assignment

chapter 4 – industrialization and dominant-minority relations; from slavery to segregation and the coming of the postindustrial society

story at beginning: author Richard Wright discusses lives of blacks in kitchenettes of the urban north to what had been in rural south (early 1900s)

- kitchenette – very small housing; bathrooms shared by many families; each family usually had a small, utilitarian kitchen

- housing is substandard, over-priced

- poor living conditions

- easy for landlords to exploit renters – charging outrageous rents for buildings that often should’ve been demolished

subsistence technology – how a society provides basic needs of members

- when subsistence technology changes, the relationship between minority / majority is effected

Table 4.1 Three Subsistence Technologies and the United States
Technology	Key Trends and Characteristics	Dates
Agrarian	labor-intensive agriculture; control of land and labor are central	1607 – early 1800s
Industrial	capital-intensive manufacturing; machines replace animal and human labor	early 1800s to mid 1900s
Postindustrial	shift away from manufacturing to a service economy; the ‘information society’	mid 1900s to present

industrialization and the shift from paternalistic to rigid competitive group relations

- industrialization began in England in mid 1700s, then to Europe and US

- use of machines & other energy sources leads to increase in production, increase in economy, available goods, services

— from agrarian / paternalistic to industrial / competitive

US as an agrarian society - relationships between groups is paternalistic, with dominant groups paternalistic to minority groups (example: slavery, Native American reservations where minority groups are – supposedly – looked after for their own ‘best interests’ (reality is that the best interests of the majority is promoted))

under industrialization – 2 forms: rigid competitive and fluid competitive relations

as compared to paternalistic, the rigid competitive allows for a bit more freedom

- some freedom in choosing housing

- some freedom in choosing employment

- somewhat more education for children

- however, all of this threatens the dominant group (especially the lower income dominant group) who then want to minimize minority group members from effectively competing

the impact of industrialization on the racial stratification of African Americans: from slavery to segregation

reconstruction

- federal government enforced new laws (civil rights to newly freed slaves)

- was positive for newly freed slaves, but short lived

- from about 1865 - 1880s

- 15th amendment - African American males (women do not have the right to vote at this time) can vote

— at first very successful - which upset elite southern Whites

— initially newly freed slaves were able to vote (including some Blacks being voted into office), set up schools for Africa American children, start businesses, own land / homes

after reconstruction - reversal into more exploitation, inequality

1. slavery - lack of literacy, uneducated, lack of power

2. tradition of racism continued and is passed on from generation to generation

- backed up racist treatment of African Americans

- assumption: Blacks are racial inferior

- a ‘heritage of prejudice and racism’ throughout the South (and some groups / individuals in the North as well)

de jure segregation (also called ‘Jim Crow’ system)

- ‘by law’ - legal institutions back up segregation

- segregation: minority status groups (and individuals) forced to be separate from dominant groups (even the non-elite classes of dominant group)

- segregation in housing, education, jobs, etc.

- inferior treatment of Blacks demanded (not just backed up) by legal system

de facto segregation – by tradition (ostensibly because it is what people want)

sharecropping

- (impacted both poor whites and blacks) more problematic for blacks than whites (blacks less likely to read / know someone who did read; then taken advantage of by plantation owners — such as what was actually in the contract (and what newly freed slaves were told was in the contract)

- tenant farming - type of ‘leasing’ land - poor whites and blacks given seed, food, materials, clothing, etc. in exchange for a ‘share’ of the profit at end of harvest

- anything that they were given in beginning is considered part of their >debt= to the plantation owner

- frequently what the ‘debt’ was could / would change at discretion of plantation owner (to plantation owners benefit)

the great migration

- one difference for southern Blacks after end of slavery - no longer - legally - tied to one plantation (for the most part – ‘sharecropping’ could create problems) - therefore had freedom to relocate (and would compete with other minority status groups for low-paying jobs)

- many went north to urban areas and factory jobs

life in the north

- yes, some positives (able to vote, get education for kids, get away from racial ‘etiquette’ - more job opportunities)

- however, the ongoing prejudice and discrimination still created problems

dual labor market

- primary labor market — stable employment, decent wages

— jobs in large bureaucracies - more secure, etc.

- secondary labor market — unstable employment, poor wages

— competitive market - low-paying, low-skilled jobs - not secure; lack benefits

— split labor market - within the secondary labor market

split labor market

- based on Marxism which sees 2 and only 2 classes (socio-economic statuses)

— capitalists - own the means of production

— labor - sell their labor for subsistence wages

- there are at least 2 divisions within the secondary labor market (this is the split)

- all sell labor for subsistence wages

- at least one group resembles the capitalist regarding perceived racial grouping and or ethnicity

- at least one group does not resemble the capitalist regarding perceived racial grouping and or ethnicity

- creates an advantage for capitalists - keep the split labor markets in competition with each other

- therefore capitalists win because their overhead is lower, since they can spend less $ on paying labor (split labor markets are each willing to take the job for less $ since something is better than nothing)

- it is often to the capitalists advantage to further stir things up by bringing attention to racial / ethnic differences

Matewan – movie that depicts split labor market

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan

competition with white ethnic groups

- before we discussed the large influx of European immigrants into the US in mid to later 1800s

- at the time when blacks are beginning to migrate north, European immigrants beginning to have upward social mobility - as ethnic whites leave low income housing, communities, blacks more in

— however, white ethnics still dealing with prejudice, discrimination from elite whites

— jobs, adequate housing still a struggle for many

— and elite whites - wanting to reduce their overhead / increase profits - use incoming blacks as strikebreakers, scabs when ethnic whites tried to form unions

— increased inter-racial problems at low end of economic hierarchy

incoming blacks did, however, help out the social situation of ethnic whites - in that now the elite whites are putting the focus of their prejudice, discrimination - less on the ethnic white

origins of black protest

W.E.B. Du Bois

- had at least one Ph.D.

- advocated that blacks should strive for as much mainstream education as possible

- wanted better public schools for blacks as well as whites

- joined with white liberals - eventually founding NAACP

— National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

2/14/18

Booker T. Washington

- agreed with Du Bois that education was important

- but disagreed in that he felt it was best for blacks (at this time) to stay in their niche, their communities and do as well as possible there

Marcus Garvey

- born in Jamaica - came to US - was a printer

- rather than blacks working into mainstream society, he advocated separatism

— even advocated for a movement of freed slaves and descendants moving back to Africa

- began movement towards Black Nationalism, Black Pride

shift from rigid to fluid competitive relationships

- the rigid competitive systems (such as Jim Crow) associated with earlier phases of industrialization have given way to fluid competitive systems of group relations

- in fluid competitive relations, there are no formal or legal barriers to competition. Compared with previous systems, the fluid competitive system is closer (not there yet) to the American ideal of an open, fair system of stratification in which effort and competence are rewarded and race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and other “birthmarks” are not as important

dimensions of minority-group status

acculturation and integration

structural pluralism / inequality - not assimilation

- blacks created and lived in a separate sub-culture / sub-society (neighborhoods, schools, churches, businesses) - Rosewood

- at this time beginnings of middle class blacks

- over time many middle class blacks moved out of inner cities, frequently leaving the other blacks in a more problematic situation

industrialization, the shift to a postindustrial society, and dominant-minority group relations: general trends

- paternalistic system no longer useful

- urbanization provided more (not a bunch more) potential for education, etc.

- populations of African Americans - in sub-communities were able to organize

occupational specialization

- increase in jobs - need production, transport, sales of goods, services

- jobs became more specialized as complex tasks were broken down into smaller steps that frequently did not require as much skill, knowledge

- industrial, urban society no longer controlled by paternalism - a complex industrial structure has emerged

- growth of white-collar jobs and the service sector

— movement from industrial to information / service jobs

— — deindustrialization - part of postindustrial society

— most job growth in service sector; most service sector jobs are no- skill / low skill requirements — but there is variation, some do require more education, etc. and have larger salaries

bureaucracy and rationality

- large workforces and specialization (and sub-specialties) required that a middle management system come forth

- bureaucracies developed to organize the large industrial structures, including middle management

- bureaucracies - supposedly based on rationality

— people get jobs, promotions based on performance, abilities

— reality: bureaucracies are not as rational as they seem

extractive (primary) jobs - produce raw materials

manufacturing (secondary) jobs - transform raw materials into finished products

service (tertiary) jobs - nothing is produced - services are provided

the growing importance of education

credentialism - benefits elite because they can ‘afford’ getting more credentials

afford:

1. cost of the education (tuition, fees, books, transportation)

2. cost of a family member not being in the labor force

— increase in student debt without the means to pay it off

competition with white ethnic groups

- before we discussed the large influx of European immigrants into the US in mid to later 1800s

- at the time when blacks are beginning to migrate north, European immigrants beginning to have upward social mobility - as ethnic whites leave low income housing, communities, blacks more in

— however, white ethnics still dealing with prejudice, discrimination from elite whites

— jobs, adequate housing still a struggle for many

— and elite whites - wanting to reduce their overhead / increase profits - use incoming blacks as strikebreakers, scabs when ethnic whites tried to form unions

— increased inter-racial problems at low end of economic hierarchy

incoming blacks did, however, help out the social situation of ethnic whites - in that now the elite whites are putting the focus of their prejudice, discrimination - less on the ethnic white

2/16/18 mwf

globalization

- world is getting ‘smaller’ - we are tied to other nations, other cultures through: trade, information sharing (etc. computers), transportation (taking a plane to Japan or ???)

- we can look at the relationship between the US and other countries as similar to dominant groups within US to minority status groups

- U.S. has become an economic, political, and military world power

- our worldwide ties have created new minority groups through population movement and have changed the status of others.

- dominant-minority relations in the U.S. have been increasingly played out on an international state as the world has essentially "shrunk" in size and become more interconnected by international organizations

gender inequality in a globalizing, postindustrial world

- deindustrialization and globalization are transforming gender relations along with dominant-minority relations

- in many traditional and sexist societies, women are moving away from their traditional “wife/mother” roles, taking on new responsibilities, and facing new challenges

- the changing role of women is also shaped by other characteristics of a modern society: smaller families, high divorce rates, and rising numbers of single mothers who must work to support their children as well as themselves

- in part, the trends worldwide parallel those in the United States

- according to a recent United Nations report, indicators such as rising education levels for women and lower rates of early marriage and childbirth show that women around the world are moving out of their traditional status

Mw 2/14/18

they are entering the labor force in unprecedented numbers virtually everywhere, and women now comprise at least a third of the paid global workforce

hate groups

https://www.splcenter.org

how does the SPLC define hate group?

https://www.splcenter.org/20171004/frequently-asked-questions-about-hate-groups#hate group

definition of a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center

“an organization that – based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities – has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.”

how does the FBI define hate crime?

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes

“A hate crime is a traditional offense like murder, arson, or vandalism with an added element of bias. For the purposes of collecting statistics, the FBI has defined a hate crime as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” Hate itself is not a crime—and the FBI is mindful of protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties.”

“The organizations on our hate group list vilify others because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity – prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines.”