1. Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Chapter 7

2. The Continuing Struggle for Minority Civil Rights
Despite the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Civil Rights Act, and subsequent legislations, the discrepancy between legal equality and actual inequality has remained in American society
The terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 showed how national and world events can quickly change the fortunes of particular minority groups
The situations of immigrant groups highlights the problems of minority status in the United States

3. The Social Construction of Minorities
Racial minorities are groups that are set apart on the basis of physical characteristics
Ethnic minorities are groups that are set apart on the basis of nationality and culture
Assimilation is the process by which a minority group takes on the culture of the dominant group

4. The Social Construction of Minorities
Five characteristics that determine minority status in society
1. Minority groups are subordinate segments of a complex society
2. Minority groups have traits that set them apart and are devalued by dominant segment of the society
3. Subordinate groups develop a sense of group consciousness “we feeling”

5. The Social Construction of Minorities
4. Involuntary status; one is born into it
5. Subordinate and dominant group patterns of interaction lead to patterns of endogamy

6. Defining Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Racism - is behavior that is motivated by the belief that one’s own group is superior to other groups that are set apart on the basis of physical characteristics
Discrimination - unequal treatment because of group membership
Prejudice - prejudged negative attitude or opinion about a group without bothering to verify the merits of the opinion or judgment

7. Defining Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
The relationship between prejudice and discrimination is complex
Robert Merton’s study and typology of the relationship between prejudice and discrimination
Four patterns
1. Unprejudiced nondiscriminatory – integration
2. Unprejudiced and discriminatory – institutional discrimination

8. Defining Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Four patterns
3. Prejudiced and nondiscriminatory – latent bigotry
4. Prejudiced and discriminatory – outright bigotry

9. Origins of Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice and Bigotry in the Individual
Frustration-Aggression – when one feels or experiences frustration due to blocked needs, it is common to displace that frustration onto a scapegoat
Anger and frustration is often taken out on subordinate groups
Projection- the tendency to project one’s own undesirable traits onto a subordinate group

10. Origins of Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice and Bigotry in Social Structures
Exploitation theory - prejudice is rationally and economically motivated on the basis of self interest
The dominant group benefits from prejudice in that it is rooted within the subordination and exploitation of a group

11. Origins of Prejudice and Discrimination
Cultural Factors: Norms and Stereotypes
Normative approach - prejudice is patterned into the cultural norms and values of a group or society
Prejudice is learned and is a function of conforming to the norms of a group
Homogamy - the norm that one must marry within one’s own group
Stereotyping - generalizing a trait to a group is another source of prejudice

12. Institutional Discrimination
Institutional discrimination stems from the ongoing routines of societies’ social institutions - such as work or education
Institutional discrimination is different from other types of discrimination since it is not always a conscious intent to discriminate

13. Institutional Discrimination
Racial Profiling refers to the practice by which law enforcement officers select people for investigation on the basis of race
Racial profiling is a form of institutional discrimination in that law enforcement agencies use race as policy for selecting someone out for further scrutiny

14. Institutional Discrimination
Education
Minority educational achievement lags behind the dominant group
In 2004, about 15 percent of whites age 25 and over had not completed high school
Forty three percent of Hispanics aged 25 and over had not completed high school
Twenty percent of African Americans age 25 and over had not completed high school

15. Institutional Discrimination
Education
Family income is related to educational achievement and attainment
A higher rate of poverty among minorities is related to less education

16. Institutional Discrimination
Unequal Access to High-Quality Schooling
Minority segregation in poor schools
Brown v. Board of Education and patterns of de jure segregation
Segregation by law or policy was ruled unconstitutional

17. Institutional Discrimination
Unequal Access to High-Quality Schooling
De facto patterns of segregation of today
Housing patterns
Economic inequalities
Gerrymandered school districts
Middle-class flight from communities
Busing has been the primary policy over the years to achieve desegregation
Primarily of minority students

18. Institutional Discrimination
Harvard Project on School Desegregation has found a pattern of resegregation of schools
Harvard Project Findings:
1. Enrollment of Hispanic students have increased by 218 percent with 75 percent attending predominantly minority schools
2. Majority of white students are attending schools that are 80 percent white

19. Institutional Discrimination
Harvard Project Findings:
3. Enrollment for African American students has increased but they are likely to attend predominantly minority schools
4. Schools with large minority populations are concentrated in poor areas
5. Poverty compounds school segregation

20. Institutional Discrimination
Housing
Housing segregation is related
Poverty
Prejudice
Racial steering by real estate brokers
Ways to reduce housing segregation
Conduct audit research on practices that cause segregation
More enforcement of anti-bias legislation

21. Institutional Discrimination
Employment and Income
Employment discrimination in part is related to past educational discrimination
Labor unions have also been a source of employment discrimination
Restricted minority membership in the past
Insensitive to minority members

22. Institutional Discrimination
Employment and Income
Income gap has been narrowing
Asset gap has been widening
William J. Wilson - the growing gap between the middle-class and poor is widening
Decline in manufacturing jobs for inner city residents
Inadequate schools
Racist employers

23. Institutional Discrimination
Justice
Two premises of the American justice system
1. Justice is blind
2. Innocent until proven guilty
These two premises fall short:
1. Higher arrest rates of minorities
Function in part of the higher arrest rate among the poor
2. Bail system and inequality in accessing the system

24. Institutional Discrimination
Justice
These two premises fall short:
3. Inequality in administering justice
Sentencing and employment discrimination
Death penalty and the race of the victim

25. Institutional Discrimination
Political Discrimination
• Members of minority groups are systematically courted by politicians, but political discrimination is found throughout the United States
• Felony Disenfranchisement
• In many states, people convicted of a felony may lose the right to vote.

26. Institutional Discrimination
Anti-Voter Fraud Campaigns
• Civil rights groups note that recent state and federal efforts to investigate voter fraud and institute new systems of voter identification can be seen as attempts to block higher minority voter turnouts.

27. Some Consequences of Prejudice and Discrimination
1. Prejudice and discrimination have harmful effects on the personality of its victims
2. Prejudice and discrimination are sources of strife and conflict between groups
3. Prejudice and discrimination and subtle racism are directed toward upper-class minorities
4. Hate crimes

28. Social Policy Job Training
Government budget concerns, corporate downsizing will make job training programs a issue
Affirmative Action
Originated out of the 1964 civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion, national origin, race and sex

29. Social Policy Affirmative Action
Affirmative action requires educational and economic organizations to have programs to increase the hiring of minority applicants and promotion policies
California (1996) and Proposition 209 it eliminated Affirmative action in higher education and government jobs
Decline in minority enrollment in higher education

30. Social Policy Affirmative Action
Critics argue affirmative action is a form of reverse discrimination
Affirmative action will continue to be an area of controversy
Education for Equality
Enforcement of anti-discrimination legislation in education

31. Social Policy Education for Equality
Head Start – federally-funded preschool program and nutrition program for children from poor families
Flaws in the Head Start program
1.What should be taught
2. Does too little, too late

32. Social Policy Future Prospects
Continued struggles to maintain the gains over the years
Job market
Affirmative action
Educational equality