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Chapter 5 Discrimination
Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations 5th Edition This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2016
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Learning Objectives To develop an understanding of discrimination. To examine the complex relationship between prejudice and discrimination. To explore and better understand the various facets of the affirmative action controversy.
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Discrimination Discrimination
From the Latin discriminatus, which literally means “to divide or distinguish”. The unequal treatment of subordinate groups inherent in the ongoing operations of society’s institutions. Examples: sentencing inequalities, religious bigotry, segregated housing.
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Discrimination against an invisible race: : The BURAKUMIN
taking. The Burakumin were placed outside the four main castes of Japanese society during the Edo Period ( ). Restrictions were placed on intermarriage, clothing, and social interaction. Historically, the Burakumin have been victims of discrimination and ostracism. Although the caste was officially abolished in 1876, the Burakumin continue to experience segregation and marginality as evidenced by their lower literacy levels, higher incarceration, divorce, unemployment, and mortality rates. Many of Japan’s estimated 2-3 million Burakumin live in 6000 hamlets or ghettos located in certain major metropolitan centers. 19th century picture of the Burakumin The Burakumin are 2-3 million strong. During the Muromachi Era ( ) the ancestrs of the Burakumin consisted of displaced persons who were forced into low-status occupations such as sanitation and under-
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Levels of Discrimination
Extermination Physical Abuse Exclusion Avoidance Verbal Expression
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Levels of Discrimination
Extermination: Most extreme level. Includes genocide, massacres, and progroms against people. Physical abuse: Violent attacks against disliked groups. Can take the form of ethnoviolence—verbal harassment and threats, vandalism, graffiti, physical assault, and murder. Exclusion: Excluding individuals from certain jobs, housing, education, or social organizations. One form it took in US was through segregation (see next slide). Avoidance: Occurs when prejudiced individual takes steps to avoid or limit contact with certain groups. Verbal Expression: Derogatory statements (e.g. ethnophaulisms) signaling dislike of groups.
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Levels of Discrimination
Forms of Exclusion Dejure Segregation Once widespread throughout the South, children were specifically assigned to schools in order to maintain racial separation. Segregationist laws kept all public facilities racially separated as well. Defacto Segregation Residential patterns leading to racial separation as embodied in certain customs and institutions. Building and maintaining schools in racially segregated communities thus preserved segregated schools.
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Relationships Between Prejudice and Discrimination
NO YES Prejudiced All Weather Liberal Fair Weather Liberal Timid Bigot Active Bigot
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Relationships Between Prejudice and Discrimination
Nonprejudiced Nondiscriminator Are neither prejudiced nor practicers of discrimination. Oftentimes virtues of omission rather than commission as they are not in direct competition with or have minimal contact with ethnic minorities. Nonprejudiced Discriminator Expedience byword for this category of individuals. Actions oftentimes conflict with personal beliefs. For example, will join clubs that exclude persons belonging to outgroups. Sometimes referred to as “fairweather liberals.”
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Relationships Between Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudiced Nondiscriminator Timid bigots, these individuals subscribe to many racial or gender-based stereotypes. In spite of hostility felt towards certain groups, keep silent. Conform because they must. Prejudiced Discriminator Active bigots. Openly express prejudicial attitudes, as well as practice discrimination.
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Social and Institutional Discrimination
Social Discrimination The creation of “social distance” between groups. In close, primary relationships, individuals usually associate with others of similar ethnic background and socioeconomic level. Passive discrimination: One silently acquiesces to others discriminatory actions. Active discrimination: Taking action against others.
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Social and Institutional Discrimination
The unequal treatment of subordinate groups inherent in the ongoing operations of society’s institutions. Examples: sentencing inequalities, religious bigotry, segregated housing.
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Residential Discrimination
It remains stubbornly rooted in the nation’s older cities. Of the fifty metropolitan areas with the largest black populations, those with the highest levels of segregation (in descending area) are Detroit, Milwaukee, NYC, Newark, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Blacks remain the most segregated ethnic group. However, between 1980 to 2010 a steady decline in segregation has been taking place, especially among Hispanics and Asians.
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Residential Discrimination
Source: Parillo, Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations,
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Residential Segregation
Source: Parillo, Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations,
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Residential Discrimination
Urban residential segregation limits opportunities for minorities and prevents them from moving closer to suburban areas. Middle class blacks who live in the suburbs have more white neighbors than low-income, inner-city blacks. Race still powerfully shapes residential options in the US.
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The Affirmative Action Controversy
Plato: In Republic wrote justice must be relative to needs of those who are served, not to the desires of those who serve them. Physicians must make health of patients their primary concern if they are going to be just. Rawls: In Theory of Justice, his theory of justice as fairness is predicated on a free society with basic equal rights within an egalitarian economic system. For a justice system to be truly fair, everyone must be afforded the same rights under the law regardless of class, race. or gender.
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Affirmative Action Affirmative Action: At the national level, such programs came into prominence with the implementation of EO in The federal government mandated active measures at both the private and the public levels. As initially designed, affirmative action was designed to educate/employ/advance women and minorities over white males all else being equal. As time went on however, affirmative action guidelines increasingly took on the form of quotas that in time generated a public backlash.
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The Affirmative Action Controversy
Affirmative Action Controversy: Quest for equality in U.S. oftentimes curtails liberty of others. Debate between individual choice and “greater good.” Most Americans indicate in surveys and opinions polls that they believe in “fair shakes” rather than in “equal shares.”
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The Affirmative Action Controversy
The origin of government affirmative action policy began with Executive Order 8802 in 1941 Since 1989, a more conservative Supreme Court has show a growing reluctance to use “race-conscious remedies”. In 2002 the Supreme Court preserved affirmative action in university admissions at the University of Michigan’s law school, while striking down that university’s undergraduate admissions program that used a point system based in part on race.
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Affirmative Action Controversy
Reverse Discrimination: A term used to refer to the exclusion of a member of a majority class not commonly discriminated against, to compensate for the traditional discrimination against a minority member. It has been contended that such treatment, broadly known as affirmative action, is in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, as well as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
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Regents of University of California v.s. Bakke
In a 5-4 ruling on a quota-based affirmative action program for UC Davis Medical School admissions, Allan Bakke, a white male, was refused admission because his grades and test scores were not high enough for the 84 regular admissions slots. At the same time, Bakke’s score was higher than those for the 16 minority students given slots. The Supreme Court ruled that while Bakke should have been admitted, race could be taken into consideration for university admissions decisions.
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Proposition 209 (The Civil Rights Initiative)
Passed by California voters in 1996, Proposition 209 required the state of California not to use sex, race, color, ethnicity, or national origin in decisions of public employment, education, or contracting.
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Racial Profiling Refers to action taken by law enforcement officials on the presumption that individuals of one race or ethnicity are more likely to engage in illegal activity then individuals of other races or ethnicities.
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Racial Profiling In 2003, U.S. Department of Justice argued that racial profiling is immoral and perpetuates negative racial stereotypes “harmful to our diverse democracy”…. materially impair our efforts to maintain a fair and just society.” One allowable exception—national security considerations (i.e. 9/11).
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