Sociology of Families - Lecture Notes

Course Overview and Objectives

• Course: SOCI 130: Sociology of Families
• Instructor: Dr. Susan Lee
• Date: May 29, 2025
• Topics: Race and Ethnicity, Immigration, Intermarriage
• Reading: Textbook Ch. 3 (pp. 76-117)

Learning Objectives

After this class, students should be able to:

• Distinguish between race and ethnicity and describe the current racial-ethnic composition of the U.S. population.
• Assess the disparate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on families across the lines of race and ethnicity.
• Summarize the impact of the immigration reforms of 1965 on families.
• Identify the factors behind the rising intermarriage rate in the United States.

Discussion Board Post #3

• Due Date: May 29th
• Purpose: Engage with material, share reflections, pose questions, and apply concepts to current family issues.
• Instructions: Answer questions based on Chapter 3 and lecture slides, demonstrating an understanding of key concepts.
• Interaction: Post at least one thoughtful response to another student's post.

Discussion Questions:

1. Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity: What does it mean for race and ethnicity to be “socially constructed”?
2. Interracial Marriage: Do you think interracial marriage will continue to increase? Why or why not? Provide support for your argument.

Upcoming Dates

• Discussion Board Post #3 due on May 29th
• Quiz #1 tomorrow on May 30th

What Are Race and Ethnicity?

Marcia and Millie

• Fraternal twins with different racial classifications based on physical appearance.
• Marcia is seen as White, and Millie is seen as Black in the United States.
• Highlights how perception and social constructs influence racial identity despite minor genetic differences.

Biology and Race

• The concept of “races” originated in the eighteenth century to classify and rank people by appearance.
• Visible traits exist on a continuum, making rigid categorization impossible.
• Skin color is a biological adaptation, but other visible differences evolved randomly.

Definitions

Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity

• Race has no biological basis but is socially important.
• Both race and ethnicity are socially constructed.
• Data collection relies on self-identification, shaped by social forces.
• Racial and ethnic categories change over time and place.

Race

• A group of people believed to share common descent based on perceived physical similarities.

Ethnicity

• A group of people with a common cultural identification based on language, religion, ancestral origin, or traditional practices.
• Ethnicity can change over a person’s lifetime.

Racial Ethnicity

• An ethnic group perceived to share physical characteristics.
• Example: African American (ethnic) and Black (racial) used interchangeably.
• Used by sociologists and governments despite the confusion.

Why Classify by Race and Ethnicity?

• Family and social life reflect separation along racial-ethnic lines.
• Endogamy: Marriage and reproduction within a distinct group.
• Exogamy: Marriage and reproduction outside one’s distinct group.
• Historical enforcement of racial-ethnic divisions has caused long-lasting inequalities.

Changing Law: How the U.S. Government Measures Race and Ethnicity

• The U.S. government counts five distinct races: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
• People can identify as one or more races and write in ethnic or national origins on the U.S. Census form.
• People can separately identify as Hispanic or Latino.
• Race and ethnic categories have changed every decade since 1880.
• In 2000, it became possible to check more than one race-identification box.
• Aided immigrants from Latin America and Asia who found the U.S. racial classification system confusing.
• The classification of race and ethnicity will continue to change.

U.S. Population by Race and Ethnicity (2020)

• Largest group: Non-Hispanic Whites (193 million)
• Hispanic: 61 million (36.4 million considered themselves White)
• Black: 39 million
• Asian: 20.9 million
• American Indian and Alaska Native: 3.9 million
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.7 million
• Some other race: 18.5 million
• Multiple races: 13.5 million

What about whites?

• Whites are the largest group but often don’t identify as a racial or ethnic group.
• The nineteenth-century concept of an American race included different European groups, evolving into the classification of White in the twentieth century.
• Some White Americans have strong ethnic identities associated with their European ancestry, while others do not.

Minority Groups

• A racial or ethnic group that occupies a subordinate status in society.
• Usually smaller than the dominant group but not always.
• Their status raises questions about rights and social justice, which are sources of conflict and change.

The U.S. Population

• Growing diversity in family structure and racial-ethnic composition.
• Driven by immigration (especially from Latin America and Asia) and higher birth rates among immigrants and their children.
• The White population is gradually losing its dominant numerical status, with the greatest growth among the Latino population.

American Stories

Social Forces Shaping Families

• Conquest, slavery, immigration, and war have shaped American Indian, Black, Latino, and Asian families.
• COVID-19 pandemic effects on families across lines of race and ethnicity.

American Indians

• Before European arrival, millions lived in hundreds of tribes.
• Population reduced by two-thirds due to disease and war by the twentieth century.
• Recent population growth due to mixed ancestry expression.

Traditional Family Life

• Families were central to many American Indian societies.
• Values: cooperation over competition, collective well-being over individualism, spiritual orientation.
• Family boundaries are often drawn broadly.
• Informal same-sex marriage is often accepted as a third gender identity.
• Some tribes practice polygamy.
• Traditions change, making it difficult to define a “traditional” practice.

On and Off the Reservations

• In 2010, 22% lived on reservations, often in rural areas with poor conditions.
• Health problems: diabetes, alcoholism, family violence.
• Experienced highest COVID-19 death rates.
• Gambling industry provides income to some communities.

African Americans

• Experienced chronic inequality from slavery.
• W. E. B. Du Bois’s study in 1899 showed the devastating consequences of slavery and discrimination on Black family life.

Slavery’s Legacy

• Informal marriages, higher divorce rates, and extended family caregivers were more common.
• Analysts like Daniel Patrick Moynihan incorrectly attributed racial inequality to non-traditional family life.

Family Resilience

• Black women became strong leaders and workers out of necessity.
• Fluid family structure was a useful reaction to persistent poverty.
• After the Civil War, many Black Americans lived in nuclear families but were limited by poverty and lack of opportunity.

Urban Poverty

• In the 1950s, Black workers transitioned to blue-collar jobs in the North.
• Northern cities were highly segregated due to business and government policies like redlining.

The Black Middle Class

• A highly visible Black middle class exists today as an economic and cultural phenomenon.
• Middle-class African Americans have less wealth than middle-class Whites and have a high poverty rate.
• Due to deindustrialization, the U.S. economy shifted to service production, leaving blue-collar workers jobless.

Retreat from Marriage?

• The drop in marriage rates has been steeper for African Americans.
• Job loss and economic stress contributed to separation and divorce.
• Black women face a shortage of men to marry due to higher mortality and incarceration rates and in-group marriage preferences.

Black Immigrants

• A growing number of Black immigrants from the Caribbean or Africa.
• Diverse family experiences set them apart from the Black population descended from enslaved ancestors.
• They sometimes experience less anti-Black racism and benefit from higher education or financial assets from their home country.

Latinos

• The largest minority group in the country.
• Some families have been here for generations, while many are recent immigrants.
• Most are of Mexican origin, followed by Puerto Ricans and Central Americans.

Culture and Diversity

• The first Mexican Americans were people living on land annexed in 1848.
• Recent Mexican immigration is dominated by poor people seeking work.
• Puerto Rico was annexed as a U.S. colony and became a partly self-governing commonwealth.
• Puerto Ricans have the legal right to move to the mainland since 1917.
• There is a growing migration of refugees from Central America due to economic crises, violence, and natural disasters.
• The flow of immigrants helps maintain cultural continuity.
• We should not generalize too broadly about different Latino groups.

Familism

• Latino culture is associated with familism.
• Familism: A personal outlook that puts family obligations first, before individual well-being.
• Family relationships and intergenerational ties play a central role.
• Latinos are two to three times more likely to live in extended families.

Asian Americans

• 7% of the U.S. population.
• The fastest-growing minority group.
• Largest groups: Chinese (22%), Indian (19%), and Filipino (17%).
• 60% speak a language other than English at home.

Family Traditions, Modern Times

• Chinese and East Asian communities with a Confucian background strive for educational excellence.
• Parental support for education results in 78% of Asian Americans ages 18 to 29 having more than a high school education.
• Many Asian adults immigrated with higher education degrees or moved here to study for professional careers.
• Most Asian cultures value respect and care for elders.
• 24% of Asian Americans live in multigenerational households, compared with 13% of Whites.
• Some older immigrants feel supported, while others experience loneliness and isolation.

Inequality and Diversity

• Higher education levels, lower unmarried childbearing, and lower poverty rates than the U.S. population at large.

• Asian Americans overall have relatively high incomes and status.

• Some smaller groups from Southeast Asia have high poverty rates and work in blue-collar occupations.

• These discrepancies reflect the conditions under which people from different countries came to the United States.

• Since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, some Americans have resisted competition from Asian workers.

• The stereotype of Asian Americans as successful students (the “model minority”) is a double-edged sword.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

• One million people died of COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2022.

• Health Disparities: Preventable differences in health experienced by socially unequal groups.

• The pandemic was worse in Black, Hispanic, and American Indian populations compared with Asian and White communities.

• The virus magnified inequality by spreading among those who are most socially vulnerable.

• Illness and death due to COVID-19 has been more common in Black, Hispanic, and American Indian groups.

• Children in these groups have been more likely to lose parents or caregivers.

• Economic impacts: falling behind on rent, being unable to afford enough food, and losing health experience.

• Minority groups were more likely to experience serious trouble.

• Schooling was disrupted, and the greatest learning loss was for American Indian, Hispanic, and Black students.

Immigration

The New Immigration

• At almost 15%, the proportion of U.S. residents born in another country is higher than it has been since 1910.

• If you include Americans whose parents were born elsewhere, a quarter of the population belong to an immigrant family.

• Immigration has accelerated in each of the past three decades, increasingly reaching into parts of the country that previously did not have large immigrant populations.

• The current wave of immigration dates to 1965, when a federal law reform allowed the immigration of spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens and ended a quota system that kept out many immigrants from Latin America and Asia.

• Under family unification law, immigrant communities have thrived, but the system may increase social distance between immigrant groups and the rest of society.

• The pace of immigration slowed in the 2010s and fell dramatically during the pandemic, so the future growth of these communities is not clear.

Changing Law: Immigration Uniting and Dividing Families

• U.S. legal history has been a seesaw of permissions and penalties for immigration.

• The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese immigrants from citizenship and blocked new immigration.

• In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco, was a citizen because he was born in the U.S., even though his parents were Chinese.

• The 1924 Immigration Act severely reduced immigration from Europe and shut off immigration from Asia.

• The 1942–1964 Bracero Program extended “temporary” work permits to millions of Mexican workers.

• The 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act ended a country-based quota system and lifted all numerical restrictions on the immigration of spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens.

• The 2002 Homeland Security Act instituted fence-building and border patrols.

• Ironically, this increased permanent residency of Mexican migrants and their families.

• The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals rule provided temporary protection to people who had entered the country without authorization as children from deportation and allowed them to work.

• The 2017–2021 “Build the Wall” period included replacing existing fencing with higher steel fencing and a policy of separating families at the border.

• The 2021–2022 period saw an asylum crisis, resulting in the arrest of record numbers of migrants at the border and many deported quickly, while millions more await review.

Generations: Acculturation

• Immigrants and their children learn the ways of their new homeland through acculturation.
• Acculturation: The acquisition of a new culture and language.
• Consonant acculturation: Parents and children together gradually transition away from their home culture and language.
• Dissonant acculturation: Children develop English ability more quickly and integrate into the new society more easily than their parents.

Generations: Assimilation

• New groups blend into American society through assimilation.
• Assimilation: The gradual reduction of ethnic distinction between immigrants and the mainstream society.
• Assimilation is successful only when the host society accepts the new group.
• New groups have received different levels of acceptance in the United States.

Immigrant Generations

Intermarriage

Social Distance

• Racial and ethnic groups exist if the categories they represent stay distinct.
• Separate groups persist if there is separation in daily life.
• Intermarriage is the “litmus test” of racial and ethnic difference.
• Intermarriage: Marriage between members of different racial or ethnic groups.

Black and White

• The first U.S. law prohibiting marriage between Blacks and Whites was passed in Maryland in 1661.
• Most African Americans lived under such laws until the 1960s.
• White male slave owners fathered children with enslaved Black women, and the “one-drop rule” ensured their children remained enslaved.

Violence Against Black Americans

• Several thousand African Americans were victims of lynching from the 1880s to the 1930s.
• Almost always murdered by White mobs avenging alleged interracial sex crimes.

Intermarriage Today

• Laws against interracial marriage were declared unconstitutional in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia.
• Since the 1970s, there has been slow growth in the rate of interracial marriage.
• Marriage between Black and White spouses remains relatively uncommon.
• African Americans are the least likely to marry outside their own race.
• Other groups, like American Indians, have high rates of intermarriage.

The Future of Social Distance

• Social distance: The level of acceptance that members of one group have toward members of another.

• Intermarriage is a good measure of social distance.

• Due to residential segregation, many people do not have the opportunity to marry people from other races.

• The American public is increasingly tolerant of interracial relationships.

• The trend narrows social distance, and the generation gap suggests greater change in public attitudes is on the way.

• Asian and Latino people are more likely to be married to White people if they were born in the United States compared with those who immigrated.

Unauthorized Immigration

• About one-quarter of all immigrants are unauthorized, two-thirds of whom have been in the country for 10 years or more.

• They make up 5% of the U.S. workforce, and their children are 7% of K–12 public school students.

• The number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has fallen, while the number from Central America and Asia has increased.

• Granting legal status to unauthorized immigrants would allow them to work legally and pay more in taxes.

• Undocumented immigrants have millions of children who are U.S. citizens.

• Expelling those children would be unconstitutional, and expelling their parents would break up families.

• People crossing the border from Mexico are increasingly families with children seeking asylum.

• The number of people crossing into the United States as refugees is likely to grow as economic troubles, political instability, and the impacts of climate change drive people out of their home countries.

Review Questions

1. Lin marries someone from his cultural group. Which term best applies to this situation?

   • Answer: B. endogamy

2. José and Maria came to the United States from Mexico with their parents. They quickly learned English, but their parents struggle with it and want to continue to speak Spanish at home to maintain their culture. This is an example of

   • Answer: B. dissonant acculturation.