SOCI 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: White Nationalism, Aversive Racism, Social Stratification
8 Jun 2018
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Lecture 9 (October 5th, 2017)
Race (Cont.)
! Ethnic groups in Canada (2001 census)
•!40% Canadian
•!Where are the non-Hispanic whites?
•!How long does it take for a Canadian to say that I am not an American,
I am a Canadian?
•!How long does that average person to say “I am Canadian”?
•!Heritage – that’s what this question is
•!The only commonality that they have: they don’t look white
o!Other than that they have little to no culture relation to each
other
•!The visible minorities are known to just look different – and looking different has
consequences
! Discussion
•!Why do ethnic/racial groups persist?
o!They exist for a reason – they organize power relations, they justify the hierarchy,
instead of being an equal system
o!If that’s the case, will we ever get “rid” of them?
o!Who’s likely to be more resistant to reducing gender inequality? MEN
o!Hierarchies benefit the winners
o!Those most resistant to eliminating are going to be the winners
o!Who’s deciding racial groups that exist? Power – people in power get to decide if
these things are relevant/meaningful
o!They tell us something about who’s more important
o!Even if we do get rid of this, we will transition it into something else – another way to
create a hierarchy between people
•!Will race/ethnicity eventually disappear as a concept?
o!If we can agree in some ways that this is nothing more than system f hierarchy,
categories to reinforce hierarchies in society, how we stratify or allocate resources, is
very strongly associated with this hierarchy.
o!It’s used to justify this stratification system, particularly from biological standpoints
that some groups are better than others
! US race relations
•!We stop asking questions this way in which we ask questions about
ethnic groups. You come to a completely different conclusion. The
overall trend would tell you a different story than separating it. When
whites are asked: many blacks are skeptical that the country will
eventually make the changes necessary for racial equality
o!The whites answer:
"!About 40% say “we already made the changes, we already
have racial equality”
"!Another 40% are optimistic: we started the changes, and we’ll continue
o!When blacks are asked this, only 8% say we’re there, 32%
say we’ll eventually get there, and the largest share of
African-Americans say “we will never get there”
•!Percent saying that blacks are treated less fairly than whites in the
country in dealing with the police:
o!84% of black say they are treated less fairly by the police
o!Only about half of white agree with the blacks’ opinion
o!The people on the receiving end say yes
•!In the courts, 43% of blacks say we are treated less fairly
•!In the workplace, 80% of whites say that they don’t think blacks are
treated less fairly. 64% of blacks say that they are treated less fairly
in the workplace.
•!When applying for mortgages, 75% of whites say that everyone’s
treated equally, 2/3 of blacks say no, we are not treated equally
o!One of the primary drivers of wealth is owning a home
! Realities of racial inequality
•!Broader theories and empirical evidence on discrimination in general, no matter how you
might define the terms, the winners in the discriminatory process rarely attribute their success
to any ascribed factors – It’s because of who I am, it’s my merit, I’m better and smarter –
rather than admitting any kind of discrimination taking place
•!Whites in general are more likely to say there’s no racial advantage or disadvantage
•!The looser, if you will, in that kind of process, is much more likely to say
yes, I feel it everyday”
•!Graph: racial gaps in household income persist
o!Fairly persistent pattern of a gap in income between blacks and
whites
o!Equal rights are given in principle to blacks in the USA, so
wouldn’t I suspect to see a decline in inequality? Data doesn’t
support such a claim
o!There’s a lot of different ways that people will look at this and try
to understand what’s going on and why this persistent pattern
emerges.
! Discrimination
•!Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to point to discrimination as a
major reason that some blacks have a harder time getting ahead
•!This is pure discrimination/racism
•!Nearly 2/3 of whites say that’s not it
•!And 75% of blacks say that yes, this is it, it’s just racism
•!That’s actually the most telling: the whites are much more reluctant to
say that racism is driving inequality, but they are the principle drivers’
policies because of their political economic power. The most influential
groups is the one least likely to subscribe to the notion that there is a
problem and the possibility of reducing publicity making this happen
Document Summary
Ethnic groups in canada (2001 census: 40% canadian, where are the non-hispanic whites, how long does it take for a canadian to say that i am not an american, Us race relations: we stop asking questions this way in which we ask questions about ethnic groups. The overall trend would tell you a different story than separating it. When whites are asked: many blacks are skeptical that the country will eventually make the changes necessary for racial equality o the whites answer: About 40% say we already made the changes, we already have racial equality . Another 40% are optimistic: we started the changes, and we"ll continue o when blacks are asked this, only 8% say we"re there, 32% say we"ll eventually get there, and the largest share of. In the courts, 43% of blacks say we are treated less fairly. In the workplace, 80% of whites say that they don"t think blacks are treated less fairly.
