Black Americans

1
Black Americans

• Vincent Parillo
• Chapter 10

2
Sociohistorical Perspective

• Black crewmen served under Columbus
• Jamestown 1619, indentured servants
• Slavery quickly replaced indentured servitude
• Cultural differences have prevented any unifying
  bond forming between native born Blacks and
  black immigrants.
• Both groups are strangers to one another

3
The Years of Slavery

• Africans (slaves) were not allowed to recreate
  their culture in miniature
• Educating Slaves (Blacks) a crime
• 200 years of slave-master relations did much to
  prevent their assimilation
• Did much to establish relations of prejudice and
  discrimination
• A pattern of forced acculturation, but not
  structural assimilation

4
Racism and its Legacy

• Racism emerged as a ideology in the 16th and 17th
  centuries
• This was the period of European imperialism
• Myths of racial inferiority of blacks emerged as
  a rationalization of slavery
• A factor of the seagoing activity of Europeans
• Christianity, skin color, Curse of Ham
• In 19th century, was firmly implanted in U.S.
  culture. W.E. B. Du Bois, p. 376

5
Forms Of Racism

• Black Codes (Jim Crow)
• State laws designed to keep blacks ex slaves in
  subservient positions
• Institutionalized Racism
• Occurs when laws attempt to legitimize
  differential racial treatment
• Differential racial treatment becomes
  established as normative behavior
• Institutional or normative discrimination
• Plessy vs. Ferguson, 1896

6
Effects of Jim Crow

• Segregation laws reflected racist attitudes
  decades after slavery ended
• 17 states had mandatory segregation
• California (Bakersfield) had de facto
  segregation
• Hard to exaggerate the impact on society
• Structural discrimination pervasive in the South
• Lasted two or three generations
• Gunnar Myrdal, Cumulative Causation

7
Effects of Jim Crow, Cont.

• An important cause of migration to the North
• De Jure segregation in the South
• De Facto segregation in the North

8
The Ku Klux Klan

• Originally organized in the South after
  Reconstruction
• To intimidate Blacks from exercising their new
  political rights
• Initially concentrated of maintaining white
  supremacy
• Racist concentration broadened to condem Jews,
  foreigners, and Catholics
• Seen as a threat to the nations character

9
The Winds of Change

• Desegregation Phase one
• WWII, Military desegregation, GI Bill
• Challenges to school segregation
• 1954 school desegregation ruling
• With all deliberate speed
• Confrontations in schools and colleges
• Little Rock High School

10
Winds of Change Cont.

• Sit-ins
• The March on Washington
• Integration of the University of Alabama
• 1968, Assassination of M. L. King Jr.
• Beginning, an increase in the number of elected
  officials
• Riots of the 1960s, reasons
• Police practices, unemployment, under
  employment, inadequate housing

11
Racism Support

• IQ controversy, The Bell Shaped Curve
• Recurring argument on the inferiority of Blacks
• Authors argue that intelligence is the best
  single explanation of wealth, poverty, and social
  status
• The cognitive elite at the upper levels and the
  intellectuals an the lower levels
• Severely criticized, for the selective use of
  data
• The language of prejudice, p. 396

12
Social Indicators of Blacks

• A larger percent of blacks than whites are young,
  Figure 10.3, p. 397
• Education The percentage gap between blacks and
  whites completing 4 years of HS has steadily
  lessened, Table 10.1, p 398
• Income Historically black family income has
  always been lower than that of whites, Table
  10.3, p. 399, and Figure 10.4, p. 399
• Families below poverty level, Fig. 10.4, p. 400

13
Social Indicators Cont. 2

• Feminization of Poverty
• High percentage of black impoverished families
  are headed by women
• Among black female-headed families- 39 lived in
  poverty in 2000
• Approximately 56 of all black children under 18
  lived in a single-parent home in 1998
• Occupational Distribution
• Table 10.4, p. 401
• 31, Operators, fabricators, laborers, farming

14
Social Indicators Cont. 3

• Black Middle Class
• Three percent of the black population in 1910
• By 1960 the black middle class had grown to 13
  percent
• 7 in 10 blacks belong to the working or middle
  class today

15
Theoretical Views

• The Functional view, p.416
• Inequality exists in all societies,
  differential rewards, rewards depend on
  availability of qualified personnel, a cheap
  labor force, Jim Crow formalized a system of
  inequality, lack of social cohesion of blacks,
  
• system corrections, judicial and legislative
  action
• Restore societal balance

16
Theoretical Views Cont.

• The Conflict View
• Slavery
• Economic exploitation, forced blacks, low
  cost surplus labor, segregation, Internal
  colonialism, subjugated,
• Low-paying, low-status, jobs
• De jure segregation, de facto segregation
• Internal Colonialism relationships