Race relations chapter 3

relative deprivation

conscious experience of expectations and actualities; how much a minority feels deprived of privileges and rights

ex: immigrants in the US enjoy more political freedom but feel relatively deprived because they lack power in areas still

*although they have socioeconomic issues they’re not necessarily worse off in objective sense (such as compared to other environments or minorities)

Marxism and the misery of workers

• the misery of workers is important in reflecting their oppressed state, but so is their position relative to the ruling class

• social science says deprivation is how people perceive their situations

• This explains why groups/individuals who are the most vocal and best organized against discrimination are not necessarily in the worst economic and social situation, but they're most likely to be those who most strongly perceive that they're not receiving their fair share in comparison to others

• Resistance to perceived discrimination doesn't always match up with the actual amount of absolute discrimination

Absolute deprivation

implies a fixed standard based on a minimum level of subsistence, often determined by the government; when a minority is deprived of all necessities, including food, water, shelter, healthcare, clothing, etc.

*discrimination isn’t always absolute deprivation; can be passing over promotion for minority because the corporation is reluctant to place them in a highly visible position

Hate crime

Criminal offense committed because of the offenders bias against a race, religion, etc. group; what makes it different from an ordinary crime is that the offender will choose a victim that has a characteristic they're prejudiced against and provide evidence that hatred prompted them to commit the crime

*62% of hate crimes involve race as motivation

*vandalism, intimidation, murder, rape

*mainly committed by members of the dominant group against the powerless; receive little media attention even if the offender was White

hate groups and internet

Established hate groups can also operate online, creating opportunities for unknown haters to promote themselves and target their victims via instant messages, harassing telephone calls, and by attracting people surfing for certain information to websites disguised as educational that actually perpetuate hate

Hate crime legislation has a loophole when it comes to cyberattacks by hate groups because of the legal questions revolving around freedom of speech

Hate crime purpose

A hate/bias crime toward a minority is intended to carry a message well beyond the individual victim and terrorize the entire minority group

*sometimes felony

Institutional discrimination

the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operations of a society; refers to overt acts of individual White people against individual Black people

*Individuals practice discrimination in one-on-one encounters while institutions practice it through daily operations; institutional discrimination is more significant than that of prejudiced individuals

*institutional racism

Examples of institutional discrimination

*Standards for assessing credit risks work against Black people and Hispanic people who seek to establish businesses because they lack conventional credit references

*IQ testing favors White middle class children via types of questions on the test

*Entire criminal justice system is dominated by White law enforcement, many of whom don't fully understand life in diverse communities

*Hiring practices often require several years of experience at jobs only recently opened to minorities

*Many jobs automatically eliminate people with felony records or past drug offenses, which disproportionately reduces employment opportunities for POC

*The decision to deny someone a job is more likely to occur to Black and Latino people with past criminal record than White people with past criminal record, even if they both have similar record/types of crimes

Institutional discrimination and voting laws

*state law bans citizens with past felony convictions from voting, disproportionately causing lifetime bans for Black voters

*state laws require voter ID, but this purposely disenfranchises minorities who cannot get a driver’s license/don’t have one

*stricter ID laws do not necessarily lead to less voter fraud, and can lower proportions of minorities voting in election

Income

salaries, wages, other money received in a specific amount of time

*correlation between educational level/quality and income

wealth

encompasses all of a person’s material assets, including land (collective)

Income disparity between men and women, and White Americans and minorities

*women and POC are more likely to work part time, so their income inequality is understated

*White men’s income is twice as much as Hispanic women

*men outpace women in annual income

*individuals within groups aren’t equally prepared to compete for and take high-paying job; past discrimination affects their current social position

*more money invested in schools for dominant group= educational quality disparity= ultimately leads to income inequality

*women hired at lower starting salary jobs than men; salary increases slower and they take longer to reach milestones (may also be linked to educational access)

*more earners of money may be needed in minority households, like Asians

*Black Americans are more likely to stay below the poverty level than White Americans, and more likely to fall out of wealth

*educational institutions encourage women to enter lower paying jobs, such as nursing or elementary education; even at these jobs, men get promoted quicker and more frequently than women, so women earn less

agents of social change

voluntary associations organized to solve racial/ethnic problems

the federal government and its courts

*most efforts initiated by government is motivated by associations or organizations protesting; resistance to social inequality by minorities is the biggest motivator

*all racial/ethnic groups are represented by private organizations trying to end discrimination, including churches, legal defense funds, political parties, etc.

*judiciary is charged with interpreting laws and US constitution; longer history of involvement in racial/ethnic rights

*federal agencies charged with enforcement say they’re underfunded or denied support by White House, and take a while for complaint to be recognized and addressed

Civil Rights Act

led to establishment of EEOC, which investigates complaints against employers and recommends action to Department of Justice so injured parties get compensation

*prohibits discrimination in public accomodations/facilities and federal programs/institutions

*Supreme Court has made rights established for minorities explicit and ruled that any member of an ethnic minority may sue under federal prohibitions against discrimination

Redlining

pattern of discrimination against mainly Black and Latino people trying to buy homes in minority and racially changing neighborhoods; comes from the early practice of bankers marking a red line on a map to indicate areas or neighborhoods in which they wouldn't make loans

*Applications of color experience higher mortgage denial rates, perpetuating the wealth gap

*lenders use credit histories/scores to determine applicant’s likelihood of repaying their loan; banks denied communities of color access to these services

*reluctance of lenders to consider rental histories or assets of extended family for POC

Wealth inequality and discrimination from the past

• Discrimination from the past carries into the present and future; minorities have had less opportunity to accumulate assets like homes, land, etc., so they cannot pass down generational wealth, which in turn economically sets their children back

• Income disparities among groups are even greater when wealth is considered; households headed by White people have higher wealth than those headed by Black people, and White people have also accumulated more wealth than POC

• Racial/ethnic differences in median net worth are driven in part because of differences in home ownership; White residents have consistently higher rates of home ownership than minorities

Environmental justice

*Environmental justice: the efforts to ensure that hazardous substances are controlled so all communities receive protection, regardless of race or socioeconomic circumstance

*EPA documents discrimination in the location of hazardous waste sites (issued by executive order); all federal agencies are to ensure low income and minorities to access to better environmental info and the opportunity to participate in shaping community health policies

POC disparity in healthy environments

A national study found that racial/ethnic minorities are much more likely to drink unsafe water than White residents and people who live near toxic sites are more likely to be Black nationwide

People living in poverty face environmental hazards in neighborhoods; a racial gap remains, so that Black families are still more likely to live near toxic sites than White families with the same income

*Poverty, race, and poor health/environmental conditions connect

Native Americans and environmental justice

land abuse on Native American reservations: these lands become toxic waste dumping grounds (like for nuclear waste) and hurt their health, and economic devastation causes them to be forced to give up their land for pollution purposes

• Efforts to check environmental pollution is opposed because some argue it will slow economic development in areas that desperately need job opportunities; other observers counter that such businesses typically employ few unskilled workers and proceed to make the environment less habitable

Affirmative action

the positive effort to recruit minorities for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities; calls for contractors to ensure applicants are employed and that employees are treated equally regardless of race, religion, etc.

*a tool used to reduce institutional/systemic discrimination

aimed at the following areas:

-height and weight requirements that are catered to White men’s proportions that aren’t actually needed for the job

-seniority rules that were for White me, which make recently hired women and POC subject to getting laid off

-nepotism hiring policies

-restrictive employment leave policies and prohibitions on part-time work, which makes it difficult for single-parent families and pregnant women

-rules requiring English to be spoken when not necessary

-standardized academic tests curated for educational/cultural norms of White men

-preferences shown by law and medical schools for offspring of wealthy and influential White alumni

-credit policies of banks and lending institutions that deny mortgages and loans for minorities or deny credit to married women

• Studies looking at workforce composition in terms of race and gender found that minority employment was attributed to affirmative action guidelines, both in firms mandated to follow them and in ones that voluntarily did; some earnings can also be evidently traced to affirmative action

• Affirmative action and other federal compliance programs have had a modest impact, but it's difficult to assess their true efficacy, given larger economic changes such as recessions and rapid increase of women in the paid labor force

The legal debate

• How far can an employer go in encouraging women and minorities to apply for a job before it becomes unlawful discrimination against White men?

• Particularly this has been debated in the cases of college where racist history has been acknowledged

• Colleges and universities responded with new policies to broaden opportunities for underrepresented students of color; the minority enrollment, despite this, didn’t increase

reverse discrimination

• Reverse discrimination: Actions that cause better-qualified White men to be bypassed in favor of women and POC; conjures the notion that somehow women and members of racial/ethnic groups will subject White American men to the same treatment by POC during the past 300 years

*Questions affirmative action

• Critics of affirmative action also call for color-blind policies so all people would be judged fairly, but this may not address institutional practices that favor White college applicants

• Colleges often have policies that favor legacy admissions- applicants whose parents or other relatives are alumni; given that POC are only relatively recent college students, legacy admissions favor White and wealthy applicants as a group

• College admissions policies also favor children of faculty/staff and give entry to student athletes; this favors White applicants over POC

• Affirmative action supporters say as long as businesses rely on informal social networks, personal recommendations, and family ties for hiring decisions, White men will continue to have distinct advantages built on generations of being in power; an end to affirmative action would also mean an end to many programs that that give advantages to businesses, homeowners, veterans, and farmers

• Top 10 programs admit the top 10 students from high schools, which could also proxy for diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, geography, and social class

• Most recent public discussion about affirmative action has been about college admissions, but it's also been introduced in employment procedures, including hiring, firing, and promotion

Glass ceiling

the barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified worker because of gender or minority membership; blocks qualified workers because they enter nontraditional areas of employment, so they become marginalized and uncomfortable

*Women and POC confront a glass ceiling that limits movement upward and glass walls that reduce their ability to move into fast-track jobs that lead to the highest reaches of corporate executive suite, while White men who choose to entire occupations dominated by women are often rewarded with promotions and positions of responsibility

reasons for glass ceilings

*it may be that one minority in power is regarded as enough, so the second potential diverse candidate faces an obstacle upward through an organization

*Decision makers may be too concerned that their customers will not trust them if they have too many POC in top management or may worry about a woman's ability to handle the duties of family and work successfully

*The significant underrepresentation of women and minority men in managerial positions results in large part from the presence of glass ceilings; the privileged class monopolizes the purchase of higher-priced consumer goods and wields the power to grant or withhold opportunity from others

glass ceiling barrier types

Lack of management commitment to establishing systems, policies, and practices for achieving workplace diversity upward mobility

Pay inequities for work of equal or comparable value

Gender, race, and ethnicity based stereotyping and harassment

Unfair recruitment practices

Lack of family friendly workplace policies

Parent track policies that discourage parental leave

Limited opportunities for advancement to decision making positions

Glass walls

a barrier that keeps a minority from moving laterally through a business towards positions that will lead upward; for instance, women tend to be placed in staff or support positions in public relations and human resources and are excluded from core areas like marketing, production, and sales

*Women are trapped in jobs that reflect their stereotype of being helpful in nature, and they encounter glass walls that cut off access to jobs that might lead to broader experience and advancement

Glass escalator

refers to the advantage experienced by White men in occupations dominated by women

*Men who enter occupations traditionally held by women are also more likely to rise to the top; for example, go from teacher to principal and nurse to supervisor

Discrimination in careers

*Discrimination persists even for educated and qualified people from privileged family backgrounds; as minorities are able to compete successfully, they sometimes encounter attitudinal or organizational bias that prevents them from reaching their full potential