Racial Inequality, Racism, and Racial Change

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Racial Inequality, Racism, and Racial Change

• What forces and policies influence race relations
  in what ways? 10/31

2
Feagins view We are at a fork in the road

• 2 Contradictory dynamics responding to the coming
  minority majority in different ways
• Increasing separatism and coercion
• Gated communities
• The Brazilian solution.
• A broad coalition to build inclusive citizenship
  and true democracy
• Without justice, there cannot be peace

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What are the dynamics that produce either outcome?

• Race and ethnic relations often change very very
  slowly, e.g.
• 200 yrs of US race relations
• 2000 yrs of Palestinian relations
• Race and ethnic relations often change very, very
  fast, e.g.
• Germany 1925-1935
• US 1955-1969

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The relation of individual attitudes to social
dynamics

• Individual actions society, but in many
  different ways.
• Society individual attitudes and
  behaviors, , but in many different ways.
• Pettigrew calls the assumption that a racist
  society is one that contains a lot of prejudiced
  individuals a failure to keep our levels
  straight or to think in systems terms

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Housing segregation and tipping points

• A striking and well-understood example involves
  housing segregation.
• Suppose that when some black families move into
  a neighborhood, all the white families move out.
  Does that mean that all the white families are
  motivated by prejudice?
• Even ignoring the institutionalized policies of
  banks, real estate agents and developers,
  schools, or politicians, imagine a distribution
  of attitudes as follows

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White willingness to live in neighborhoods of
varying mix
Suppose the following mix of attitudes 19 favor
an integrated neighborhood and will remain, so
long as they are not the only whites in the
neighborhood.  20 favor an integrated
neighborhood and will remain, so long as it
remains 50 or more white. 20 favor an
integrated neighborhood and will remain, so long
as no more than 1/3 of the residents are
nonwhite. 20 favor an integrated neighborhood
and will remain, so long as it does not become
more nonwhite than the country as a whole (i.e.
so long as it is less than 20 non-white) 20
favor an integrated neighborhood and will remain,
so long as they do not observe other families
moving out. 1 oppose a integrated neighborhoods
and will move out if any non-whites move in. What
is the dynamic that results?
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White flight

•    If the institutional rule is that each family
  makes an independent decision, and if there are
  no social policies that produce
  counter-pressures, then
• the move of the one percent that oppose
  integration in principle will cause
• the next 20 of white families to move out,
• which will cause the next 20 of white families
  to move out,
• and so on, leading to an all black neighborhood.
• Another way of looking at it is as a
  self-reinforcing stampede of white flight.

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Does the outcome reflect wishes?

• In one sense, by definition the outcome reflects
  wishes (as well as institutional arrangements.)
• But by assumption, 99 of the population prefers
  an integrated neighborhood.
• And the unwillingness of, for example, the last
  20 to live in an almost all-black neighborhood
  may have nothing to do with prejudice.
• The outcome dynamic is the same as that which
  would result if all white families wanted to
  avoid contact with any black families.
• But what would have to be changed to change the
  dynamic is very different.

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Are race relations and race inequality stable,
unstable or hyperstable?

• Call a structure stable if it changes a little
  if a small force is placed on it, and it changes
  a lot of a large force is applied.
• Structures without feedbacks are often stable.
• Call a structure unstable if it changes a lot
  even when only a small force is applied.
• Positive feedback structures are often unstable
• Call a structure hyper-stable if, even after it
  has been changed, it tends to change back.
• Negative feedback structures are often
  hyper-stable.

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The three marbles, again
stable
unstable
Hyper-stable
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Myrdals reasons for believing that race
relations were unstable.

• They have lots of positive feedbacks.
• A decrease in prejudice should create an
  avalanche of further changes unraveling the
  racist structure.
• Just as an increase in racial inequality should
  create an avalanche of further changes increasing
  racism.
• Changes in the South were undermining some
  aspects of Jim Crow.
• Changes in the country were making Southern
  regionalism less viable.
• Changes in the world were making US failure to
  live up to its ideals less viable.

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Implications of his analysis of racial inequality
as positive feedbacks

• The structure looks inert only because it is so
  pervasive.
• But policy interventions can be very powerful.
• However they must be broad spectrum (I.e. health,
  education, political power, income, wealth,
  social participation, etc.

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Within a decade, Jim Crow had been dismantled.
Why did so little change in attitudes
inequality and social relations result?

• On the one hand, the dismantling of Jim Crow is
  not little. Some people even argue that the
  playing field is level today (a position that
  Feagin and the text both contest).
• On the other hand, many structures of inequality
  and segregation have remained, and have even
  grown over the past 20 years.

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Theory 1 Deeply rooted sentiments

• Some people suggest that attitudes about race are
  socialized early and resistant to change.
• But many attitudes appeared to change quite
  rapidly
• The army
• Bennington
• Remember the Titans

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Theory 2 The new racism

• Some people suggest that public acceptability
  merely made racism take the form of cultural
  stereotypes rather than genetic theories
• symbolic racism using code terms of crime in
  the streets, welfare, or political
  correctness
• sense of group position that whites merely
  shifted to whatever policies were most likely to
  maintain their advantages.
• laissez faire racism that the positions most
  likely to maintain white advantage were
  individualism and limitation of government policy

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Theory 3 countervailing forces

• An unstable system can amplify either an increase
  or decrease of either racial inequality or racial
  prejudice.
• Civil rights instituted a beneficent cycle
• Deindustrialization, globalization, and
  government cutbacks instituted a vicious cycle.
• Which increased inequality in the black community
  and cancelled each other out.

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Theory 4 Backlash

• The erosion of privileges (or perceived, relative
  privilege)of some whites produced
  counter-movements and counter-policies,
• and the majority of whites were not willing to
  take sides.

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My own personal view

• I (Peter Knapp) have argued that there are
  evidently countervailing pressures
• Both forces are demonstrable,
• And inequality in the black community has
  increased.
• See the Symposium in Contemporary Sociology
  (26314-7 1997)
• but that sociology often has difficulty
  estimating how large are the effects of such
  countervailing feedbacks,
• and that is one of the reasons for developing
  more systemic theories.

19
The continued decline of prejudiced attitudes in
the US
RAC PRES say they would vote for a candidate
of the other race, if their party nominated
him. Intermar oppose laws against the marriage
of blacks and whites.
20
The lack of trend on policy
B LACK believe that the government is doing
too little to improve the life chances of
blacks. HELP BLACK strongly agree that the
government should help blacks overcome the
effects of past discrimination.