Sociology and race

1. Sociology and race Inequality and identity

2. Overview of today’s lecture • Popular theories of racial inequality • Types of racism • Racial identity formation • How structure impacts identity

3. Popular theories of racial identity • One popular, but not sociological way of thinking about racial inequality is the argument that inequalities reflect biological differences between racial groups. This theory is known as biological deficiency.

4. Biological deficiency • This theory draws on studies of human genetics or studies claiming to show a link between race and intelligence, as well as hierarchically classifying races, hence asserting the superiority or inferiority of specific ones. The Nazis invoked theories of biological deficiency to argue that Jews, Gypsies and others were genetically inferior.

5. Biological deficiency • In the US, this theory drove the eugenics movement, which attempted to encourage and discourage the reproduction of particular groups of people in order to engineer the betterment of the human race. • Here is a short video clip about the eugenics movement: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaH0Ws8RtSc

6. Biological deficiency • A more recent example is a book called the Bell Curve. This book argues intelligence, as measured through a standardized test, is between 40 and 80% inherited, and it is a good predictor of school performance, jobs, eventual income and participation in crime.

7. Biological deficiency • The Bell Curve argued that racial inequalities were due to differing levels of intelligence. It was reviewed in the NY Times and its authors appeared on numerous talk shows--a reception rarely given to a 1000 page scholarly book with numerous statistical charts.

8. Cultural deficiency • A related popular theory is cultural deficiency. This theory argued that racially inequality exists not because people of color are biologically inferior, but that some cultures lack the morals and motivations to succeed.

9. Cultural deficiency • Cultural deficiency theories see the cultural problems of minority groups as residuals of slavery and discrimination. However, now that these problems are over, the effects are the causes of future problems.

10. Cultural deficiency • An example of this approach is the popular claim that youth of color don’t work hard in school because they and their families don’t value academic success.

11. Bias theories • Bias theories blame prejudiced members some members of the majority. Individual racist attitudes are responsible inequalities.

12. Types of racism • Sociologists discount theories of biological and cultural deficiency. • Instead, they elaborate three types of racism.

13. Individual racism • Individual racism is similar to popular bias theories. • It includes using ethnic slurs, refusing to hire people of a particular race for jobs, refusing to rent apartments to people of a particular race, assuming people from particular racial groups have committed crimes (and thus catching them more often), etc.

14. Individual racism • This is the kind of treatment that most people think of when they hear the word racism, and it is synonymous with discrimination or bigotry. The solution to this kind of racism is generally referred to as color-blindness. Judging people, to quote MLK, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

15. Institutional Racism • Popular theories often overlook what sociologists call institutional racism. • Institutional racism is distinguished from the above by the existence of systematic policies and practices within institutions, that have the effect of disadvantaging certain racial or ethnic groups. • This means that an individually racist bad actor is not necessary for racism to occur.

16. Eg: redlining • One example of institutional racism is redlining. Redlining is the practice of not lending or insuring in certain neighborhoods based upon the racial composition. This practice was encoded in our system of finance, real estate and insurance by the Home Owners Loan Corporation, an agency within the Federal Home Loan Bank Board system created by Congress. The HOLC had a method of property evaluation to determine the suitability of neighborhoods for investment that became the standard used by lending institutions and other real estate professionals. HOLC surveyed 239 cities using 4 color codes to indicate the level of risk a particular area would present. Based upon information gathered from bankers, appraisers, real estate agents and governmental officials, HOLC developed Residential Security Maps with four classifications: First (A), Second (B), Third (C) and Fourth (D) that corresponded to color grades: A-Green, B-Blue, C-Yellow and D-Red.

17. Eg: redlining • This picture is the redlined map of Philadelphia:

18. Eg: redlining • A or green neighborhoods were considered the most sound investments, as these neighborhoods were entirely white and in high demand. D or red neighborhoods, at the other end of the spectrum, had lower homeownership rates, poor housing conditions, and predominantly black residents. The HOLC refused to make loans in these redlined areas. Urban planning historians theorize that the maps were used by private and public entities for years afterwards to deny loans to people in black communities. This led to the deterioration of Black neighborhoods. While redlining is illegal today, we can see the effects of decades of enforced neglect on the structures themselves.

19. Eg: redlining • Moreover, this article from the NY times is one of many that suggest a link between redlining and today’s sub-prime mortgage crisis: • http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07baltimore.html

20. Biased standardized testing • Another example of institutional racism is the continued use of culturally biased standardized tests to measure intelligence and determine college admission. • Why would that be an example of institutional racism?

21. Biased standardized testing • Another example of institutional racism is the continued use of culturally biased standardized tests to measure intelligence and determine college admission. • Why would that be an example of institutional racism?

22. Biased standardized testing • Studies have compared students from a variety of racial backgrounds that have similar levels of high school and college performance, so they’re getting roughly the same grades in school, and determined that the Asian and White students tend to have higher SAT scores than the Latino and Black students. These results indicate that using the SAT to determine who gets into college will ensure that you get more white and Asian students, while similarly qualified black and Latino students are turned down.

23. Biased standardized testing • This is an example of institutional racism because you don’t need to have individually racist admissions officers to end up with admissions criteria that privilege whites and Asians. The racism is not the result of bad individual actors, but is built into the rules of the educational system.

24. Institutional racism • Further examples of institutional racism can include the under- and mis-representation of certain racial groups in the media, • This, of course, can inform individual racism. • Institutional racism also explains why courses in European philosophy and Western Civilization are mandatory, and are always housed in departments called history and philosophy, while courses in the histories and cultures of communities of color tend to be ethnic studies electives.

25. Institutional racism • Further examples of institutional racism can include the under- and mis-representation of certain racial groups in the media, • This, of course, can inform individual racism. • Institutional racism also explains why courses in European philosophy and Western Civilization are mandatory, and are always housed in departments called history and philosophy, while courses in the histories and cultures of communities of color tend to be ethnic studies electives.

26. Institutional racism • Institutional racism also includes differential access to the goods, services, and opportunities of society. So for example, white communities are much more likely than black and Latino communities of similar incomes to have grocery stores in their neighborhoods.

27. Institutional racism • The solutions to institutional racism usually come in the form of policy. Sometimes what is needed is state policy, that could, for example, target redlined neighborhoods for low-interest loans. Other times, its institutional policy, such as not counting the SATs so much in admissions processes. One response to institutional racism currently happening at Pacific are efforts taken by many of the race-based student organizations, such as Mecha or the BSU, to create an ethnic studies requirement that all students must take as a part of general education.

28. A third kind of racism is color-blind racism. Now this sounds a little confusing because color blindness is the opposite of institutional racism.

29. Color-blind racism • But color-blind racism happens because the manifestations of institutional racism are widespread, pernicious and sometimes slippery and hard to see.

30. Color-blind racism • By failing to acknowledge the power and pervasiveness of institutional racism, many well-intended people fail to see how racial oppression and privilege have shaped a situation. • And yet racial disparities are everywhere. African Americans with a college diploma find themselves unemployed almost twice as often as whites with the same education. Hispanics must get by on only about half of the individual income that Asian Americans and whites divvy up among the bills.

31. Color-blind racism • And when blacks and Latinos are hospitalized with a heart problem, they are less likely than European Americans to receive catheterization, be sent home with beta blockers, or even be advised to take aspirin to protect their health. • Whites are paid more than other races for similar work, even with similar qualifications. As of 2006, for every dollar that white men earn, white women earn 77 cents, black women earn 64 cents and Latina women earn 52 cents.

32. Color-blind racism • What’s so dangerous about color-blind racism is that when these disparities are combined with the belief that race doesn’t matter, it looks as if racial inequality is the result of varying abilities or efforts on the parts of different racial groups. In other words, if you refuse to see race, it becomes hard to see the effects of racism. And those who can’t explain inequality as the result of racism tend to see it as the fault of those it disadvantages.

33. Color-blind racism • For an example of color-blind racism, check out this blog: • http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=90653665771&h=pimm9&u=_Iqxr&ref=nf

34. Racial identity formation • Sociologists have also taken issue with another assumption that underlies popular thinking about race and racism: the notion that racial identity is biological and fixed.

35. Racial identity formation • There is no biological or genetic foundation for race. Geneticists cannot look at an individual’s DNA and determine what race they are. And while physical features (particularly skin color but also hair and facial features) often works as a stand-in for race, it is often incorrect.

36. Racial identity formation • In other words, blacks are not always dark and whites are not always light. Below is Black Panther Founder Huey Newton, who was lighter skinned than many non-blacks.

37. Racial identity formation • Another way we know that race is not about biology is that categories such as Asian or Latino/a encompass people from a variety of backgrounds with a variety of skin colors.

38. Racial identity formation • But just because racism is not biological doesn’t mean its not real. The ways we identify racially, and the perceptions others hold of our race, can have dramatic effects on our lives.

39. Racial identity formation • The government is the arbitrator of which racial categories count, and often has the power to classify people into one or another. For example, think of people from the Middle East, who are often unsure of whether they are white. There is no racial category on the census that this group generally feels fits them, but the discriminatory treatment they face makes many resist identifying as white.

40. Racial identity formation • And of course there is the historic example of the 1 drop rule, in which the government decided the racial identity of many people (please note that there is no such thing as black or white blood).

41. Racial identity formation • Sociologists use the term racial formation to refer to the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings. • In other words, racial classification is a continuingly evolving process, but that process nonetheless shapes individual and collective identities.

42. Racial identity formation • For example, In the United States, the racial category of "black" evolved with the consolidation of racial slavery. By the end of the seventeenth century, Africans whose specific identity was Ibo, Yoruba, Fulani, etc., were rendered "black" by an ideology of exploitation based on racial logic. Yet, blackness remains a powerful feature with which many people identify.

43. Racial identity formation • In another example, in the 19th century, people from Southern and Eastern Europe--eg. Irish, Polish, Jewish--were not considered white. We know that race is a social, rather than biological concept because it changes over time.

44. Racial identity formation for whites • Most people of color are aware that their race plays an important role in their social life. But many whites feel race is not important for them. This link takes you to a list made by a white female professor of all the ways being white affects her life: • http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:WsRQNV9U0sAJ:www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf+white+privilege+unpacking&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

45. Racial identity formation for whites • This article suggests that we are not always aware of all of the ways our racial identity is formed, and the ways it affects us. • What are some ways your racial identity has affected you? • How does this relate to Waters’ assertion that white ethnicities are symbolic?