exam 2 vocabulary
Ethnic enclave
An ethnic enclave is a semi-autonomous economy, large or small, that is owned, operated, and managed by members of the same immigrant or ethnic community. Some studies have shown that immigrants who work in ethnic enclaves earn more money than those in the mainstream economy, but others argue that they impede immigrants' upward mobility.
3. Compare Asian immigration with Latin American immigration. Identify and discuss the historical context relevant to the immigration process of Asian and Latin American immigrants. Identify and discuss the patterns (preferences, forms and so on) and the repercussions of immigration for each group. Discuss the social construction of the social and political "image" of different immigrant groups. Finally, compare the way immigrants of European descent were received and viewed with the way that Asian and Latin American immigrants were received and viewed by mainstream American society.
Asian immigration: term "Asian" is a European invention that homogenizes people of immensely different cultures. During gold rush, influx of Chinese laborers sparked anti-Chinese movement-foreign miners had to pay extra tax, prevented from testifying against whites, attended separate schools. Distorted in popular press as parasitic, soulless, and criminal. Accused of supplanting white labor according to 1877 newspaper. Victims of mob violence-LA 1871 lynching. 1875 Page Law barred virtually all Chinese women to prevent new generation of Chinese-American citizens. All Chinese banned in 1882 and nearly all other Asians under Immigration Act of 1924. Task of defining citizenship eligibility led to courts constructing Asians as a nonwhite group. Formed ethnic enclaves like Chinatown. Japanese sugar cane laborers migrated to Hawaii until 1907. Asian success in school led to prejudice. After pearl harbor bombing, forced Japanese internment camps Latin American immigration: Texas was annexed by the US, many Mexicans incorporated into US after treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. US companies recruited Mexican laborers that were exempted from National Origin System (at the same time Asians were restricted). Mass deportation "repatriation". Most brought from poor areas for agricultural work. Grew to largest racial minority in US. Vulnerability of workers without citizen status lead to abuse. Helped work on railroads during WWII 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act gave a preference to workers in occupations with labor shortage, led to increase in Asian and Latino immigration. Restricted 20k per country. Asians and Latinos have highest multiracial percentage European immigrants initially were considered ethnically different- Irishmen were considered lesser. But as time went on, they were able to leave poverty and were considered Americans because of their whiteness. Minority immigrants were not given this status and are still considered "other"
1. Discuss the ways in which racial politics have changed and/or stayed the same since the declared height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Address the ways in which politicians have charted their new political territory, the manner in which racial and ethnic political discourse is framed, and the role of the media in this process, as well as efforts to limit access to voting for certain groups.
Civil rights: Brown v. board 1954-separate but equal is unconstitutional. Resistance to desegregation. KKK out in the open. Violence across the south. Despite 15th amendment guaranteeing all men voting rights, there was still voting discrimination: literacy tests, black barred from primaries. Voting rights act of 1965 banned literacy tests and prohibited cote dilution, required preclearance (removed 2013) White backlash mounted in response to civil rights movement. Politicians that opposed racial justice got lots of support from white voters (Governor Wallace, Alabama. Reagan opposed Civil Rights Act). Used coded language to defend white power structure. Politicians distorted civil rights goals (discursive co-optation) by calling for color-blindness (notion that policies addressing social issues caused by years of racial domination were unjust). Since partisan realignment in 1970s, most white people are Republican and most nonwhites are Democratic. American electorate is racially polarized. Gerrymandering used by politicians to manipulate borders of political districts to secure political advantage and reduce influence of nonwhites (racial segregation allows this) Principle-implementation gap: whites accept racial inclusion but deny policies to carry it out Voter intimidation tactics and felon disenfranchisement used to discourage voters Media helps politicians to use implicit racial appeals to appeal to white voters. Media spokespersons summon up racial cues and coded language when reporting a story or debating (ex: calling Obama a Muslim)
. Deindustrialization
During the 1980s, the upward economic momentum propelled by industrialization that followed the second world war came to a halt. Manufacturing jobs began disappearing from the Northeast and Midwest, called deindustrialization. The factory was giving way to a service economy which widened the racial gap because many nonwhites were employed in low-wage factory work and white were four times more likely to be employed full time in service industries than blacks.
White flight and white fight
Fearing racial integration, many whites sold their houses in the city and fled to the suburbs, a migratory process known as white flight. White flight began in the 1950s, spurred on by deindustrialization. Others chose to ward off nonwhite families through intimidation tactics, protest, violence-a strategy that can be labeled white fight. Neighborhood homeowner's associations were employed as political vehicles through which white homeowners could "defend their property" from encroaching nonwhite populations.
Threat hypothesis
Holds that compared to whites who live in racially homogeneous areas, whites who live near nonwhites are more likely to develop racist attitudes of nonwhite people. As increased numbers of minorities compete for jobs, housing, etc., whites increasingly feel their economic well-being and dominance are threatened. As nonwhites enhance their political power, whites begin to feel their political hegemony is threatened. A larger minority population also fosters fear of crime. In response to any form of minority threat, it is hypothesized that whites will demand intensified social control to maintain dominant standing.
2. As discussed in our lecture and textbook, a series of recent data reveals that income and wealth are unevenly distributed across different racial/ethnic groups. Discuss the determinants of such racialized income and wealth disparities. Be sure to give concrete illustrations of how each determinant unequally affects each racial/ethnic group's chance to earn income or accumulate wealth.
I. history of race-based exclusion creates wealth inequality a. Reparations never given for slavery, Mexican deportation, Japanese internment, American Indian uprooting b. Historical discrimination in work opportunities such as during the New Deal. Ex: Social Security Act of 1935 denied nonwhites old-age and unemployment insurance by disqualified jobs dominated by nonwhite workers. Ex: Reagonomics giving money to people already rich increased wage gap c. racial disadvantages and advantages accumulate over generations d. by 1970, 82% of the wealthiest were born into fortune II. segregated labor force with lower pay a. 48% of Hispanics work in mostly Hispanic jobs and 44% of blacks work in mostly black jobs. b. When a job becomes associated with a dominated racial group (i.e. domestic service equated with Latinas or taxi drivers equated with Arab-American men) the job loses status and therefore wages III. institutional disadvantages a. banks less likely to offer credit to nonwhites- turn down black and Hispanic applicants two to three times more often than white applicants and nonwhites pay higher interest on mortgages b. houses in nonwhite neighborhoods do not accrue as much value as similar homes in white communities c. less likely to be hired for the same jobs-study with resume names as example d. homosocial reproduction - authorities fill positions of power with people like themselves
Segmented assimilation theory
It is the body of thought that explores the processes by which immigrants assimilate into different classes. Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou describe three common pathways to lower, middle, and upper class. Often determined by class privileges brought with them.
. Preclearance
Requirement of advance approval by a federal court or the Department of Justice for changes to voting regulations in certain states. After 2013, when the Supreme Court disabled the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act, the door was open to restrictive legislation in states that had been covered by the law. Strict ID requirements and other rules were implemented, restricting the access of poor and working class people and racial minorities.
Dissimilarity index
Summarizes the degree to which geographic subunits, such as neighborhoods, mirror the demographic balance of a larger entity like a city or a metropolitan area. The DI ranges from zero to one with one being completely segregated and zero meaning the neighborhood exactly matches the ethnic percentages of the population as a whole. It is standard to view cities with a DI under .3 as well integrated, those with a DI value between .3 and .6 as moderately segregated, and those with values above .6 as very segregated.
Residential segregation
can be defined as the separation of racial groups in urban space. This is caused by white fight- "collective action" (via legal or extralegal means) to exclude minorities from white neighborhoods. Nonwhite groups also face discrimination by realtors, landlords, and financial institutions. Finally, residential segregation can arise when whites leave areas as they become racially diverse-known as white flight. Results of residential segregation include prevention of residents from interacting with middle-class role models or from accessing a wide array of job opportunities.
4. Discuss the concept of racial and ethnic segregation at both the macro and micro levels. Define and provide an example of how to measure "evenness" and a) use it to describe a major metropolitan area in the United States and b) describe how it has changed for a group of your choice across time. Finally, make a case for why we should or should not care about the implications of racial and ethnic residential segregation for addressing inequality in life-chances (e.g., schooling, labor market outcomes, health, etc.)
macro-distribution across US, micro-distribution in a single city degree of segregation measured by percentage of a certain racial group that would have to move to other neighborhoods to obtain zero segregation (aka matches racial composition of city as a whole as defined by dissimilarity index). For example, in a city with 30% blacks, in a neighborhood that is 50% black, 20% of those people would have to move to neighborhood where black population is below 30% to achieve perfect integration. a) most segregated large metropolitan area for blacks in Milwaukee, WI. 40% black alone in the city. State of Wisconsin is only 5.7 percent black. Majority of blacks would have to move to have perfect integration b) blacks twice as likely to be segregated from other racial groups and are 60% more segregated than Hispanics and Asians. In 2000, blacks made up 39% of high-poverty neighborhoods. Overall, in the period from 1980-2000, residential segregation between the black and white population has decreased at a greater rate than other minority groups.[5] However, the African American population, currently the second largest minority group in the United States, still experiences the greatest residential segregation compared to other minority groups.[7] The older industrial cities of the Midwest and Northeast, experience the highest levels of black-white residential segregation, while the newer metropolitan areas of the South are experiences lesser levels of black-white residential segregation. The presence of a black population in the suburbs continues to increase with 40% of African Americans currently living in the suburbs.[5] causes of racial segregation: economic factors, personal choice of whites (nonwhites usually prefer integrated neighborhoods), housing discrimination-"steering" consequences of segregation: mortgages with inflated interest rates, houses not worth as much as in white communities, living conditions-disrepair, far from health services, higher crime rates, political consequences-marginalizes nonwhites in political arena, poor schools because half of all property tax revenue is used for public education, symbolic-appearance that racial divisions are real and natural, environmental racism- 3/5 of African Americans live in areas with toxic waste dumps. "social distance"
