The Politics of Diversity - Institutional Racism Notes 9

The Politics of Diversity

Objectives

  • Overview of the Civil Rights Movement
  • Status of Racial Inequality in America
  • Institutional Racism

Racial Discrimination: Historical Context

  • Colonial Period (1600s): First slaves brought to Jamestown, VA (1616)
  • Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (1525-1866): Approx. 12.5 million Africans kidnapped and sold into slavery over 300+ years
  • American Civil War (1861-1865): Conflict over slavery and states' rights
  • Emancipation Proclamation (1863): Freed slaves in Confederate states
  • Jim Crow Era (1877-1950): Enforced segregation and legal discrimination
  • Civil Rights Era (1954-1968): Addressed and abolished formal discrimination
  • Post-Civil Rights Era (1970-present): Continued informal discrimination

Key Amendments Addressing Discrimination

  • 13th Amendment (1865): Abolishes slavery except as punishment for crime
  • 14th Amendment (1868): Ensures equal protection and due process under the law
  • Critical for the legal foundation of the civil rights movement
  • 15th Amendment (1880): Protects voting rights regardless of race or previous servitude

Major Civil Rights Legislation

  • Civil Rights Act (1964): Prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
  • Voting Rights Act (1965): Eliminates discriminatory voting practices like literacy tests
  • Fair Housing Act (1968): Forbids housing discrimination based on race and other factors

Improvements in African American Quality of Life

1960s
  • High School Graduation Rate: 20%
  • College Education: 3%
  • Poverty Rate: 51%
  • Life Expectancy: 64
2000s
  • High School Graduation Rate: 81%
  • College Education: 19%
  • Poverty Rate: 25%
  • Life Expectancy: 73

Current Racial Disparities (2005 Statistics)

Whites vs. Blacks
  • Poverty Rates:
  • Whites: 11%
  • Blacks: 25%
  • Median Net Worth:
  • Whites: $140,700
  • Blacks: $24,800
  • Infant Mortality Rates:
  • Whites: 4.9
  • Blacks: 10.9

Causes of Racial Inequality

Dominant Narratives
  1. Cultural Deficiency Arguments
  • Claiming African Americans lack commitment to mainstream values (e.g., education, hard work)
  • Stresses cultural norms as primary drivers of inequality
  1. Persistent Racial Discrimination
  • Inequality due to both historical and ongoing racial discrimination
  • Focus on structural barriers affecting social resources

Definitions of Racism

  • Racism: Exclusion based on characteristics like skin color or ethnicity (Bleich, 2011)
  • Individual Racism: Discriminatory beliefs/actions by individuals reproducing racial hierarchies
  • Example: Instance of hate crimes like the Ahmaud Arbery case
  • Institutional Racism: Established norms and rules that perpetuate racially inequitable outcomes, such as
  • Segregation in neighborhoods
  • Disparities in educational and job access

Examples of Racism

Individual Racism: Charleston Mass Shooting
  • Date: June 17th, 2015
  • Perpetrator: Dylann Roof (white supremacist)
  • Incident: Killed nine African Americans in a church
Institutional Racism: Flint Water Crisis
  • Date: April 2014
  • Event: Flint changed its water source, resulting in poisoned water supply
  • Consequence: Disproportionate impact on the majority African American population due to delayed governmental response

Invisible Racism

  • Invisible Racism: Subtle, informal discrimination existing within institutions despite the end of formal overt discrimination
  • Continues to impact quality of life based on historical inequities
  • Requires action to dismantle remaining systemic inequalities

Dimensions of Institutional Racism (De Jong)

  1. Housing: Encounters of discrimination in real estate and bank lending
  2. Education: Legal battles influencing forced integration and current systemic failures
  3. Criminal Justice: Racial profiling and sentencing disparities due to poverty and educational inequities

Calls to Action

  • Collective Responsibility: White Americans benefit from systemic inequalities and must actively work to dismantle these structures to achieve true racial justice.
  • Redistributive Policies Needed: Addressing the historical impacts of past injustices requires policies beyond mere equal treatment to rectify economic and political disparities.