Transcript Sociology 2011-2012 - S2

Contemporary Sociology:
Race and Racial Inequality
Agenda
Objective
1.
To understand contemporary
theories of race and racial inequality.
2.
To understand contemporary race
relations and the effects of racial
inequality in the United States.
Schedule:
1.
Part One: The Biology of Race
2.
Part Two: The “Reality of Race:”
Race as a Social Construction
3.
Part Three: Social Consequences of
the Black-White Dichotomy
4.
Part Four: Whiteness
5.
Part Five: Racism
Homework:
1. Race Critical
Thinking
Paper Due:
Tuesday
3/27
2. Midterm
Exam Friday
3/30
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The Biology of Race
Race and Racial Inequality
• How do you define
race?
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How Much Do You Know About Race?
• Can you tell someone’s race just by
looking at them?
• “Sorting” Activity:
– Google: Race the Power of an Illusion
– Go to: “Sorting People”
• Discussion:
– How did you do?
– What does this exercise
reveal?
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How much do you know about race?
Humans have approximately 30,000 genes. On average,
how many genes separate all members of a race from all
members of another race?
A.None
B.1
C.23
D.142
E.1008
F.We don’t know
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The Genetics of Race
• Not one gene distinguishes members of one race
from members of another
• There is more genetic variation within races than
between them
– 2 random Koreans are likely to be as genetically
different as a Korean and an Italian
• Most traits are inherited independently of each
other
- Genes for skin color have nothing to do
with hair type, musical talent, blood
type, or athletic ability
The Genetics of Race
• Beginning in the 1940s, scholars began to
dispel the idea that race was a biological and
fixed category.
• Developments in DNA research, added further
support for this…
• Wayne Joseph’s Story
– Born and raised black
– Genetic test revealed:
•
•
•
•
57% Indo-European
39% Native American
4% East Asian
0% African
– Who is Wayne Joseph?
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The Genetics of Race
• Nonetheless, most people still believe in the
biology of race and in innate differences between
individuals on the basis of skin color.
• In the 2004 General Social Survey
– 49.97% of respondents said that the reasons African
Americans have on average worse jobs, income and
housing than whites is because they “just don’t have
the motivation of will power to pull themselves up out
of poverty.”
– 9% of respondents said it is because
they have “less in-born ability to
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The “Reality” of Race:
Race as a Social Construct
What is Race?
• Race = a group of people who share a set
of characteristics--typically, but not
always, physical ones--and are said to
share a common bloodline.
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Is Race Real?
• Race is a social category, it is not an objective
biological category.
– Race is not an actual
biological distinction between
individuals
– Race is used to draw social
distinctions between
individuals
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• In particular, sociologists argue that race is
constructed in the interests of groups that wish to
maintain power and social exclusion.
• Video Clip: Dave Chappelle, “Racial Lottery”
Race is A Social Construct
• The fact that race is a social construct has
two implications:
– Implication One: Reveals that the decision to draw
distinctions on the basis of race is arbitrary, rather
than biologically “real”
• We could organize our social distinctions in different
ways
– Foot Size?
– Left or Right Handedness?
– Implication Two: Reveals that the definition of race
(who is white, who is black) can be subject to
change based on changing social circumstances
Implication One: How We Define Race is Arbitrary
Case-Study: The Burakumin Race
•
•
•
•
Approx 3% of Japan’s population is classified as the Burakumin race.
Originated as a group of displaced people during the 14th century feudal wars.
Not in any way physically distinguishable from other Japanese, the only thing
that set them apart was that they were homeless.
The Burakumin formed a distinct social category
–
•
•
•
•
Reproduced among themselves, lived in
segregation, worked unique jobs.
Today it is commonly believed in Japan that the
Burakumin are in fact a biologically distinct race.
In Japan, the Burakumin live in ghettos and score
lower on health, educational achievement, and
income compared with their fellow Japanese
citizens.
Yet when Japanese and Burakumin immigrate
to America, where their racial distinction is
meaningless, the gap shrinks.
Even if race isn’t real, the social consequences are.
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Implication Two: Race Is Subject to Change
Case-Study: Who Am I?
• Consider the following excerpt from an 1851 issue of
Harper’s Weekly Magazine. Which race is the author
describing?
– “[They are] distinctly marked--the small and somewhat upturned
nose, the black tint of the skin…[They] are
ignorant, and as a consequence
thereof, are idle, thriftless,
poor, intemperate, and
barbarian…Of course they
will violate our laws, these wild
bisons leaping over the fences
which easily restrain the
civilized domestic cattle, will
commit great crimes of violence, even capital offences, which
certainly have increased as of late.”
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The Irish!
• In the mid to late 1800s, at a time of
heightened Irish immigration and
“Native”-Irish job competition, it was
believed that the Irish were a distinct
race of people who carried innate
differences in their blood, differences
that made them inferior to whites.
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Shifting Definitions of Race
• Circa 1900, Americans categorized themselves
into anywhere from 36 to 75 different races.
• How Americans have defined race has always
shifted…
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Shifting Definition of Race
• While definitions of race have shifted over
time, one thing has remained constant:
racism towards a group increases as that
group experiences economic opportunities.
– In other words, the likelihood of being labeled
“non-white” and targeted for racism increases as
that group is put into direct economic competition
with whites.
• Explains the increase in Anti-Hispanic racism seen today
• Race is constructed in the
interests of groups that wish
to maintain power (usually
economic) and social
exclusion.
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Defining Race as “Black and White”
• The black-white racial dichotomy that defines
American race relations today, emerged around
the time of World War One
– European immigration
slowed and “intra-European”
racism in America began
to fade.
– Following the Great
Migration blacks began to
experience an increase in
economic opportunities
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Defining Race as Black and White
• To draw boundaries between
blacks and whites, the notion of a
“one drop rule” began to emerge.
• One drop rule
– Belief that “one drop” of black blood
makes a person black
– Largely evolved from laws
forbidding interracial marriage
• The rule, lead to the emergence of
a dual race society in the United
States: black and white
• The effect of the rule was to erase
stratification within both black and
white communities, and draw the
line of stratification between the
two communities.
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The Racial Make Up of America Today
Social Consequences of the
Black-White Race Dichotomy
Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances
• Just like social class, race influences all
aspects of our lives
– Health
– Education
– Income/Wealth
Chance of…
Highest Chance
Lowest
Chance
Living a long life (life
expectancy)
Asian Female
86.7 years
Black Male
69.8 years
Dropping out of high school
Black
44%
White
22%
Going to prison
Black Male
32.5%
White Female
1%
Earning a High Weekly
Salary (median salary for
full-time worker)
Asian Male
$825/wk
Black Female
$499/week
Dying before reaching one
year of age (per 100,000)
Black Male
1,410/100,000
Asian Female
427/100,000
Living in Poverty
Native American
24.5%
White
8.7%
Having no Health Insurance
Native American
35%
White
11.9%
Americans without Health
Insurance by Race, 2007
U.S. Infant Mortality Rate,
2005
U.S. Life Expectancy by Race,
2007
Educational
Attainment
Based on
Race, 2007
Social Standings
Based on Median Income
Native Americans
(27.1% live in poverty)
African Americans
(22.1% live in poverty)
Asian Americans
(10.8% live in poverty)
Hispanic Americans
(21.2% live in poverty)
Entire U.S
(11.3% live in poverty)
30000 38000 42000 46000 50000 54000 58000
Median Family Income
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001
Median Net Worth of
Households
Whiteness
Being White
• Intro, by Louis CK…
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Being White
• Most white people have
little awareness of the
meaning of whiteness as a
category.
• “The foundation of white
identify is that there isn’t
any. You’re just an
individual.” --Neill Irvin
Painter, The History of
White People
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White Privilege
• Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible
Knapsack” (1988)
• Whiteness is an “invisible knapsack of privileges” that puts
what people at an advantage over non-whites.
• White Privilege (a few of more than 50 listed in the article):
– I can go into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my
hair.
– I can buy band-aids in my
skin color
– I can go shopping alone
most the time, pretty well
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assured that I will not be
followed or harassed.
– I am never asked to speak
for all the people of my
racial group.
White Privilege
• Whiteness is about not feeling the weight of
representing an entire population with one’s
successes or failures.
• It is about not having to think about race
much at all.
• If you are white, where do
you feel white privilege?
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White Studies
• In recent years, more and more
scholarship has focused on
whiteness.
• The goal of this research is to
call attention to the privileges
associated with being white and
to the unique cultural behaviors
of whites. (It is not white
supremacy!)
• White Culture?
– Check out:
www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
– Is there a “White Culture”?
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Racism
Racism
• The belief that members of separate races
possess different and unequal traits.
• Racist thinking is characterized by three key
beliefs:
– That humans are divided into distinct bloodlines
and/or physical types
– That these bloodlines or physical traits are linked
to distinct cultures, behaviors,
personalities, and intellectual
abilities
– That because of these traits,
certain groups are superior to
others.
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Sociological Theories of Racial Inequality
and Racism
• Sociologists recognize racial inequality as being produced through
three channels of “racism”
• 1. Personally Mediated “Racism”
– Prejudice and discrimination (Hatred of “Other”)
• Certain individuals are explicitly denied access to goods, services, and
opportunities because the group in power looks disparagingly on their race.
• What we think of when we hear the word racism
• Examples include: Not hiring someone because you don’t like their skin color,
crossing the street when someone of a different color approaches you, or
refusing to serve someone in a restaurant because of their skin color.
– Unconscious Preference for Those Like Us
(Birds of a Feather)
• Here certain individuals are denied access to goods,
services, and opportunities, not because another group
explicitly hates them, but because that group has an
unconscious preference towards their own race.
• Examples include: Unintentionally hiring someone of
your own skin color over an individual of another skin
color.
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What’s In A Name?
Name
on Resume
Callback Rate (%)
Brad
15.0
Kristen
13.6
Meredith
10.6
Matthew
9.0
Emily
8.3
Tanisha
6.3
Darnell
4.8
Keisha
3.8
Rasheed
3.0
Aisha
2.2
Source: Bertand and Mullainathan 2003: Krueger 200
Sociological Theories of Racial
Inequality/Racism
• 2. Institutionalized Racism
– Races experience differential access to the goods
services, and opportunities of a society because of the
structure of social institutions.
– Examples include differential access to: education,
housing, employment, and medical facilities.
– The criminal justice system is a prime example…
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60%
Patterns of Marijuana Use by Race, 2007
50%
White
Black
Latino
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Ever used
Past year
Past month
Imbalance in Arrests
Marijuana possession arrest
rates in some of California’s
largest cities 2006-08
Source: “Smoke and Horrors”,
op-ed by Charles M. Blow in
New York Times, October 22,
2010
Based on research by Harry Levine and Jon Gettman,
“Targeting Blacks for Marijuana: possession arrests
of African Americans in California, 2004-08”, (Drug
Policy Alliance, LA: June, 2010)
Federal Cocaine Offenses
Number of Executions and Race
of Prisoners Executed, 1976–
2009
Rates of “call backs” in Employment discrimination audit study
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Whites with
no prison
record
Whites with
prison
record
Data from Devah Pager Sociology dissertation, 2002
Blacks
without
prison
record
Blacks with
prison
record
Sociological Theories of Racial
Inequality/Racism
• 3. Internalized Racism
– Acceptance by members of the
stigmatized races of negative
messages about their own abilities and
intrinsic worth.
– It manifests as the embracing of
“whiteness” as the standard and in so
doing, devaluing one’s self.
– Examples include: use of hair
straighteners and bleaching creams,
believing lighter skin blacks are more
attractive than darker skin blacks, use
of the N word among African
Americans.
– Video: Tyra Clip!
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Closing Discussion
• What do you see as the role of race in
society today?
• Why is it important to study race?
• What do you see as the future of race
relations?