Competitive- Some racial conflict; occasional violent outburst Fluid Competitive- Diverse values; institutionalized conflict in racial and other areas.
Racial Interaction
Paternalistic- Much interaction, but highly unequal; little separation of races Rigid Competitive- Little and mostly unequal interaction; almost total separation of races Fluid Competitive- More interaction than rigid, less than paternalistic; more equal interaction than either of the others.
Examples
Paternalistic- US during slavery; many South American countries during slavery. Rigid Competition- US South after slavery, South Africa after WWII. Fluid Competitive- US and Great Britain today.
Mobility
Paternalistic- Very low Rigid Competitive- Low to moderate Fluid Competitive- Relatively high, but not unlimited
Achieved Status
People gain through their own actions, not the status they were born into.
Class System
Position based on achieved status.
Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1965
Protected the voting rights of Blacks and other minorities
Postbellum South
Reconstruction (1865-1877) -13th , 14th , and 15th Amendments passed to formally end slavery, provide equal rights to Blacks, including the right to vote. -Martial law enacted to enforce -Freedman's Bureau: Provide food, education, medical care, transportation, and some cases land to freed slaves (and many needy whites) -Increased political power of Confederates and the establishment of the KKK. -Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) "separate but equal" doctrine upheld -Legal segregation enforced; prejudice and ideological racism intensified (especially among poor and working-class whites) -Racial etiquette: Physical and social distance was strictly enforced including anti-miscegenation laws -1890s: disenfranchisement stripped blacks of political power for decades
Paternalistic Race Relations
Similar to caste system, in which one's race by and large determines one's status for life and that of one's children as well. Minorities are not permitted to compete with the dominant group, therefore there is no competition. The dominant group thinks that they are doing the minority group a favor as it is giving them shelter and civilizing them. There is no racial conflict. Example: Slavery in the US and South American.
Ascribed Status
The group into which one is born-totally determines people's opportunities throughout their lives.
Caste System
Two or more rigidly defined and unequal groups-based on ascribed status
Zoot Suit Riots 1943
White servicemen attacked Chicano youth who were viewed as disrespectful and unpatriotic, targeted for their clothing.
Wealth inequality
White's net worth is 13 times higher than black.
Who are we?
Whites make up 2/3 (63%)
Draft Riot (1863)
Whites protested being drafted to fight in the Civil War
Immigration
a group enters an established group and becomes part of that society (Voluntary to involuntary)
Colonized minority
a group that is conquered or annexed by force (initial mode of contact). -Examples: African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans
Colonization
conquer and subordinate an indigenous group
Immigrant minority
entered willingly
Annexation
expansion into territory (conquest, voluntary, sales)
Whiteness
is an important part of the identity of people in all subgroups within the white population.
Tendency for greater stratification when:
originally occurred through colonization, involuntary annexation or involuntary migration.
Antebellum North
rigid competitive pattern already well developed before the Civil War.
Brown v. Board Education 1954
separate schools were unconstitutional. -Extended throughout the 1950s and 1960s to all publicly operated program and facilities.
