Lecture Six

Race and/as Class

Racial & Inequality: How do we explain it?

Cultural Determinism

“Culture of Poverty” Theory Daniel P Moynihan & Oscar Lewis – 1960’s

Disorganized and pathological lower class Sub-Culture where values and norms socialize a

new generation of poor

Assumption is that cultural deficiencies are the cause, not inequality in opportunities

Economic/Structural Causes “American Anti-myth” Theory

A decline in the opportunity structure as we move into a post-industrial society

Political factors have given way to economic factors

Class now matters more than race in defining life chances Income Education Wealth

Legacy of Race Relations…

De Jure Segregation: legal and political segregation of racial and ethnic groups

Race-caste oppression Slave-economic and political system

Class conflict and racial oppression Split-Labor Markets Civil service, housing, education, marriage

… Leads to Informal Segregation De Facto Segregation: formal segregation

replaced with informal segregation today

Race-Class inequalities Spatial Mismatch: employment and educational

opportunities are far from poor residential areas Residential, Educational, Occupational informal

segregation

William Julius Wilson: Racial Exclusion Wilson argues that it is much more

complicated: Many years of exposure to similar situations can

create individual responses that look as if they express individual will or cultural socialization when they are, in fact, adaptations or resigned responses to racial exclusion Drug and gang economy High teen pregnancy

Modern Legacy Racial Stratification When people and communities are cut off

from the mechanisms of social mobility a new class emerges, which Wilson calls the Underclass Culture of apathy and isolation emerges

Class now matters more than race in defining life chances

But….race is one of the determinants of class position

US: Mixed-class System Even though we believe that we are pure class

system, we are a mixed class system, whereby both ascribed and achieved characteristics determine class position in society

Ascribed characteristics: race, gender, immigrant status, geography, sexual orientation

Achieved characteristics:, initiative, determination, intelligence

American Opportunity Structure

Resources for Social MobilityWealth

High IncomeGood Neighborhood

Good SchoolsGood Jobs

Access to Health Care

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→ → → →

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What affects our access to economic resources?

In a mixed-class system, our access to economic resources is largely determined by our master status position, which is a social category that takes priority over all other positions and usually determine ones position in the system of stratification

Master status positions in American society are socially constructed categories such as race/ethnicity and gender

Race: An American Master Status Position? Devorah Pager, a sociologist at Princeton University asked the

following questions in her study: Does race matter when ex-felons are looking for jobs?

Beginning in February 2004, Pager sent 13 white, black and Latino men posing as ex-convicts to more than 3,500 job interviews throughout the city, most of them in Manhattan. Saying they had completed only high school, they applied for a broad spectrum of jobs, from couriers to cashiers, deli clerks to telemarketers.

What her study found is that the achieved status position of “Felon” could not override the ascribed status position of “Black Male” in the job market.

The Color of Opportunity

What Pager’s study found is that: Black men whose job applications stated that they had

spent time in prison were only about one-third as likely as white men with similar applications to get a positive response.

"It takes a black ex-offender three times as long to receive a callback or a job offer," said Devah Pager

However, most astonishing was that they found that White men who are ex-felons are more likely to be hired that Black men without a criminal record

Immigration Status and Opportunity: Dream Act Allow ability to attain legal status for children of

undocumented immigrants if: Proof of having arrived in the United States at age 15 or younger. Live in US for five (5) consecutive years High school diploma or GED. "Good moral character"

During the six years of conditional status, graduate from a two-year community college complete at least two years towards a 4-year degree serve two years in the U.S. military

An estimated 65,000 immigrant students who meet these requirements graduate from high school each year