CH 7 GLOBAL STRATIFICATION

 

I.  An Overview of Social Stratification

A.     Social stratification is a system in which people are divided into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige.

1.  Social stratification refers to the ranking of large groups of people, rather than individuals.

    2.  Every society stratifies its members, although the degree of inequality varies.

    3.  No matter what system a society may use to divide people into different layers,           gender is always an essential part of those distinctions within each layer. On the basis of gender, people are sorted into categories and given differential access to rewards. Social distinctions have usually favored males.

B.     Slavery is a form of social stratification in which some people own other people.

1.  Initially, slavery was based on debt, punishment for violation of the law, or defeat in battle. Given this last practice, many of the :first slaves were women, captured after the defeat of their village.

2.  Slavery could be temporary or permanent and was not necessarily passed on to one's children. Typically, slaves owned no property and had no power; however, this was not universally true.

3.  American colonists first tried to enslave Indians and then turned to Africans, who were being brought to North and South America by the British, Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. When American slave owners found that it was profitable to own slaves for life, they developed an ideology to justify what they wanted and to make slavery inheritable. 4.  Slavery still exists in places such as the Sudan and Mauritania; villages are raided, the men are killed, and the women and children are captured and sold.

C.     In a caste system, status is determined by birth and is lifelong.

1.  Ascribed status is the basis of a caste system. Caste societies try to keep

boundaries between castes firm by practicing endogamy (marriage within their own group) and developing rules about ritual pollution, teaching that contact with inferior castes contaminates the superior caste.

2.  Although abolished by the Indian government in 1949, the caste system remains part of everyday life in India, as it has for almost 3,000 years. This system is based on religion and is made up of four main castes, or varnas, which are subdivided into thousands of specialized subcastes or jati. The lowest caste is considered to be "untouchable," and ablution (washing rituals) are required to restore purity for those who are contaminated by contact with individuals from this group.

3.  A racial caste system developed in the United States when slavery ended. Even in the earlier parts of the twentieth century, all whites were considered higher in caste than all African Americans, and separate accommodations were maintained for the races in the South.

D.     A class system is a form of social stratification that is based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions.

     1.  An individual's initial social class position is based on that of her or his parents (ascribed status).

2.  A class system allows for social mobility-movement up or down the social class ladder-based on achieved status.

E.      Gender cuts across slavery, caste, and class. In all societies, gender becomes the basis for the distribution of good things.

 

II.  What Determines Social Class?

A.     According to Karl Marx, social class is determined by one's relationship to the means of production-the tools, factories, land, and investment capital that are used to produce wealth.

1.  Modem society is composed of just two classes of people: The bourgeoisie (capitalists) owns the means of production, and the proletariat (workers) works for those who own the means of production.

2.  As capital becomes more concentrated, the two classes will become increasingly more hostile to one another.

3.  Class consciousness-awareness of a common identity based on position in the means of production-will develop; it is the essential basis of the unity of workers, according to Marx.

4.  Marx believed that the workers would revolt against the capitalists, take control of the means of production, and usher in a classless society. However, according to Marx, the workers' unity and revolution are held back by false consciousness-the mistaken identification of workers with the interests of capitalists.

B.     Unlike Marx, Max Weber did not believe that property was the sole basis of a person's position in the stratification system; rather, property, prestige, and power determined social class.

1. Property is an essential element; however, powerful people, such as managers of corporations, control the means of production, although they do not own them.

2.  Prestige may be derived from ownership of property; however, it also can be based on other factors, such as athletic skills.

3.  Power is the ability to control others, even over their objections.

 

III.  Why Is Social Stratification Universal?

A.     According to the functionalist view expressed by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, stratification is inevitable.

1. Society must make certain that its important positions are filled; to

guarantee that the more important positions are filled by the more qualified people, society must offer them greater rewards.

2.  Davis and Moore argued that society offers greater rewards for its more responsible, demanding, and accountable positions.

B.   Melvin Tumin offered a critique of the functionalist position.         .

1.  He argued that the importance of a position cannot be measured by the rewards; such an argument is circular. There must be an independent indicator of importance.

2.  He noted that if stratification worked as Davis and Moore describe it, society would be a meritocracy-a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit-but that it does not work this way (e.g., the best predictor of college entrance is family income, not ability). He also argued that money and fringe benefits are not the only reasons people take jobs.

3.  Finally, he noted that stratification is dysfunctional for many people, not functional.

C.     Conflict theorists stress that conflict, not function, is the basis of social stratification.

1.  Every society has only limited resources to go around, and in every society, groups struggle with one another for those resources.

2.  Whenever a group' gains power, it uses that power to extract what it can from the groups beneath it. The dominant group takes control of the social institutions, using them to keep other groups weak and to preserve the best resources for itself

D.     Gaetano Mosca argued that every society will be stratified by power. According to Mosca, stratification is inevitable; the ruling class is well organized and enjoys easy communication among its relatively few members; it is extremely difficult for the majority they govern to resist.

1.  Society cannot exist unless it is organized; therefore, there must be politics to get the work of society done.

2.  Politics results in inequalities of power because some people take leadership positions and others follow.

3.  It is human nature to be self-centered; thus, people in positions of power use their positions to bring greater rewards to themselves.

E.      Marx argued that the bourgeoisie are in power because they control society's resources, using those resources to benefit themselves and to oppress those beneath them.

F.      Modem conflict theorists such as Randall Collins stress that conflict between capitalists and workers is not the only important conflict in contemporary society; the competition for scarce resources results in conflict not only between groups from different classes but also between groups within the same social class (e.g., young versus old; women versus men).

G.     Gerhard Lenski offered a synthesis of functionalist and conflict theories.

1.  Functionalists are right when it comes to societies that have only basic resources and do not accumulate wealth, such as hunting and gathering societies.

2.  Conflict theorists are right when it comes to societies with a surplus. In such societies, humans pursue self-interests and struggle to control those surpluses.  This leads to the emergence of a small elite that then builds inequality into the society, resulting in a system of social stratification.

 

IV.  How Do Elites Maintain Stratification?

A.     Social stratification is maintained within a nation because elites control ideas and information, maintain social networks, and use force.

1. The control of ideas is used by elites everywhere to maintain their positions of power – whether in dictatorships or in democracies.  To the degree that their ideologies are accepted by the masses, political arrangements are stable.

2.  In a dictatorship, elites use the threat of force to control information; in a democracy, elites manipulate the media by selective release of information.

3.  Technology aids elites in their desire to preserve its position.  Technology enables elites to monitor citizens’ activities without their even being aware that they are being shadowed.

4.  Social networks provide valuable information and tend to perpetuate inequality.

 

 

V.  Comparative Social Stratification

A.     Great Britain’s class system can be divided into upper, middle, and lower classes

1. A little over half of the population is in the lower or working class; half is in the middle class; and about 1 percent is in the upper class.

2.  The British are extremely class conscious.  Language and speech patterns are important class indicators.  Education is the primary way in which the class system is perpetuated form one generation to the next.

B.     The ideal of communism – a classless society – was never realized in the Soviet Union.

1.  The major basis for stratification was membership in the Communist Party, which consisted of top party officials, a relatively small middle class, and a massive lower class of peasants and unskilled workers.

2.  Frustrated over time with the system’s inability to be economically successful, Soviet leaders initiated capitalistic reforms in the hopes of turning things around.

3.  The transition to capitalism has taken bizarre twists, with some Russians organizing into criminal groups, stealing vast amounts of state property, amassing wealth, and intimidating business people.

 

VI.  Global Stratification:  Three Worlds

A.     Until recently, global stratification was depicted by using a simple model consisting of First (industrialized capitalist nations), Second (communist nations) and Third (all the rest of the nations) Worlds.  With the collapse of communism, these terms became outdated.  Other models have implied moral judgments about levels of development.   A more neutral framework is to talk about degrees of industrialization and to depict on a global level the three primary dimensions of social stratification: property, power, and prestige.

B.     The Most Industrialized Nations are the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and other industrialized nations of western Europe, as well as, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand; they are capitalist, although variations exist in economic systems.  Their wealth is enormous, and the poor in these countries live better and longer than the average citizens of the Least Industrialized Nations.

C.     The Industrializing Nations include the former Soviet Union and its former satellites in Eastern Europe. People in these countries have considerably lower income and a poorer standard of living than people in the Most Industrialized Nations but better than those living in the Least Industrialized Nations.

 

D.    The Least Industrialized Nations are those where most people live on farms or in villages with low standards of living; 68 percent of the world's population lives in these nations.      

 

VII.  How Did the World's Nations Become Stratified?

1. Colonialism occurred when industrialized nations made colonies of weaker nations and exploited their labor and natural resources. European nations tended to focus on Africa; the United States concentrated on Central and South America.

1.  The more powerful European nations planted their national flags in a colony and sent representatives to run the government. The United States planted corporate flags in the particular colony, letting corporations dominate the territory's government.

2.  Western imperialism and colonialism shaped the Least Industrialized Nations, drawing lines across a map to divide up their spoils, thereby creating states without regard for tribal or cultural considerations. The legacy of European conquests still erupts in tribal violence because tribes with no history of national identity were arbitrarily incorporated into the same political boundaries.

2. According to world system theory (as espoused by Immanuel Wallerstein), countries are politically and economically tied together.

     1.  There are four groups of interconnected nations:

          (1) core nations, where capitalism first developed;

(2) semiperiphery nations (Mediterranean area), which are highly dependent                      on trade with core nations;

(3) periphery nations (eastern Europe), which are mainly limited to selling cash crops to core nations, with limit!(d economic development;

(4) external area nations (most of Africa and Asia), which are left out of growth of capitalism, with few economic ties to core nations.

2.  A capitalist world economy (capitalist dominance) results from relentless expansion; even external area nations are drawn into commercial web.

3.  Globalization (the extensive interconnections among nations resulting from the expansion of capitalism) has speeded up because of new forms of communication and transportation. The consequence is that no nation is able to live in isolation.

3. Dependency theory attributes lack of economic development in the Least Industrialized Nations to dominance of world economy by the Most Industrialized Nations.

1.  It asserts that the nations that industrialized first turned other nations into their plantations and mines, taking whatever they needed; as a result, many of the Least Industrialized Nations began to specialize in a single cash crop.

4. By becoming dependent on the Most Industrialized Nations, these other countries did not develop independent economies of their own.
5. John Kenneth Galbraith argued that some nations remain poor because they are crippled by a culture of poverty, a way of life based on traditional values and religious beliefs that perpetuates poverty from one generation to the next and keeps some of the Least Industrialized Nations from developing.
6. Most sociologists prefer colonialism, world system, and dependency theory explanations to the culture of poverty theory because the last places the blame on the victim, but each theory only partially explains global stratification.

 

VIII. Maintaining Global Stratification                   '

A.    Neocolonialism is the economic and political dominance of Least Industrialized

Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations. Michael Harrington asserts that the Most Industrialized Nations control the Least Industrialized Nations because they control markets, set prices, move hazardous industries to the Least Industrialized Nations, and sell weapons and manufactured goods to the Least Industrialized Nations, preventing them from developing their own industrial capacity.

2. Multinational corporations contribute to exploitation of the Least Industrialized Nations.

     1.  Some exploit these nations directly by controlling national and local politics, running them as a fiefdom. Multinational corporations work closely with elites of the Least Industrialized Nations, funneling investments to this small circle of power in exchange for its cooperation.

2.  The Most Industrialized Nations are primary beneficiaries of profits    made in the Least Industrialized Nations.        .

3.  Multinational corporations sometimes bring prosperity to the Least Industrialized Nations; new factories provide salaries and opportunities' that otherwise would not exist for workers in those countries.

4.  In the quest to maintain global domination, the new technologies create even more advantages for the Most Industrialized Nations. The profits that are generated by multinationals allow the Most Industrialized Nations to invest huge sums in the latest technologies.

 

3. The new technology favors the Most Industrialized Nations, enabling them to maintain their global domination.   

1.  The profits of multinational corporations can be invested in developing and acquiring the latest technology, thereby generating even greater profits.

2.  Many of the Least Industrialized Nations do not have the resources to invest in new technology, creating an even greater gap between the levels of industrialization globally.

 

Social Class in the United States

Issues of Social Inequality

 

What is social class?

1. Social class can be defined as a large group of people who rank close to each other in wealth, power and prestige.
2. Wealth consists of property (what we own) and income (money we receive).  Wealth and income are not the same, but they usually go together.
   1. Ownership of property (e.g. real estate, stocks, bonds) is not distributed evenly; the richest 1 percent are worth more than the bottom 90% of Americans
   2. Income is also unequally distributed; the top 20% earn about 50% of the income while the bottom 20% earn less than 5%.  The rich are increasingly richer while the poor are increasingly poorer, despite rising total incomes.
   3. Executives in large corporations earn the highest pay, more than 100 times that of the average US worker.
3. Power is the ability to carry out your will in spite of resistance.  Power is concentrated in the hands of a few – the power elite (C. Wright Mills) who share the same ideologies and values, belong to the same clubs, and reinforce each other’s view.  No major US government decision is made without their approval or participation.
4. Prestige is the respect or social valuation people accord various occupations and accomplishments.
   1. Occupations are the primary source of prestige. Occupations with the highest prestige pay more, require more education, entail more intellectual effort and offer more autonomy.  Occupational prestige rankings tend to be consistent over time.
   2. For prestige to be valuable people have to acknowledge it.  The elite traditionally have made rules to emphasize their higher status.
   3. Status symbols, which may vary with social class, are ways of displaying prestige.
5. Status inconsistency is the term used to describe the situation of people who have a mixture of high and low rankings in the three components of social class.
   1. Most people are status consistent – they rank about the same in all three components.  Those who are status inconsistent want others to act towards then on the basis of their highest status, but people generally act on the basis of the lowest status.

 

Models of Social Class

1. there are two main models – that of Marx and that of Weber (Chapter 7)
2. Erik Wright adapted Marx’s model to identify four classes – capitalists, petty bourgeoisie, managers, and workers.
3. Based on Weber, Gilbert and Kahl develop a model to describe the class structure in the US and other capitalist societies.  See also previous handout.   While the percentages may vary somewhat, the structure is the same.
4. Henslin used Ford motor company as an example of the social class ladder.

 

 

Consequences of social class

1. Social class plays a role in family life
   1. Children of the upper class are under pressure to marry ‘right’ so as to continue the family line and conserve wealth.  Parents likely to be involved in choice.
   2. Marriages more likely to fail among the lower classes; children more likely to live in single-parent households.
2. The access to higher education and amount of higher education changes as one goes up the social ladder.  Greater likelihood of private school rather than public school education.
3. Religious orientation follows class lines.  Classes then to cluster in different denominations; patterns of worship follow class lines.
4. Political views and involvement are influenced by social class.
   1. Lower classes are more likely to vote Democrat, while those of higher social classes are likely to vote Republican.  Parties are seen as promoting different class interests.
   2. Working class people more likely to be liberal on economic issues and conservative on social issues.
   3. Political participation is  not equal; people at the bottom are less likely to vote and get involved in politics.
5. Social class affects health; lower classes have more sickness and higher death rates; access to health care unequal.
6. Mental health affected by social class; higher rates among the lower class due to stress of poverty.  Class is a factor on how the mentally ill are treated; poorer people have less access to mental health resources.
7. New technologies affect classes unequally.  Access to new opportunities affected by one’s location on the social class ladder.
   1. Fro those at the top, new technologies enable globalization of production maximizing profits.
   2. Educational background of the upper middle class prepared them to take leading roles in this new production system.
   3. For those below these tow classes, new technology is transforming the workplace, eliminating jobs and causing workers’ skill to become outdated.

 

Social Mobility

1. There are three basic types of social mobility: intergenerational, structural, and exchange.
   1. Intergenerational mobility when one moves from one class to another.  This can be upwards or downwards.
   2. Structural mobility occurs when there are significant shifts in the society which affects large numbers of people. Example:  the economic transformation of the former Soviet Union shifted many people into absolute poverty.
   3. Exchange mobility:  the system remains on balance and relatively unchanged because of the movements of individuals within the classes.
2. Studies of social mobility traditionally focused on men.  The assumption was that women had no social class position of their own, rather taking that of their husbands or fathers.  New opportunities now available for women, postponing choices women might make about family and marriage.
3. US in danger of losing position within global stratification system.

 

Poverty

1. The poverty line is defined by those families whose incomes are less than three times a low-cost food budget.  Any modification of this measure instantly adds or subtracts millions and thus has significant consequences.
2. Certain groups are disproportionately represented among the poor population.
   1. Poverty is not evenly distributed among the states; poor more likely to be clustered in the South and in California.  The poverty rate for the rural poor is slightly higher than the national average.  While they show the same racial/ethnic characteristics as the nation as a whole, they are less likely to be single parents, are less skilled , and less educated, and the jobs available to them pay less.
   2. Race is major factor.  Although 2 out of 3 poor people are white, racial minorities are much more likely to be poor.  9% of white, and 21-22% of Latinos and African Americans live in poverty. 
   3. Only 2% of those who attend college end up in poverty, compared to 1 in 4 who drop out of high school.
   4. Sex of the person who heads the family is the greatest predictor of whether or not a family is poor.  Called the feminization of poverty, the major causes are divorce, births to unwed mothers and the lower wages that are paid to women.
   5. Elderly Latinos and African Americans are three times more likely than whites to be poor.
3. Children are more likely to live in poverty than adults or the elderly.  This holds true regardless of race, but poverty is more likely among minority children.
4. Michael Harrington and Oscar Lewis each speak of the culture of poverty.  This results in having values and behaviors that make them ‘fundamentally different’ for others in the society.
   1. Research suggests that poverty is generally of a short duration, approx. 1 year, due to some dramatic event.  Only 12% of the population is in long term poverty.
   2. Because the number of persons living in poverty remains fairly consistent, this means as many move into poverty as move out.
   3. About ¼  of the US population is or has ever been poor for at least a year.
5. Federal law now require that states place a lifetime cap on welfare assistance and require welfare recipients to look for work and to take available jobs.
   1. Defenders of the rules say they this will rescue people from poverty and long term dependency.  Welfare rolls have dropped.
   2. Conflict theorists argue that welfare rolls declined during a period of economic expansion, moving into the labor force as reserve workers i.e. those who are engaged in temporary employment or part-time work.  Welfare rolls are predicted to expand with economic recessions.

 

 

6. In trying to explain poverty, the choice is between focusing on individual explanations and focusing on social structural factors.
   1. Sociologists look at such factors as inequalities n education; access to learning job skills; racial, ethnic, age, and gender discrimination; and large-scale economic change to explain the patterns of poverty in society
   2. A competing view focuses on how characteristics of individuals are assumed to contribute to their poverty.  Sociologists reject explanations that focus on qualities of laziness, or lack of intelligence as factors to explain poverty.
   3. The common belief is that everyone has the chance to get ahead (this despite the odds.  Functionalists would argue that this belief is functional for society because it encourages people to compete for the higher positions while placing the blame for failure squarely on the individual.

 

Inequalities of Gender and Age (Chapter 10)

 

Sex and Gender are different concepts.  Sex is the biological characteristics that distinguish males and females.  Gender is a social characteristic that varies from one society to another and refers to what that group considers proper for males and females.  Gender stratification refers to the unequal access to power, prestige and property possesses by men and women.

1. The sociological significance of gender is that it serves as a primary sorting device by which society controls its members and thus is a structural feature of society.
2. There is some disagreement as t what produces gender differences in behavior.
   1. Some argue that biological factors account for differences e.g. men as aggressive and women as nurturing.
   2. Dominant sociological position is that gender differences result from sex being used to mark people for special treatment; males and females then take the relative positions that society assigns them.
3. The rest of the text on this then provides insight into how gender inequality plays out in society, and of feminism as the response among women to  this inequality.

 

Inequalities of Aging

Every society has to deal with aging among its members.  How this is done differs among societies.

1. Aging is socially constructed.  Attitudes towards aging are rooted in society and therefore differ from one social group to the next.
2. In industrialized societies, life expectancy increases because of a more plentiful food supply, safer water, and control of certain diseases.
   1. As the elderly population increases, so does the cost of meeting their needs.  This is evidenced here in the Social Security funds, for which the young pay larger amounts the current recipients did.  In less developed societies, the elderly are cared for within families.  (This can have implications for the status the elderly hold in some societies.)
3. Robert Butler coined the term ageism to refer to prejudice, discrimination and hostility directed at people because of their age.  Previously the elderly still worked and were seen as wise and knowledgeable.  Industrialization eroded the traditional bases of respect for the elderly, and expanding education meant that younger people were often education well beyond what the elderly had achieved.
   1. Boomers, because of their greater financial stability are seen as offering positive images of the elderly, leading to revised images.

 

The text offers theories based on each of the perspectives.  What we want to do here is to take the understanding of problems of aging, and see how this combined with other elements, serve to stratify people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CH 9   INEQUALITIES OF RACE AND ETHNICITY

 

I. Laying the Sociological Foundation

A. Race is a reality in the sense that humans come in different colors and shapes; however, two myths about race are that one race is superior to another and that pure races exist. These myths make a difference for social life because people believe that they are real and act on their beliefs.

B.  Race and ethnicity are often confused owing to the cultural differences people see and the way they define race. Ethnicity refers to cultural characteristics that distinguish a people.

C.  Minority groups are people who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.

1.      Shared characteristics of minorities worldwide: (1) The physical or cultural traits that distinguish them are held in low esteem by the dominant group; (2) they are unequally treated by the dominant group; (2) they tend to marry within their own group; and (3) they tend to feel strong group solidarity.

2.      They are not necessarily in the numerical minority. Sociologists refer to those who do the discriminating as the dominant group-they have greater power, more privileges, and higher social status. The dominant group attributes its privileged position to its superiority, not to discrimination.

3.      A group becomes a minority through expansion of political boundaries by another group. Another way for group to become a minority is by migration into a territory, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

D.  Individuals vary considerably in how they construct their racial-ethnic identity. Some people feel an intense sense of ethnic identity, while others feel very little.

1.      An individual's sense of ethnic identity is influenced by the relative size and power of the ethnic group, its appearance, and the level of discrimination aimed at the group. If a group is relatively small, has little power, has a distinctive appearance, and is an object of discrimination, its members will have a heightened sense of ethnic identity.

2.      Ethnic work refers to how ethnicity is constructed and includes enhancing and maintaining a group's distinctiveness or attempting to recover ethnic heritage. The idea of the United States as a melting pot, with different grouI5s quietly blending together into an ethnic stew, is undermined by the fact that many people today are engaged in ethnic work; a better metaphor would be "tossed salad" or "ethnic mosaic."

E.   Prejudice and discrimination are common throughout the world.

1.      Discrimination is unfair treatment directed towards someone. When based on race, it is known as racism. It also can be based on features such as age, sex, sexual preference, religion, or politics.

2.      Prejudice is prejudging of some sort, usually in a negative way.

3.      Ethnocentrism is so common that each racial/ethnic group views other groups as inferior in at least some way. Studies confirm that there is less prejudice among the more educated and among younger people.

F.  Sociologists distinguish between individual and institutional discrimination.

1.      Individual discrimination (negative treatment of one person by another) is too limited a perspective because it focuses only on individual treatment.

 

 

2.  Institutional discrimination (negative treatment of a minority group that is built into a society's institutions) focuses on human behavior at the group level. Examples include certain mortgage lending and health care.

 

II. Theories of Prejudice

A.        Psychological perspectives

1.      According to John Dollard, prejudice results from frustration: Unable to strike out at the real source of their frustration, people find scapegoats to unfairly blame.

2.      According to Theodor Adorno, highly prejudiced people are characterized by excess conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect for authority, and submission to superiors; he called this complex of personality traits the authoritarian personality. Subsequent studies have generally concluded that people who ¥e older, less educated, and less intelligent and from a lower social class are more likely to be authoritarian.

 

B.  Sociological perspectives

1.      To functionalists, the social environment can be deliberately arranged to generate either positive or negative feelings about people. Prejudice can be a product of pitting group against group in an "I win/you lose" situation. Prejudice is functional in that it creates in-group solidarity and out-group antagonism. It is dysfunctional in that it destroys social relationships and intensifies conflict.

2.      To conflict theorists, the ruling class benefits because it systematically pits group against group by (1) creating a split labor market, dividing workers along racial and ethnic lines and weakening solidarity among the workers, and (2) maintaining higher unemployment rates for minorities, creating a reserve labor force from which owners can draw when they need to expand production temporarily. As a result, workers from different racial/ethnic groups learn to fear and distrust one another instead of recognizing common interests and working for their mutual benefit.

3.      To symbolic interactionists, the labels that people learn color their perception, leading people to see certain things and be blind to others. Racial and ethnic labels are especially powerful because they are shorthand for emotionally laden stereotypes. These stereotypes that we learn not only justify prejudice and discrimination, but also lead to a self-­fulfilling prophecy.

 

III.  Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations           "

A.        Genocide is the actual or attempted systematic annihilation of a race or ethnic

group who has been labeled as less than fully human by the dominant group. Dehumanizing labels are powerful forces that help people to compartmentalize-separate their acts from any feelings that would threaten their self-concept, thereby making it difficult for them to participate in the act. The Holocaust and the treatment of Native Americans are examples.

B.  Population transfer is involuntary movement of a minority group. Indirect transfer involves making life so unbearable that members of a minority leave the area; direct transfer involves forced expulsion. A combination of genocide and population transfer occurred in Bosnia (a part of the former Yugoslavia) as Serbs engaged in ethnic cleansing-the wholesale slaughter of Muslims and Croats, with survivors forced to flee the area.

 

C.  Internal colonialism is a society's policy of exploiting a minority by using social institutions to deny the minority access to full benefits. Slavery is an extreme example.

D.  Segregation, the formal separation of groups, often accompanies internal colonialism. The dominant group exploits the labor of the minority while maintaining social distance.

E.  Assimilation is the process by which a minority is absorbed into the mainstream. Forced assimilation occurs when the dominant group prohibits the minority from using its own religion, language, and customs. Permissive assimilation occurs when the minority adopts the dominant group's patterns in its own way at its own speed. .

F.  Multiculturalism (pluralism) permits or encourages racial and ethnic variation.

            Switzerland provides an outstanding example of this.

 

IV.  Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States

A.        The major racial/ethnic groups in the United States are White European Americans, Afican Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans.

B.  In the United States, the dominant group is made up of whites whose ancestors emigrated here from European countries.

1.      White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) were highly ethnocentric and viewed white ethnics-the Irish, Germans, Poles, Jews, and Italians-as inferior.

2.      Immigrants were expected to blend into the mainstream, speak English, and adopt the dominant group's way of life. It was the grandchildren of the immigrants, the third generation, who most easily adjusted. As these white ethnics assimilated into Anglo culture, the meaning of the term WASP was expanded to include them.

3.      Because the English settled in the colonies, they established institutions to which later immigrants had to conform.

C.  Latinos are the largest ethnic group in the United States; this group includes Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and people from Central or South America. Concentrated in four states (California, Texas, New York, and Florida), they are causing major demographic shifts.

1.      The Spanish language distinguishes them from other minorities; perhaps half are unable to speak English without difficulty. This is a major obstacle to getting well-paid jobs..

2.      Divisions based on social class and country of origin prevent political unity.

3.      Compared with non-Hispanic whites and Asian American, Latinos are worse off on all indicators of well-being. The country of origin is significant, with Cuban Americans scoring much higher on indicators of well-being and Puerto-Rican Americans scoring the lowest.

D.  African Americans face a legacy of racism. Following the end of the Civil War, Southern states passed Jim Crow laws that separated blacks and whites.

1.      In 1955, African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama, using nonviolent tactics advocated by Martin Luther King, Jr., protested laws that they believed to be unjust. This led to the civil rights movement, which challenged existing patterns of racial segregation throughout the South.

2.      The 1964 Civil Rights Acts (banning discrimination in public facilities) and 1965 Voting Rights Act (banning literacy tests) heightened expectations. Frustration over the slow pace of change led to urban riots and passage of the 1968 Civil Rights Act.

3.      Since then, African Americans have made political and economic progress. For example, African Americans have quadrupled their membership in the U.S. House of Representatives in the past 25 years. As college enrollment has continued to increase, the middle class has expanded, so one of every four African American families now makes more than $50,000 annually. African Americans such as Jesse Jackson, Douglas Wilder, and Alan Keyes are politically prominent.

4.      Despite these gains, however African Americans continue to lag behind in politics, economics, and education. No U.S. senator is African American; African Americans average 61 percent of whites' incomes; only 15 percent of African Americans graduate from college. About one of every six African American families makes less than $10,000 annually.

5.      According to William J. Wilson, social class (not race) is the major determinant of quality of life. The African American community today is divided into two groups. Middle-class African Americans seized opportunities created by civil rights legislation and advanced economically, moving out of the inner city; they have moved up the class ladder, live in good housing, have well-paid jobs, and send their children to good schools. However, as opportunities for unskilled labor declined, a large group of poorly educated and unskilled African Americans were left behind; they still live in poverty, face violent crime and dead-end jobs, attend terrible schools, and live in hopelessness and despair.

6.      Some sociologists challenge this, arguing that discrimination on the basis of race persists, despite gains made by some African Americans.

7.      It is likely that both discrimination and social class contribute to the African American experience.

 

E.  Asian Americans have long faced discrimination in the United States.

1.      The history of Asian Americans is one of discrimination and prejudice. Chinese Americans frequently were victims of vigilante groups and anti­-Chinese legislation. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, hostilities increased, with many Japanese Americans being imprisoned in "relocation camps."

2.      When immigrants from Japan began to arrive in the United States, they experienced "spillover bigotry," a stereotype that lumped all Asians together, depicting them as sneaking, lazy, and untrustworthy.

3.      Today, Asian Americans are the fastest-growing minority in the United States. They are a diverse group divided by separate cultures. Although there are variations in income among Asian American groups, on average, Asian Americans have been extremely successful. This success can be traced to three factors: (l) a close family life, (2) educational achievement, and (3) assimilation into the mainstream.

4.      Asian Americans are becoming more prominent in politics, serving as governors of Hawaii and Washington.

 

F.  Because of the influence of old movie Westerns, many Americans tend to hold stereotypes of Native Americans as uncivilized savages and as a single group of people subdivided into separate tribes.

1.      In reality, Native Americans comprise diverse groups of people with a variety of cultures and languages. Although they numbered between 5 and 10 million when Europeans immigrated to North America, the numbers of Native Americans were reduced to a low of 500,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century, owing primarily to a lack of immunity to European diseases and secondarily to warfare. Today, there are about 2 million Native Americans.

2.      At first, relations between European settlers and the Native Americans were peaceful. However, as the number of settlers increased, tension grew. Because Native Americans stood in the way of expansion, many were slaughtered. Government policy shifted to population transfer, with Native Americans being confined to reservations.

3.      Today, they are an invisible minority. Almost half live in rural areas, with one-third concentrated in Oklahoma, California, and Arizona; most other Americans are hardly aware of them. They have the highest rates of poverty, unemployment, suicide, and alcoholism of any U.S. minority group. These negative conditions are the result of Anglo domination.

4.      In the 1960s, Native Americans won a series of legal victories that restored their control over the land and their right to determine economic policy. Many Native Americans have opened businesses, ranging from industrial parks to casinos.

5.      Many tribes maintain the right to remain separate from the U.S. government and U.S. society; this separatism is a highly controversial issue.

6.      Today, many Native Americans are interested in recovering their own traditions. Pan-Indianism emphasizes common elements that run through Native American cultures in order to develop self-identification that goes beyond anyone tribe.

 

V. Looking Toward the Future

A.  As U.S. society moves into the twenty-first century, two issues that have to be resolved are immigration and affirmative action.

B.  Immigratiou and the fear of its consequences are central to U.S. history.

1.      The first great wave of immigrants arrived from Europe at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The second wave, since 1980, has brought immigrants from around the world and is contributing to the changing U.S. racial/ethnic mix.

2.      In some states, such as California, minorities combined are expected soon to represent the majority of the population.

3.      Many are concerned that this influx of immigrants will change the character of U.S. society, including the primacy of the English language.

C.  Affirmative action is at the core of the national debate about how to steer a course in race and ethnic relations.

1.      1.Some see affirmative action as the more direct way to level the playing field of economic opportunity; others say that it results in reverse discrimination.

2.      Several controversial rulings suggest that there is still no consensus about the proper role of affirmative action in a multicultural society.

3.      To achieve a multicultural society in which different racial/ethnic groups not only coexist but also respect one another will require that groups with different histories and cultures learn to accept one another. We must begin to examine our history and question many of the assumptions and symbols.