Social Problems Ch 8 Vocab and Main Points

As more minorities enter high-status work, they are confronting new discrimination practices in the form of

"job ceilings" that keep them out of executive suites and boardrooms

2 Explanations of Ethnic and Racial Inequality: Deficiency Theories

1. Biological Deficiency 2. Cultural Deficiency

Dominant Group

Group assigning subordinate status to minority groups

Individual Racism

Overt acts by individuals that harm members of another race

Environmental Racism

The disproportionate exposure of some racial groups to toxic substances

African Americans in the US over time

1. In 2010, African Americans were 13 percent of the population. Before 1990, virtually all African Americans descended from people who were brought involuntarily to the United States before the slave trade ended in the nineteenth century 2. In the past two decades, the Black population in the United States has changed due to immigration from Africa and the Caribbean. In fact, more Blacks are coming from Africa than during the slave trade. Black immigration from Africa and the Caribbean is making the population more diverse and posing unique challenges to today's Black immigrants. Black immigration is also changing what it means to be Black. It has sparked a new debate about the "African American." It ignores the enormous linguistic, physical, and cultural diversity of the peoples of Africa. The term Black is also problematic in that it risks conflating people of African descent who were brought here as slaves with recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean

Asian-Americans in the US over time

1. In 2010, Asian Americans made up about 4.8 percent of the U.S. population. Asians are now the largest group of new immigrants in the United States. In 2010, 36 percent of new immigrants were Asian compared with 32 percent for Hispanics. 2. Pan-Asian: encompasses immigrants from Asian and Pacific Island countries and native-born citizens descended from those ethnic groups, which rose as a term and movement in the 1960's 3. Most come from recent immigrant families, but many Asian Americans can trace their family's American history back more than 150 years 4. The 1879 California Constitution barred the hiring of Chinese workers, and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 halted the entry of most Chinese immigrants until 1943 5. On the one hand, many arrived as educated middle-class professionals with highly valued skills and some knowledge of English. Others, such as the Indochinese, arrived as uneducated, impoverished refugees 6. Asian Americans taken together have higher average incomes than do other groups in the United States. Although a large segment of this population is financially well off, many are poor. Asian Americans are seen as "the model minority," a well-educated and upwardly mobile group. But this stereotype is misleading. Not only is it used to blame other racial minorities for their own inequality, but it also ignores both the history of discrimination against Asians and their wide differences.

Native Americans in the US over time

1. Native American or American Indian population is larger than it has been for centuries. Now at 2 percent of the total U.S. population, Native Americans have more autonomy and are more self-sufficient than at any time since the last century 2. By 1980, despite poverty rates as high as 60% on many Indian reservations, poverty among Native Americans had declined 3. Over the past few decades, Native Americans have made important gains in cutting poverty rates and increasing their educational levels 4. Today, Native Americans have a poverty rate of almost 27%, twice the White poverty rate. Native peoples rank at the bottom of most U.S. socioeconomic indicators, with the lowest levels of life expectancy, per capita income, employment, and education 5. A college-educated Native American middle class has emerged, Native American business ownership has increased, and some tribes are creating good jobs for their members

Discrimination Against African Americans and Latinxs: Continuity and Change

1. No matter how affluent or influential, Blacks and other dark-skinned people are vulnerable to "microinsults" such as being followed around in stores 2. As some successful people of color have become richer, many more unsuccessful ones have been marginalized

Institutional derogation occurs when minority groups and their members are made to seem inferior or to possess negative stereotypes through legitimate means by the powerful in society. The portrayal of minority group members in the media (movies, television, newspapers, and magazines) is often derogatory

1. Such stereotypes are "controlling images" that define perceptions of minorities 2. The ideas that pervade today's mass media obscure pervasive racial inequality

Latinxs in the US over time

1. The Hispanic category was created by federal statisticians to provide data on people of Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and other Hispanic origins in the United States. The term was chosen as a label that could be applied to all people from the Spanish- speaking countries of Latin America and from Spain. Because the population is so diverse, there is no precise definition of group membership 2. Latinxs tend to view themselves more by their ethnicity, meaning their national origins, language, and customs 3. The rapid growth of the Latinx population in recent years came from births, not immigration (most are not immigrants) 4. As a result of these different histories, Latinxs are found in many legal and social statuses—from fifth-generation Americans to new immigrants, from affluent and well-educated to poor and unschooled. Such diversity means that there is no "Hispanic" population in the sense that there is a Black population. Latinxs do not have a common history. They do not compose a single community. Rather, they are collection of groups with different national origins, languages, racial identifications, and socioeconomic statuses 5. Mexican Americans in the Southwest lost property and political rights as Anglos moved into the region in the 1800s. As late as the 1940s, local ordinances in some Texas cities blocked Mexican Americans from owning real estate or voting. Also, Mexican Americans were required to attend segregated public schools in many jurisdictions before 1950

Why is U.S. society organized along racial lines? Sociologists have a long-standing debate over the relative importance of race and class in shaping systems of racial inequality

1. Those emphasizing class contend that the economy and class system are what produce racial inequality. Some scholars argue that modern race relations are produced by world capitalism. This perspective contends that capitalism as a system of class exploitation has shaped race and racism in the United States and the world. 2. Other structural theories point to race itself as a primary shaper of inequality. For example, racial-formation theory explains the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created. This theory proposes that the United States is organized along racial lines from top to bottom—a racial state composed of institutions and policies to support and justify racial stratification 3. Another theory: systematic racism—includes a diverse assortment of racism practices: the unjustly gained economic and political power of Whites, the continuing resource inequalities, and the White- racism ideologies, attitudes, and institutions created to preserve White advantages and power. Systemic racism is both structural and interpersonal. "At the macrolevel, large-scale institutions . . . routinely perpetuate racial subordination and inequalities. These institutions are created and re-created by routine actions at the microlevel by individuals". Systemic racism is far more than a matter of individual bigotry, for it has been from the beginning a mental, social, and ideological reality

Structural theories of racism all agree on the facts that

1. history is important in determining present conditions and affecting resistance to change 2. discrimination can occur without conscious bigotry. With or without malicious intent, racial discrimination is the "normal" outcome of the system. Even if racism-in-the-head disappeared, racism-in-the-world would not, because it is the system that disadvantages 3. institutional discrimination is reinforced because institutions are interrelated. The exclusion of minorities from the upper levels of education, for example, is likely to affect their opportunities in other institutions

Racial-Ethnic Groups are meant to include

1. the systematic discrimination of socially constructed racial groups 2. their distinctive cultural arrangements. The categories of African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American have been constructed as both racially and culturally distinct. Each group has a distinctive culture, shares a common heritage, and has developed a common identity within a larger society that subordinates it

Despite some progress toward integration in the last decade of the twentieth century, neighborhood segregation is a key feature of the U.S. social landscape

African Americans, in particular, continue to live in segregated neighborhoods in exceptionally high numbers. Levels of Hispanic segregation have also risen. Residential segregation deprives minorities of economic and educational opportunities

In the United States some groups have given up their ethnic customs, while others remain distinctive

As European countries struggle with political and economic integration, people may no longer identify as Italian, but as Lombardians, Sicilians, or Romans. "The arrival of large numbers of people from the Middle East, East Asia, and Africa—many European countries now have minority ethnic populations of around 10 percent—is pushing aside old concepts of what it means to be French, or German, or Swedish"

Institutional Racism

Established and customary social arrangements that exclude on the basis of race

Groups identified as races came into contact with the dominant majority through force and state-sanctioned discrimination in work that was unfree and offered little opportunity for upward mobility. In contrast,

European ethnics migrated to the United States voluntarily to enhance their status or to market their skills in a land of opportunity. They came with hope and sometimes with resources to provide a foundation for their upward mobility. Unlike racial groups, most had the option of returning if they found the conditions here unsatisfactory.

Bias Theories

Explanations that blame the prejudiced attitudes of majority members for the secondary status of minorities

Structural Discrimination Theories

Explanations that focus on the institutionalized patterns of discrimination as the sources of the secondary status of minorities

Deficiency Theories

Explanations that view the secondary status of minorities as the result of their own behaviors and cultural traits

Ethnic groups have long been present in the United States, for example, since colonial times

Germans, Italians, Poles, Irish, and other groups have arrived with their own languages, religions, and culture

Racial-Ethnic Group

Group labeled as a "race" by the wider society and bound together by members' common social and economic conditions, resulting in distinctive cultural and ethnic characteristics

Ethnic Groups

Groups characterized by culturally distinctive characteristics based on race, religion, or national origin

Color-Blindness is the basis for the current downsizing of policies related to affirmative action, school desegregation, and voting rights

Growing racial populations are controlled through many different forms of discrimination, including employment practices, neighborhood and school segregation, and other inequalities. In addition, the demise of the welfare state and the retreat from healthcare and other forms of social responsibility have caused minorities to lose ground. Finally, international systems of dominance (global capitalism and geopolitical relations) are producing still more racial inequalities in the United States

Color-Blindness

Idea that race no longer matters in explaining inequality or in policymaking because racism has been overcome

Minorities are more likely to work in low-skilled occupations and less likely to work in managerial or professional occupations

Immigrants generally work in the lowest rungs of the low-wage workforce

The average income for White families and households is greater than the average income for those of Blacks and Hispanics

In 2010, the median income of Black households was about $35,000, the median income of White households was about $55,000, and the median income of Hispanic households was about $41,000. Even though the median household income for Blacks is still below that of Hispanics, per person income for Hispanics is actually lower because Hispanics tend to have larger households.

The loss of jobs in Rust Belt cities has left many Puerto Ricans living in a bleak ghetto economy.

Mexicans living in the Southwest, where low-paying jobs remain, have not suffered the same degree of economic dislocation.

Racial Formation

Sociohistorical process by which races are continually being shaped and transformed (ex: groups once self-defined by their ethnic backgrounds such as Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans are racialized as "Hispanics" and "Asian Americans." Middle Easterners coming from such countries as Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iran are commonly grouped together and called "Arabs.")

Minority Group

Subordinate group in society

Racial Stratification

System of inequality in which race is the major criterion for rank and rewards

"Cost of Being Black"

Term sociologists use to describe phenomenon that White families generally have greater resources for their children and bequeath them as assets at death

Hurricane Katrina: Racism Involved?

The Lower Ninth Ward, very poor and almost entirely Black, was one of the most heavily damaged areas of the city, while Whites disproportionately lived in more affluent higher areas less likely to suffer flooding

Why are some groups dominant and others subordinate?

The basic reason is power— power derived from superior numbers, technology, weapons, property, or economic resources. Those holding superior power in a society—the dominant group—establish a system of inequality by dominating less powerful groups. This system of inequality is then maintained by power

Sociologist William J. Wilson found that the problems of the inner city are due to transformations of the larger economy and to the class structure of ghetto neighborhoods

The movement of middle-class Black professionals from the inner city has left behind a concentration of the most disadvantaged segments of the Black urban population

The wealth gaps between Whites and minorities have grown to their widest levels in a quarter of a century

The recession and uneven recovery have erased decades of minority gains, leaving Whites with twenty times the net worth of Black households and eighteen times that of Hispanic households

Explanations of Ethnic and Racial Inequality: Bias Theories

They blame individuals who hold prejudiced attitudes toward minorities. This argument reduces racism to the "prejudiced" acts of individual White Americans. But, many sociologists have argued that prejudiced attitudes are not the essence of racism. For example, David Wellman has challenged the notion that the hostile attitudes of White Americans, especially lower-class Whites, are the major cause of racism. Instead, he shows that many unprejudiced White people defend the traditional social arrangements that negatively affect minorities. Research shows that although prejudice has declined, most White Americans are still unwilling to support social practices and policies to address racial inequalities.

Hispanics are the most likely to be without health coverage

Thirty percent of Hispanics, 18 percent of African Americans, 15 percent of Asian Americans, and 13 percent of Whites were not covered by private or government medical insurance in 2010

Even with a college degree, African Americans and Latinxs have higher unemployment rates than their White counterparts

This is compounded by the reality that education does not pay equally. Minority membership, regardless of the level of education, is underpaid compared with Whites of similar education

Skin color complicates racial differences because it is

a basis of ranking that favors lighter skin over darker skin. Both within and across racial and ethnic groups, lighter-skinned people have more advantages than those with darker skin

Hispanics *are racialized* in the United States. Although classified as an ethnic group, "Hispanic" encompasses

a range of ethnic groups. At the same time, although Hispanics are not officially defined as a race, they are socially defined in racial terms. In other words, the dominant society treats them as racially inferior. Hispanics are treated as a racial group, and many identify themselves as belonging to a distinctive racial category.

Race is used for socially marking groups on the basis of presumed physical differences, ethnicity on the other hand

allows for a broader range of affiliation

Compared to the general population, Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to have a consistent source of medical care

and more likely to use emergency rooms as a primary source of care

Racial minority individuals in lower-class communities are more likely to

be stopped, interrogated, arrested, and prosecuted

Groups *labeled as races* by the wider society are

bound together by their common social and economic conditions

The determining feature of dominant-minority relations is not prejudice but

differential systems of privilege and disadvantage. "The subordination of people of color is functional to the operation of American society as we know it and the color of one's skin is a primary determinant of people's position in the social structure". Even if active dislike of minorities ceases, "persistent social patterns can endure over time, affecting whom we marry, where we live, what we believe and do, and so forth"

In addition to racist websites, cyber extremism flourishes in

e-mail and in discus- sion groups and chat rooms. Racism is also fueled by the proliferation of cable TV hosts who spread and legitimize extremist propaganda

Over the past few years, students of color have reported a dramatic increase in acts of racial discrimination, intolerance, hate crimes, and insensitivity among different cultures at institutions of higher education

every year more than half a million college students are targets of bias-driven slurs or physical assaults. Every day, at least one hate crime occurs on a college campus, and every minute, a college student somewhere sees or hears racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise biased words or images

In large cities across the nation, African Americans are much more likely than Whites to live in communities that are

geographically and economically isolated from the economic opportunities, services, and institutions that families need to succeed.

According to sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, racial inequality exists because

it benefits members of the dominant race

Institutional racism is structural in that

it is, a complex pattern of racial advantage built into the structure of society—a system of power and privilege that advantages some groups over others

Racial Oppression

keeping people of color down—that is, crushing them physically and in many other ways

Just as social classes exist in relation to each other, "races" are

labeled and judged *in relation to* other races

Deficiency theories blame

minorities for their plight

We tend to see race through a Black and White lens, thereby

neglecting other rapidly growing racial groups

Race is not simply a matter of two opposite categories but

of power relations between dominant and subordinate groups

Race and ethnicity have differed in how they incorporated groups into society like how

race was the social construction setting people of color apart from European immigrant groups.

We think of Whites, the dominant group, as

raceless, or having no race at all. In this view, Whiteness is the natural or normal condition. It is racially unmarked and immune to investigation.

Sociologists agree that race is socially constructed. This means that some groups are racially defined, even though

races per se, do not exist. What does exist is the idea that races are distinct biological categories. Races are thought to be physically distinguishable populations that share a common ancestry.

Because institutional racism views inequality as part of society's structure, individuals and groups discriminate

regardless of whether they are bigots. These individuals and groups operate within a social milieu that ensures racial dominance. The social milieu includes laws, customs, religious beliefs, and the stable arrangements and practices through which things get done in society. Institutional or structural racism is not about beliefs. It is not only about actions directed at those considered racially different (meaning those not considered White)

Anti-Hispanic sentiment increased steadily during the last two decades, producing

restrictive immigration laws and policies such as Arizona's 2010 legislation requiring immigrants to carry proof of their legal status and to show IDs to police officers who suspect they may be illegally in the United States

The most important characteristic of a minority group is

that it is dominated by a more powerful group

Optional Ethnicity

the ability to choose whether to identify with a group of origin and which cultural traits to keep. This option is possible for some White groups, but generally not for people of color who remain different from the dominant society because racial discrimination sets them apart from others

Deficiency and bias theories focus, incorrectly, on individuals

the first on minority flaws and the second on the flawed attitudes of the majority. Both kinds of theory ignore the social system that oppresses minorities

The racial order shapes

the lives of all people, even Whites who are advantaged by the system

In the United States, a Black-White color line has always been complicated by regional racial divides but today,

the rapidly growing presence of Latino and Asian immigrants and the resurgence of Native American identification have changed the meaning and boundaries of racial categories

Both race and ethnicity are historical bases for inequality in that

they are constructed in a hierarchy from "superior" to "inferior." In the United States, some immigrants were viewed as belonging to an inferior race → EX: Jews were once racialized and later reconstructed as White

When any group comes to be thought of as a race,

this means the group has become racialized