SOCI 142gm Lecture Notes - Lecture 38: Los Angeles Stadium At Hollywood Park, The Residents, Blue-Collar Worker
Simplified SOCI 142 Study Guide
Rodriguez and Cordero-Guzman, Lipsitz, Saito Chapt 2
Explain and discuss the view of race as a biological category versus a social
construction. Explain the social construction of racial categories, and how these
categories have social, political, and economic consequences. Define whiteness.
Explain the view of racism and inequality as the result of structural discrimination
versus the result of individual prejudice and actions. Discuss the development of
Atlantic Square – and the themes of restaurants and architecture - in terms of
whiteness.
● Race seen as biological means that there is an absence of non-white genes in a
person’s body that gives them the appearance of anything but appearing white.
On the other hand, the social construction of race is the way people think of
different races and the way they judge each race. In theory, all races are equal,
but different races have different opportunities. White people have a huge
advantage in terms of the opportunities that are offered in their community due
to their history. But the biological aspect of race cannot really be explained
because there isn’t a gene that differentiates colored people from each other.
Europeans don’t like to be categorized as just Europeans but as their country of
origin. Determining your race is crucial so that you can take advantage of your
race’s opportunities that are offered.
● Whiteness is not marked as a race but more of a culture. Whiteness has been
constructed as the norm and the embodiment of dominant culture and
ideologies. White people don’t have to work for their privilege or earn it, it’s just
there. Government and the public discriminated against non-whites through
structural discrimination. They gave unequal access to citizenship and property
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to non-whites while whites got easy access to loans for homes. In media, they
portrayed whites as united and an exclusive group.
● There was discrimination in terms of freeways as well. Freeways were proposed
to combine communities together and make them more accessible for other
people but it actually displaced a lot of minorities. Freeways were built over
cities populated by minorities and the construction displaced them.
● The development of Atlantic Square in Monterey Park shows how ethnicity
rooted in local Asian, Latin American, and European sources were expressed
and manipulated. This development showed how white ethnicity was dominant
in the decisions being made. For example, when restaurants were being
evaluated, the city decided that there were not enough good restaurants. By
good they meant that there weren’t enough restaurants that were not
Chinese. The residents just wanted American food. It did not matter what the
quality of the food was, the only thing that mattered was that it was not Chinese
food. In terms of buildings, the whites wanted something that was not Asian or
cheap-looking so they settled for Mediterranean type homes. All of this showed
how whiteness is experienced and expressed in the culture and language of
everyday life when the defense and reassertion of whiteness becomes explicit,
challenged by the growing demographic and economic presence of Chinese
immigrants.
● Puerto Ricans questioned in a NYC Airport was an experiment that showed how
race was psychically and culturally constructive. Puerto Rican men and women
were asked questions like: How would you consider yourself racially? etc. And
the results were that people didn’t answer with white or black. Race identity
of Puerto Ricans is based on factors like class, education, language and
birthplace. The longer they spend in the US, the more likely they see themselves
as white.
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Siegfried and Zimbalist, Chema, Stadium 07252011 PartA, Lipsitz
Discuss what Siegfried/Zimbalist and Chema say about the positive and negative
aspects of sports facilities for communities. Discuss the positive and negative aspects
of the Los Angeles NFL Stadium proposal. Discuss what Lipsitz says about the use of
public funds to build a football stadium and the impact on public schools in St. Louis.
● The positives of building a stadium in a city is that the city will generate new
jobs, bring in more tourists and people from out of state, and will create a
morale for the city. The negatives are that the jobs are only temporary and
seasonal, there are huge tax burdens on the citizens and the city, and the city
does not benefit financially from the stadium.
● The NFL stadium has no public funds, so only private investors are investing in
the building of the stadium. They took funds for schooling to fund the stadium
and they displaced minorities living in the area where the Stadiums are built.
The minorities that lived near the stadiums had to move out to another
neighborhood.
● In St. Louis, there was violence and redlining in the neighborhoods that
surround it but after the stadium was built with a well-funded campaign, but
after it was built it changed some things. Non-whites were discriminated
against and African Americans were displaced and had to relocate to other
areas creating slums. They believed that African Americans caused their own
problems in their own way so the city didn’t want to spend money to fix it for
them. So instead, they built a stadium and spent money on that rather than
schools or other public structures that could actually help fix the crime rate and
slums.
● After the stadium was completed, they realized that there needed to be 545
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Document Summary
Explain and discuss the view of race as a biological category versus a social construction. Explain the social construction of racial categories, and how these categories have social, political, and economic consequences. Explain the view of racism and inequality as the result of structural discrimination versus the result of individual prejudice and actions. Atlantic square and the themes of restaurants and architecture - in terms of whiteness. Race seen as biological means that there is an absence of non-white genes in a person"s body that gives them the appearance of anything but appearing white. On the other hand, the social construction of race is the way people think of different races and the way they judge each race. In theory, all races are equal, but different races have different opportunities. White people have a huge advantage in terms of the opportunities that are offered in their community due to their history.
