the continuing significance of race joe r. feagin, university of florida 1964 civil rights act:...
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The Continuing Significance of RaceJoe R. Feagin, University of Florida
1964 Civil Rights Act:
• “all persons shall be entitled to the full…
• 1970’s research found that most whites and blacks thought that the CRA had eliminated overt acts of racism.
• By the 1970’s, most persons thought that the only failing of the CRA was the black underclass had been left behind.
• What is racial discrimination like now?
The Continuing Significance of RaceJoe R. Feagin, University of Florida
Sites of Discrimination
• probability of experiencing discrimination at home or with black friends is low.
• this probability increases as one moves from protected to unprotected settings.
• workplaces “require” nondiscrimination.
• blacks (and other minorities) are “open persons,” vulnerable targets of overt and covert discrimination.
The Continuing Significance of RaceJoe R. Feagin, University of Florida
Range of Discrimination
• antilocution: talking behind one’s back (including: jokes, phrases, speech).
• avoidance: crossing the street.• exclusion: rejection, poor service.• attacks: verbal and physical.• extermination (racial cleansing).
The Continuing Significance of RaceJoe R. Feagin, University of Florida
Black Responses to Discrimination
• ignoring.• deferring.• withdrawing.• frustration.• advocacy.• aggression.
The Continuing Significance of RaceJoe R. Feagin, University of Florida
Black Responses to Discrimination
• “I don’t think white people…understand the full meaning of racist discriminatory behaviors. They…see each act…as an ‘isolated’ event.
• “As a result, most white Americans cannot understand the strong reaction…by blacks. They feel that blacks tend to ‘overreact.’”
Laissez-Faire RacismLawrence D. Bobo and Ryan A. Smith
SF: Analysis and Interpretation
There are inevitable connections between economic and political structures, on the one hand, and patterns of individual thought and action, on the other hand.
Racial attitudes have become more egalitarian in response to adaptive needs to more fully integrate well educated and well trained blacks into the work force.
Longitudinal research shows, for example, that Americans have become increasingly more egalitarian in their racial attitudes.
Laissez-Faire RacismLawrence D. Bobo and Ryan A. Smith
Marxian: Analysis and Interpretation
Americans have been slow to implement legislation and reluctant to support policies to fully reduce racial barriers.
Bobo and Smith assert that relative "group position" helps explain why shifts in racial attitudes have not fully reduced barriers against blacks.
They state that whites favor changing society to allow blacks greater opportunities, but still do not want to yield their relative dominance over blacks. Whites want to maintain their dominant group position relative to blacks.
Laissez-Faire RacismLawrence D. Bobo and Ryan A. Smith
Marxian: Analysis and Interpretation
When Whites blame Blacks for their relative lack of social mobility, rather than accept responsibility for erecting barriers to mobility, then they foster opposition to affirmative action and other social policies that might alleviate race-based inequalities.
From Institutional To Jobless GhettosWilliam Julius Wilson
SF: Analysis and Interpretation
By social organization, Wilson means to the extent to which the residents of a neighborhood are able to maintain effective social control and realize their common goals.
There are three major dimensions of neighborhood social organization:
• the quality of social networks, • the extent of collective responsibility for solving
problems, and • the rate of resident participation in voluntary and
formal organizations.
From Institutional To Jobless GhettosWilliam Julius Wilson
SF: Analysis and Interpretation
The rise of new poverty in neighborhoods represents a move away from institutional ghettos--whose structure and activities parallel those of the larger society, but with lower incomes--and jobless ghettos, which features a severe lack of basic opportunities, resources, and social controls.
Eliminating the Waste of RacismJoe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera
SF: Analysis and Interpretation
From the perspective of U.S. society as a whole, the human time and energy expended in planning, staging, and implementing racist actions is extremely wasteful, for both whites and blacks.
Although there is not much white awareness of the fact, racism involves substantial material and economic costs for whites.
Racist actions sometimes produce immediate economic benefits, such as the chasing away of potential black workers who might compete for jobs.
Eliminating the Waste of RacismJoe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera
SF: Analysis and Interpretation
The long term effects of such racist actions, however, usually is chasing away potential employers who want no part of a city with obvious racial problems.
Similarly, racialized events that occur in the US typically are broadcast to the rest of the world, resulting in poor cultural relations and potential economic losses.
Eliminating the Waste of RacismJoe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera
SF: Analysis and Interpretation
The moral costs of racism go much deeper. Ultimately, a nation's unity, strength, and well-being rest on its citizens' compliance with its laws.
Voluntary compliance with laws, both directly in the form of obeying laws and indirectly by civic engagement in voluntary and formal organizations whose purpose it is to create community and support social organization, contributes most to the strength of a nation.
The moral costs of racism lie deep in the white psyche. White might have no sense of their whiteness if they had no sense of a denigrated and hated blackness.
Eliminating the Waste of RacismJoe R. Feagin and Hernan Vera
SI: Analysis and Interpretation
Feagin and Vera suggest that Whites:
1. confront their racist attitudes in their everyday interactions with persons of color,
2. become more actively involved in antiracist groups and activities, and
3. learn to oppose racism everyday by not laughing at race-based jokes, pointing out to others racist actions, and joining in collective action against racism.