Sociology Midterm #2 Review

Deindustrialization

decline in industrial activity in a region or economy

GI Bill

discriminated against race/ethnic minorities in housing, finance, and education benefits

Many local agents denied expanding the support for black and Latino veterans.

Split labor market

is a situation in which one group of laborers (usually defined by race, sex, or ethnicity) is routinely paid less than other groups

Racial Capitalism

“Capitalism and racism did not break from the old order but rather evolved from it to produce a modern world system of “racial capitalism” dependent on slavery, violence, imperialism, and genocide.” – Robin D.G. Kelley

NOT a TYPE of Capitalism, but Capitalism is inherently racial.

Racial disparities in wealth over time

Racial wealth gap has increased over time between whites and blacks/Hispanics

The wealth of whites is 7x bigger than blacks and 5x bigger than Hispanics

Racial disparities in wealth – trends

Unemployment rates by race and ethnicity

Recession hits harder for black and Hispanic job seekers

Higher for black and low for Asians

The wealth of Asian Americans is more volatile (dramatically changes) after the financial crisis

Explanations for the racial wealth/income gap

5 Drivers in wealth inequality:
Years of homeownership: years you’ve owned a home

Household income: how much money bring in through income

Years of unemployment: how many years someone doesn’t have a job

College education: how much education

Inheritances or financial support from family members: how much inheritance or assets

Racial disparities in unemployment over time

Black American hiring discrimination has not gone down but rather not changed much for the past 25 years

Experiment: Impact on criminal record on call backs

- White job seekers with criminal records got a call back more than black job seekers without one

Meritocracy: “if you work hard, you'll succeed”

However, 2008 crisis had all unemployment rates of all racial groups increase

New Deal Programs

1930s after great recession

Trying to tackle great depression era

Came up with SNS benefits, jobs programs, infostructures

Often excluded black and brown workers

Separated them by work (excluded categories)

Colored veterans did not get the same benefits or treatment

Boom in economy after WWII: manufactures a lot of war materials

Income doubling for most Americans

Incomes became to stagnate in 1973

Less manufacturing jobs caused deindustrialization

Weakening of unions with less jobs being available

Disproportionality affects people of color who moved to these jobs

Index of Dissimilarity

Intended to measure how much "diversity" or "variety" a school or district has among the ethnic groups in its student population.

measurement of residential segregation

Reason for the decline in dissimilarity today are depopulation of former ghetto neighborhoods, and the housing bubble of the past decade

Redlining

Real estate lenders used “______” to refuse loans and mortgages in nonwhite neighborhoods

Blockbusting

a practice used by real estate agents and developers that stoked racial fear to convince white homeowners to sell their homes at low prices

Steering

is a practice used by realtors in which they show homes in white neighborhoods only to whites, and homes in black neighborhoods only to blacks 

Contract Selling

Selling homes to black families “on contract”, High interest payments; not gaining equity in the home (until it is entirely paid off); if you miss a payment, you lose everything you paid into the home

Predatory Lending

High-cost lenders target Blacks and Hispanics

High interest rates and fees

Covenants

provision in a property deed preventing sale to a person of a particular race or religion; loan discrimination; ruled unconstitutional 

urban renewal

After World War II, city planners in major cities destroyed entire nonwhite communities to build highways, hospitals, luxury housing, and other city improvements

White Flight

Beginning in the 1950s, many middle-class whites sold their houses in the city and fled to the newly created suburbs because they feared the racial integration of their neighborhood. 

White Fight

White working-class families who could not afford to flee often tried to intimidate nonwhite families with protests, vandalism, and violence.

Neighborhood associations were created to “defend” white property.

Great Migration

Between 1910 and 1960, over 4.5 million blacks migrated from the rural South to the urban North

Blacks were fleeing racial terrorism in the South and seeking economic opportunities.

In the North and the West, they still faced racial residential segregation (“sundown towns”), discrimination, and violence.

Trends in Neighborhood Segregation

The level of residential segregation has decreased during the past decades in large metropolitan areas

This process of clustering amongst ethnic groups in urbanization processes is known as the racialization of neighborhoods.

Segregation in different regions of America

Decreased in 10 largest cities in America but still high

Residential segregation is decreasing while school segregation is increasing

more segregation in northern part of the country

Cities with the highest levels of segregation

Milwaukee – the most segregated city in America

Chicago, Clevland, Detroit

They have decreased slightly

Civil Rights Act 1968

Fair Housing Act of 1968

Illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of
housing

Outlawed several discriminatory practices due to the spurred urban uprising after the assassination of Dr. MLK

Racial Uprisings

Racial segregation continued, and in the mid-1960s, many poor black neighborhoods exploded in violent protests racism and injustice.

In 1968, after Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), was assassinated, there were uprisings all over the nation.

Frequent targets were white-owned businesses that had mistreated or refused to hire blacks.

Federal Housing Administration programs

Ensured housing loans to Americans with small down payments are reasonable interest rates

Blacks only received 2% of FHA home loans

Model Minority Myth

“Asian Americans are a racial group, and they manage to succeed.”

It suggests that the hard work, personal responsibility, and success of Asian Americans is proof that meritocracy exists in the U.S.

Adultification

The perception that Black girls are less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, particularly in the age range of 5–14

The assignment of more adult-like characteristics to Black girls

 Indian Boarding Schools

First federally funded off-reservation Indian boarding school founded in 1879

Carlisle enrolled >10,500 students before closing in 1918

Focused on assimilation of Native American children: “kill the Indian and save the man”

Cultural Capital

“The sum total of one’s knowledge of established and exalted cultural activities and practices.”

Ex) Knowledge of fine art, encouraging words by middle-class parents, frequency of conversation by parents

Social Capital

Who you know, your networks.

Familism: one’s attachment to, and reliance on family-based relationships.

Increases their educational aspirations and ambition

The school-to-Prison Pipeline

is a nationwide pattern in which school policies and practices are directly and indirectly pushing students out of schools and into the criminal justice system.

Zero Tolerance Policies

Requires school officials to hand down specific, consistent, and harsh punishment—usually suspension or expulsion—when students break certain rules.

The punishment applies regardless of the circumstances, the reasons for the behavior (like self-defense), or the student’s history of discipline problems.

Meritocracy

Belief that we live in a color-blind society everybody has equal opportunity to succeed

Stereotypes that race/ethnic minorities are lazier or don’t value economic success as many whites

The Hidden Curriculum

Collection of unspoken “values, dispositions, social and behavioral expectations ... essential to satisfactory progression through school.”

EX: Knowing how to email your professors

Responding in class to a question to which you don’t know the answer

Schools are built around the interests and cultural capital of the dominant group.

Affirmative Action

allows admissions committees to consider racial diversity of applicants when deciding who to admit

Stereotype Threat

Being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s group

The threat can interfere with intellectual performance

 Oppositional Culture

African American children perform poorly in school because they associate success in schools as “acting white”

African Americans have responded to discrimination by developing an identity in opposition to dominant white culture—and this includes an opposition to school success

Trends in School segregation over time

We see more segregation recently in schools (Resegregation in schools)

High school and college completion rates have increased but still segregated

Hispanics bottom, Asians are highly college educated

Even in schools with high achievement rates, the racial gap persists

The percentage of black students in a majority white school increased around Civil Rights Era but has decreased once again in recent years

San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez

Supreme Court of the United States held that San Antonio Independent School District 's financing system, which was based on local property taxes, was not an unconstitutional violation of the Fourteenth Amendment 's equal protection clause.

KEY TAKEAWAY: law generally only prohibits “traditional "racism/discrimination

Generally, does NOT prohibit racist/discriminatory outcomes (not color-blind disparities

Brown v. Board of Education

De jure segregation ruled unconstitutional but de facto segregation persisted

14th Amendment guarantees the “equal protection” of the law

Rejected the “separate but equal” doctrine

Separate is inherently unequal EVEN IF resources were equal

Emphasized the increasingly important role of education for future success

Black schoolchildren were psychologically damaged by segregation

Made to feel inferior and second-class citizens

This denied them access to equal educational opportunities

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke

It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy.

Plessey v. Ferguson

Upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities—including public schools, public transit, etc.—if the segregated facilities were equal in quality

“Separate but equal” doctrine: Segregation in public facilities was allowed as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality)

“De Jure” Segregation

De Jure vs De Facto segregation in schools

De Facto:
- De Facto school segregation is closely connected to structural inequalities in wealth and housing patterns, by personal choice or private practice

De Jure: is the legally allowed or enforced separation of groups of people, due to discriminatory government policy

Tracking

The practice of sorting students into different tracks, ostensibly according to their ability. 

Historical factors of FHA

What they did:
Not directly giving loans or building houses but providing government-backed mortgage 

Refused to provide insurance for the residents in and near black neighborhoods

Refused to deny insurance to developers who built whites-only residents.

Impacts:
Channeled whites to buy houses in white-only neighborhoods -> Spurred white flights 

Constrained the homeownership(thereby wealth accumulation) of POC 

->segregation / racial inequality in home-ownership

Gifts, debts, inheritances- Supplemental Reading

Different levels of family wealth between racial groups that affect the life chances of the following generation:

- Less financial subsidies from parents - a higher burden for higher education- large student debt – low quality of life in college  
- A larger burden to support their family financially 
- Less inheritance

The concentration of poverty in American Schools - Supplemental Reading

Based on the reading, The main predictors of the racial achievement gap are:

- The difference in rates at which black, Hispanic, and white students go to school with poor classmates 

- According to the article, most African Americans and Hispanic students attend public schools where a majority of their classmates are poor or low-income

Minneapolis had this coming - Supplemental Reading

Paradox of Minneapolis:
- While the city has its reputation as being one of the most
progressive, inclusive, and liberal cities, it also demonstrates abysmally low racial equity. 
- in terms of housing, unemployment, academic achievements, policing practices

Factors that contributed to the high level of housing in Minneapolis:
- Redlining
- Racial covenants; As far back as the early 90s’ racial covenants denied blacks from buying homes in particular areas in the city, especially desirable areas. 
- Fierce opposition against the city government’s decision to eliminate zoning for single-family housing opting instead for multi-family buildings