Technology and Society, 1990s-Present

Key Themes• Technology changed the American economy,

and created a wider gulf between the rich and the poor.

• In recent decades, the US has become much more multicultural, but racism has persisted, creating racial disparities.

• The US has struggled to define a new international role for itself as the sole global superpower.

The Second Gilded Age

• Greed is good. TV: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous; Movies: Wall Street

• “Yuppie” as household word

Image source: http://speakin-colors.blogspot.com

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous showcased the new “greed is good” ethic.

See video clip:

Richest 1% of Americans

owned 40% of nation’s wealth

by 1990s

Clinton: Social and Economic Policy

• Socially progressive: appoints women and African Americans to cabinet

• “don’t ask, don’t tell” as a step forward for gay rights

• Earned Income Tax Credit: cash payment for low-income workers

• Health care as failed plan

• 1996: abolishes welfare

A New Economy?

• Yes: expansion + low unemployment in the 1990s

• Yes: Computer revolution in the 1990s

• Yes: Rising investment; rising stock prices in the 1990s

• No: Stock bubble bursts 2000 - billions lost

• No: Fraud drove growth, e.g. Enron; banks and risky mortgages

Rising Inequality (Again)• If you’re not the boss, your

wages were lower in the 1990s than they had been in the 1970s

• Bill Gates owned as much as the bottom 40% of the American population

• Shift of production overseas: NAFTA and maquilas

• A low-paying service economy: Walmart vs. GM (1970)

Economy and Culture Wars

• As economic stress led to anxiety about women’s roles, it also contributed to new culture wars about immigration.

• Post-1965, non-European immigration grows

• Latinos: overall, poorer and less educated than U.S. population

• Asians: very successful or very poor - income stratification

African Americans in

the 1990s

• End to legal segregation and overt discrimination produces gains

• Growing African population - highly educated

• Precarious economic status of African Americans:

• housing segregation persists

• school segregation on the rise

Average white student: attends a school that’s 73% white, 8% black, 12% Latino, and 4% Asian-American.

Average black student attends a school that’s 49% black, 17% Latino, 4% Asian-American, and 28% white.

Average Latino student attends a school that’s 57% Latino, 11% black, 25% white, and 5% Asian-American.

2011: more than 40% of black students attended schools 90%+ minority In 1991, just 35 percent of black students attended schools with such high

levels of segregation.

“Still Separate and Unequal” by Jamelle Bouie for Slate, 15 May 2014

The Spread of Imprisonment• beginning in 1970s: politicians

seek to be “tough on crime”; War on Drugs

• prison population: 2008: 2.3 million people (25% of the total for the WORLD)

• 25%+ of black male population could expect to serve time in prison

• Why? Higher sentences for crimes committed by non-whites; emphasis on cities as “problems”

Conclusions• Race: As legal discrimination was eradicated by civil rights

movements, structural racism persisted. Real gains, but limited.

• Gender: Women’s workforce participation increased; barriers to education and employment diminished. Some women forced into workforce by economic necessity.

• Economy: A weak economy in the 1970s and 1980s gave way to a boom in the 1990s, but deindustrialization weakened economic status of working-class people. The 1990s tech economy increased economic inequality.

• Economy affected race (most racial minorities more vulnerable) and gender (as women played more significant roles in the household economy).

Where are we now? The history of the

2000s

A Post-Cold-War Era• The U.S. as sole

superpower - how should we lead?

• Clinton: human rights vs. economic interests

• Rwandan genocide 1994: 800,000 killed, 2 million refugees

• Disintegration of Yugoslavia 1998

An Age of Terror?• World Trade Center bombing 2001

• Bush Doctrine: launches “war on terror”

• 10/7/2001: air strikes against Taliban

• “Axis of Evil” - Iraq, Iran, and N. Korea - but not allies, not connected to 9/11

• Widespread opposition to Iraq war:

• 10-15 million protesters worldwide, February 2003

• Opponents of war -

• worldwide: violation of international law

• at home: distraction from Al Qaeda

America as the Global Cop?

The War on Terror at Home

• USA PATRIOT act - expands law enforcement powers

• Guantánamo Bay - detention camp for people accused of terrorism

• 2001: secret military tribunals for non citizens - no right to counsel or to see evidence

• Torture: January 2002 - “unlawful combatants” vs. prisoners of war

A More Tolerant Society?

• Acceptance of interracial dating: from 45% (1987) to 78% (2003)

• Gays should be fired from teaching jobs: 50% (1987) to 35% (2003)

• Women: 60% of all college degrees in early 2000s (vs. 35% in 1960)

BUT

• gender wage gap persists

• Prop 187; immigration debates

• housing discrimination leads to school segregation leads to diminished opportunities

Race in the Age of Obama: 2008-Present

• b. 1961: parents’ marriage still illegal in many states

• End to era of “southern strategy”

• Powerful symbolism, and limits to that symbolism

Exceptional America

• Material prosperity and health:

• 1900:

• no indoor plumbing, no telephone, no car, little education

• life expectancy: 46 for men; 48 for women

• 2000:

• life expectancy is 74 for men and 79 for women

• U.S. more religious: 60% vs. 32% in Britain vs. 11% in France say religion “plays a very important part in my life”

• Gun murder: 1998 11,789 in US vs. 54 in Britain

• No requirements for vacation or sick leave; no paid maternity leave (one of only 4 in the world - Liberia, Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and US)

• Personal freedom, consumer freedom, less sense of common good/social citizenship

Exceptional America