social ethics questions

6/2/22, 5:57 AM Week 8 Overview - Racial Inequality: UCOR 2910 02 22SQ Ethical Reasoning in Business

https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/pages/week-8-overview-racial-inequality?module_item_id=17540452 1/3

Week 8 Overview - Racial Inequality

Throughout the quarter we’ve already touched on issues of racism, exploring how it emerged from capitalism’s slave trade (Ott, Desmond) and grew exponentially after the abolition of slavery with Jim Crow laws that kept America segregated for most of its 20th century. We've also seen how this legacy is not easily healed, as its wounds are still experienced within our present system of massive racial inequality, especially concerning the black/white wealth gap (Hanks and Solomon). This week we will build on these studies by exploring more specifically the issue of income inequality between black and white persons in the USA.

We’ve been told by economists of the capitalist status quo that the market will eventually allow all boats to rise and will also decrease inequality gaps – yet the gap between black and white income continues to widen (like the gaps between black/white wealth, and also the more general gap between rich and poor regardless of race, hence the 1% versus the 99: for general global data see especially Thomas Piketty's massive study Capital in the Twenty-first Century). Why is this the case and how do we work toward change? While racial injustice is a very complex issue with multiple factors involved we will nevertheless continue our focus more specifically on some of the economic roots of racial inequality. The reason for this is obviously because of the nature of this class as a business course, but also because the dehumanizing nature of racism only truly takes root and begins to be effective with the concrete economic devaluation of human beings— if racism was merely an issue of name calling then it wouldn't matter as much, but racial

6/2/22, 5:57 AM Week 8 Overview - Racial Inequality: UCOR 2910 02 22SQ Ethical Reasoning in Business

https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/pages/week-8-overview-racial-inequality?module_item_id=17540452 2/3

inequality is a problem because it is the real-life exclusion of certain people from material goods, resources, and wealth by exploiting their laboring bodies as mere cattle or cheap tools for the private gain of others. In looking at the history of our capitalist economy and its structures, and especially in light of our so-called land of equal opportunity, we will want to then ask why there is not only widening inequality in general, but also a continued growth of racial inequality more specifically. More importantly, we will need to pursue this question in a way that does not imply that this disparity is due to any allegedly inherent racial differences amongst humans. To point out the fact that there are inequalities still widening along "racial" lines is not itself to promote the idea that there are real racialized biological differences between people. It is merely to point to a problem that needs studying in order to seek out higher forms of unifying all humans. But to accept the fact of racial inequality and then claim that it is the fault solely of black people for being lazy or not responsible enough, or alternately to claim that the enduring fact of racial inequality is because all white people are still racist white supremacists, is to also avoid the reality of the problem by still promoting simplistic racial prejudices and divisions. And, of course, to refuse to even acknowledge the problem will also not make it go away -- we cannot avoid the difficult truths of our history simply because it is difficult or inconvenient. So how do we acknowledge racial inequality without perpetuating racial divisions, that is, how do we analyze, understand, assess, and heal these disparities without simplistically attributing them to this or that specific group of people and particular traits, while also not wholly denying individual responsibilities? Our focus for this week will therefore continue to analyze the history and structures of the capitalist economy as a general system, critically questioning why this economy allowed for racial inequality and why it seems unable to adequately address it. But we will also explore positive examples for empowerment and organizing our economy differently beyond dehumanization, and the readings will explore three avenues for beginning such a project treating the historical legacy and structures of racial inequality: through governmental programs like affirmative action, through black and interracial community cooperatives, and through building interracial solidarity in labor organizing.

To read:

6/2/22, 5:57 AM Week 8 Overview - Racial Inequality: UCOR 2910 02 22SQ Ethical Reasoning in Business

https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/pages/week-8-overview-racial-inequality?module_item_id=17540452 3/3

Read Launchpad Notes (https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/pages/launchpad-racial-inequality) Read Andrea Flynn, Susan Holmberg, Dorian Warren and Felicia Wong, “The Racial Rules of Income (https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/files/68034365/download?wrap=1)

(https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/files/68034365/download? download_frd=1) ” Read Frank Weyher and Maurice Zeitlin, “Questioning ‘Supply and Demand’: Unions, Labor Market Processes, and Interracial Inequality (https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/files/68034348/download?wrap=1)

(https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/files/68034348/download? download_frd=1) " Read "Building a Solidarity Economy in Jackson, Mississippi" (https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-10-24/building-a-solidarity-economy-in- jackson-mississippi/) Read Jessica G. Nembhard, “How Black Co-ops can Fight Institutional Racism

(https://www.vice.com/en/article/jmk8qk/how-black-co-ops-can-fight-institutional- racism) ” (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/business/ethics-artificial- intelligence.html? action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Technology)

To complete or submit: Complete the Reading Assignment Questions (https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/assignments/7016124) assignment, which is due by Saturday at midnight Answer the Case Discussion Questions (https://seattleu.instructure.com/courses/1603225/discussion_topics/7964158) . Your initial post is due by Wednesday and 2 subsequent posts by Sunday.