race relations chapter 8

Inadequate education for African Americans

○ Quantity of formal education- Black people have always attained less education than Whites, despite affirmative action and Head Start program; White children are more likely to have formal preschool education than Black children, and older Black children more often drop out of school sooner and are less likely to get high school diplomas/college degrees

○ Proposals to improve educational opportunities for African Americans often argue more funding- disagreements over what changes to implement and which would lead to the best outcomes

○ Middle and upper class children face barriers to high quality education, but are more likely to have a favorable home environment for learning; African American children who stay in school aren't even guaranteed equal opportunities in life, and high schools fail to prepare them for college, so some choose to be homeschooled or drop out

○ Hostile school environment can also contribute to dropping out

Segregation in educational environments

• Formal education experience of Black students is different than that of White Americans

• Integrated schools was a challenge since neighborhoods were segregated and some city districts were predominantly Black or Hispanic communities surrounded by suburban school districts that were predominantly White

○ De facto segregation (residential patterns)

Supreme Court decisions ended initiatives to overcome residential segregation, creating racial isolation in schools

• Integration of diverse student population doesn't guarantee equal schooling environment

○ Tracking: the practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of test scores and other criteria, with the effect of decreasing White-Black classroom interactions since Black children are disproportionately assigned to general classes while more White children are placed in college prep classes

*Intensifies segregation at the classroom and doesn’t change environment; studies show that African American students are more likely than White students to be punished for subjective offenses, whereas Whites are disproportionately guilty of objective offenses (vandalism, carrying weapons, possession of tobacco products, etc.)

Acting White

• Belief is that Black youth don't want to take full advantage of their academic abilities/opportunities because they fear they'll be viewed as "acting White"; they avoid taking school seriously and do not accept authority of teachers/administrators

○ "Acting White" shifts the responsibility of low school attainment from school to individual and is an example of blaming the victim

○ Acting White: associated with speaking proper English or with cultural preferences like listening to rock music

• At the same time, SOC may hold back for fear of being too hard working or not cool

• Academic oriented students are viewed as social misfits, nerds, and geeks, and are seen as socially inept, even if their skills make them more economically independent and socially desirable later

○ For minorities, to take school seriously therefore means they must overcome their White classmate's same desire to be cool and not be a geek; they get bullied for "acting White"

○ Black youth must also embrace a curriculum and respect teachers who are much less likely to look or sound like them

• "Acting White" thesis overemphasizes personal responsibility rather than the issues with school system structure, including flaws in the curriculum, quality of education, and teachers; it locates the source of Black miseducation and the remedy in the African American household

• Studies comparing attitudes and performance show that Black students have the same attitudes about achievement as their White peers; too often, we view White slackers who make it harder for advanced kids as normal, but when slacker Black kids do the same thing it becomes systemic

• Black students face difficulty in school is not due to their opposition to "acting White", but this thesis is still falsely perpetuated; this is because it allows majority to blame Black culture and the student personally for their underperformance rather than addressing the system

○ Color blind racism example because it uses race-neutral principles to defend racial inequality rather than addressing the system

Higher education and Black Americans

they're more likely than White people to be part-time students, need financial aid, and experience negative social climate/environment on predominantly White campuses

• Several factors account for African American chance of being college graduates increasing and why it was harder earlier:

○ Reductions in financial aid and more reliance on loans, coupled with rising costs- this discourages Black students from being first gen college attenders

○ Pushing for higher standards in educational achievement without providing remedial courses- locked out many minority students

○ Employment opportunities- lure youth who must bring income to their families who would've otherwise may have been in college

• Colleges and universities are uneasy about addressing these issues

○ Black students face challenges going to predominantly White colleges, including overwhelmingly White faculty, advisors, administrators, etc.

○ Campus culture may be neutral, and sometimes hostile to minorities

○ High attrition rate of Black students on predominantly White campuses

Class

refers to people who share similar wealth and income

African American communities and achievements

• Many characterizations of the African American community overemphasize the poorest segment of that community and how much success African Americans have achieved

• As Black income has increased, Black wealth has lagged in comparison to that of White people

• Du Bois argues that when racism decreases, class issues and exploitation remains, and many of the same people continue to be subordinate

○ Black elites may be economically successful

○ Programs must be developed to confront class subordination rather than racial/ethnic discrimination

○ Black youth competing successfully with White youth

unemployment rate and factors

• Higher unemployment rates for Black Americans since the 40s

○ Significantly higher than that of Whites

○ Black workers are fired first and there's lack of stable employment in early adulthood

Other factors that contribute to high unemployment rates in Black youth:

*Depressed economy of central cities

*Immigrants present increased competition

*White middle-class women entered labor force

*Illegal activities where youth can make more money than regular labor are prevalent and increasing

Unemployment definition

working at a job for which one is overqualified, involuntarily working part-time instead of full-time, or being employed only intermittently; higher rates in Black Americans

*Further compounds labor force issues

Single parent families and income

• Lack of male income has monetary impact on family and household

○ Single Black women living in poverty

○ Grandparents often live with them to provide childcare help

○ Rise in single-parent households can be attributed to shifts in economy that keep Black men out of work, more and more parents divorce, etc.

Strengths of African American families

○ Strong kinship bonds- more likely to care for children in extended family network

○ Strong work orientation- those in poverty are likely to be working and families include more than one wage earner

○ Adaptability of family roles- self reliance of Black women who are primary wage earners, egalitarian pattern of decision making in two parent families

○ Strong achievement orientation- Black members of working class have greater desire for children to attend college than White working class, majority of low income children want to attend college

○ Strong religious orientation- Black churches are behind important organizations and community socialization/solidarity

Black housing

restricted through discrimination which has not been the case for White households (redlining)

• Residential segregation has also led to educational segregation; racial separation continues to exist in White America because they haven't the political will/desire to dismantle it

Factors contributing to residential segregation

○ Private prejudice and discrimination- people refuse to sell/rent to people of certain races, ethnicities, religions, etc.

○ Prejudicial policies of real estate companies- steer people to particular neighborhoods

○ Government policies- do not effectively enforce anti-bias legislation

○ Public housing policies and construction patterns- reinforce the location of housing for people living in inner-city neighborhoods

○ Policies of banks and other lenders- create race-based barriers to financing home purchasing

Redlining

practice of discriminating against people trying to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods

zoning laws

enacted to ensure specific standards of housing construction are satisfied; can separate industrial and commercial enterprises from residential areas

○ Some zoning laws in suburbs have curbed development of low to moderate income housing that would attract Black Americans who want to leave central cities

○ Makes less available

Criminal justice and Black people

• More Black men are in prison than in college; probability of Black man going to state or federal prison in his lifetime is 1 in 3

• More than 70% of homicides of White people are done by White people, and African Americans living in poverty are likely to be victims of serious crimes

• Crime and victimization are interconnected with education, employment, the quality of healthcare, and home life

Differential justice

White defendants are dealt with more leniently than Black defendants during investigation, arrest, indictment, conviction, sentencing, incarceration, or parole

○ Studies demonstrate harsh dealing with Black youth from police than White youth

○ More police brutality

○ Law is public social institution that reproduces inequality experienced in life

○ Black people are also 3x more likely to be excluded from serving on a jury

BLM

seeks to end injustice in legal system and police brutality

○ As inappropriate police actions come to attention to the public, more civilians are less likely to cooperate

○ 911 calls seeking police assistance also declined, especially in all-Black neighborhoods

○ Similar significant reductions in contacting police were followed by police brutality toward Black men that received public attention

Black youth and jail

Black Americans hit hardest by jail sentences

○ High levels of Black incarceration contributed to new Jim Crow, where Black youth are kept in their place under the threat of expulsion/incarceration

○ Also strains Black communities and households

Victim discounting

tendency to view crime less socially significant if the victim is viewed as less worthy

○ When a child walks into school with a gun, it's a national alarm; when children kill each other in drive-bys, it's seen as a local issue and the solution is to clean up local neighborhoods

§ Black Americans note who is being killed in these situations: Black ghetto youth in drive-bys

§ Black people more likely to be exposed to violence, even if they don't live in disadvantaged areas

Health, discrimination, and Black Americans

• Medical researchers note than Black men are more likely to fall victim to stress, heart disease, and cancer

• Compared to White people, morbidity and mortality rates for African Americans as a group are higher; Black people have higher death rates from heart disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and cancer

• Stress from racial prejudice and discrimination explains higher rates of hypertension in African Americans than White Americans

○ Higher rates of disease and mortality, even after adjusting for social class differences

Healthcare and Black Americans

• Even when medical care is accessible minorities are reluctant to trust medical establishment

Black Americans are underrepresented due to long history of mistreatment; some is a result of explicit discrimination, such as banning Black people from medical school, blood transfusions ("White" blood)

§ Medical practitioners was either to verify their worth as enslaved people or determine for their masters whether their property was really sick or trying to get out of enslaved labor

Medical Apartheid

refers to separate and unequal healthcare system in the US that continues to characterize health care for African Americans

-Patients with low incomes are worse in maternal health, birth weight, and survival beyond one year; Black mothers and children have similar poor birth outcomes and deaths to White mothers of low income levels

-High income of Black households do not consider little wealth and high indebtedness compared to White households, which may interfere with accessing better health care

-Segregation makes optimal health care more distant, and encounters with racism in healthcare facilities and accumulation of stress due to ongoing discrimination are another important cause of poor health among Black Americans

Other factors in healthcare

• Health insurance is also absent, and there are differences in coverage and type for African Americans; uninsured rates for African Americans reflects lower private coverage rates

• Environmental injustice also makes Black, low-income communities more susceptible to facing health problems due to toxic pollution and hazardous waste dumps

○ Exposure to these environmental hazards is part of discrimination cycle

• African Americans are more likely to experience health issues that make them more susceptible to complications from COVID-19, more likely to live in densely populated areas and have critical occupations like transportation worker and healthcare aide, bringing them in contact with diseased people more often, and their access to affordable healthcare is more limited

Black people in politics

• Locally elected Black officials find it difficult to make the jump to statewide office

• Voters other than Black ones have difficulty seeing Black politicians as anything more than representatives of the Black community, and express concern that these politicians will not represent the views of others

• Regardless of elected official's race, African Americans are increasingly frustrated by politicians who seem to keep Black issues in forefront only when they seek support at election time

• Political gains made by Black Americans are placed in jeopardy by legal actions that challenged race-based districts

• Boundaries for elective office concentrate enough members of a minority group to create a safe majority, making it more likely that the member of the group will be elected

Shelby County v. Holder

invalidated the provisions that require jurisdictions in states with history of discriminatory voting practices to meet special criteria to ensure that any future changes are fair to all

*Affected states felt it was time to stop punishing them for old Jim Crow practices, and voting advocates felt new more color blind racism could undo decades of progress

Voting and Black Americans

○ Civil rights supporters also continued to be concerned over reduction in number of polling places serving Black neighborhoods, attempts to end the same-day voter registration, reduction in early voting period, and limiting pre registration of teens

*Institutional steps to suppress Black voter turnout