Industrialization and Dominant-Minority Relations from Slavery to Segregation and the Coming of Postindustrial Society

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CHAPTER 4

Industrialization and Dominant-Minority Relations From Slavery to Segregation and the Coming of Postindustrial Society

ne theme stated at the beginning of Chapter 3 was that a society’s subsistence technology profoundly affects the nature of dominant-minority group rela- O tions. A corollary of this theme, explored in this chapter, is that dominant- minority group relations change as the subsistence technology changes. As we saw in Chapter 3, agrarian technology and the concern for control of land and labor profoundly shaped dominant- minority relations in the formative years of the United States. The agrarian era ended in the 1800s, and since that time, the United States has experienced two major transforma- tions in subsistence technology, each of which has, in turn, transformed dominant-minority relations. The first transformation began in the early 1800s as American society began to experience the effects of the Industrial Revolution, or the shift from agrarian technology to machine-based, manufacturing technology. In the agrarian era, as we saw in Chapter 3, work was labor intensive: done by hand or with the aid of draft animals. As industrialization proceeded, work became capital intensive as machines replaced people and animals. The new industrial technology rapidly increased productivity and efficiency and quickly began to change every aspect of U.S. society, including the nature of work, politics, communication, transportation, family life, birth rates and death rates, the system of education, and, of course, dominant-minority relations. The groups that had become minorities during the agrarian era (African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans) faced new possibilities and new dangers. Industrialization also created new minority groups, new forms of exploitation and 76 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 77

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oppression, and, for some, new opportuni- the rest of Europe, to the United States, and ties to rise in the social structure and suc- eventually to the rest of the world. The key ceed in America. In this chapter, we will innovations associated with the Industrial explore this transformation and illustrate its Revolution were the application of machine effects by analyzing the changing status power to production and the harnessing of of African Americans after the abolition of inanimate sources of energy, such as steam slavery. The impact of industrialization on and coal, to fuel the machines. As machines other minority groups will be considered in replaced humans and animals, work became the case studies presented in Part III. many times more productive, the economy The second transformation in subsistence grew, and the volume and variety of goods technology brings us to more recent times. produced increased dramatically. Industrialization is a continuous process, As the industrial economy grew, the close, and beginning in the mid-20th century, the paternalistic control of minority groups United States entered a stage of late indus- found in agrarian societies gradually trialization (also called deindustrialization became irrelevant. Paternalistic relation- or the postindustrial era). This shift in ships such as slavery are found in societies subsistence technology was marked by a with labor-intensive technologies and are decline in the manufacturing sector of the designed to organize and control a large, economy and a decrease in the supply of involuntary, geographically immobile labor secure, well-paying, blue-collar, manual force. An industrial economy, in contrast, labor jobs. At the same time, there was an requires a workforce that is geographically expansion in the service and information- and socially mobile, skilled, and literate. based sectors of the economy and an Furthermore, with industrialization comes increase in the proportion of white-collar urbanization, and close, paternalistic con- and high-tech jobs. Like the 19th-century trols are difficult to maintain in a city. Industrial Revolution, these 20th-century Thus, as industrialization progresses, changes had profound implications not just agrarian paternalism tends to give way to for dominant-minority relations but for rigid competitive group relations. Under this every aspect of modern society. Work, system, minority group members are freer to family, politics, popular culture, and thou- compete for jobs and other valued commodi- sands of other characteristics of Americans ties with dominant group members, espe- were, and still are, being transformed as the cially the lower-class segments of the subsistence technology continues to develop dominant group. As competition increases, and modernize. In the latter part of this the threatened members of the dominant chapter, we examine this latest transforma- group become more hostile, and attacks on tion in general terms and point out some the minority groups tend to increase. of its implications for minority groups. We Whereas paternalistic systems seek to also present some new concepts and estab- directly dominate and control the minority lish some important groundwork for the group (and its labor), rigid competitive sys- case studies in Part III, in which the effects of tems are more defensive in nature. The late industrialization on America’s minority threatened segments of the dominant group groups will be considered in detail. seek to minimize or eliminate minority group encroachment on jobs, housing, or INDUSTRIALIZATION AND other valuable goods or services (van den THE SHIFT FROM PATERNALISTIC Berghe, 1967; Wilson, 1973). TO RIGID COMPETITIVE Paternalistic systems such as slavery required members of the minority group GROUP RELATIONS to be active, if involuntary, participants. The Industrial Revolution began in England In rigid competitive systems, the dominant in the mid-1700s and spread from there to group seeks to preserve its advantage by 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 78

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handicapping the minority group’s ability Reconstruction to compete effectively or, in some cases, The period of Reconstruction, from 1865 eliminating competition from the minority to the 1880s, was a brief respite in the long group altogether. For example, in a rigid history of oppression and exploitation of competitive system, the dominant group African Americans. The Union army and might make the minority group politically other agencies of the federal government, powerless by depriving them of (or never such as the Freedman’s Bureau, were used granting them) the right to vote. The to enforce racial freedom in the defeated lower the power of the minority group, Confederacy. Black southerners took advan- the lower the threat to the interests of the tage of the 15th Amendment to the dominant group. Constitution, passed in 1870, which states that the right to vote cannot be denied on the THE IMPACT OF grounds of “race, color, or previous condi- INDUSTRIALIZATION ON tion of servitude.” They registered to vote in large numbers and turned out on Election AFRICAN AMERICANS: FROM Day, and some were elected to high political SLAVERY TO SEGREGATION office. Schools for the former slaves were Industrial technology began to transform opened, and African Americans purchased American society in the early 1800s, but its land and houses and founded businesses. effects were not felt equally in all regions. The era of freedom was short-lived, how- The northern states industrialized first, ever, and Reconstruction began to end whereas the South remained primarily agrar- when the federal government demobilized ian. This economic diversity was one of the its armies of occupation and turned its underlying causes of the regional conflict attention to other matters. By the 1880s, the that led to the Civil War. Because of its more federal government had withdrawn from productive technology, the North had more the South, Reconstruction was over, and resources and, in a bloody war of attrition, black southerners began to fall rapidly into was able to defeat the Confederacy. When a new system of exploitation and inequality. the South surrendered in April of 1865 and Reconstruction was too brief to change the Civil War ended, slavery was abolished two of the most important legacies of and black-white relations entered a new era. slavery. First, the centuries of bondage left The southern system of race relations black southerners impoverished, largely illit- that ultimately emerged after the Civil War erate and uneducated, and with few power was designed in part to continue the control resources. When new threats of racial of black labor institutionalized under slav- oppression appeared, African Americans ery. It was also intended to eliminate any found it difficult to defend their group inter- political or economic threat from the black ests. These developments are, of course, community. This rigid competitive system highly consistent with the Blauner hypothe- grew to be highly elaborate and rigid, partly sis: Because colonized minority groups con- because of the high racial visibility and long front greater inequalities and have fewer history of inferior status and powerlessness resources at their disposal, they will face of African Americans in the South and greater difficulties in improving their disad- partly because of the particular needs of vantaged status. southern agriculture. In this section, we Second, slavery left a strong tradition of look at black-white relations from the end racism in the white community. Anti-black of the Civil War through the ascendancy of prejudice and racism originated as rationaliza- segregation in the South and the mass tions for slavery but had taken on lives of their migration of African Americans to the cities own over the generations. After two centuries of the industrializing North. of slavery, the heritage of prejudice and racism 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 79

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was thoroughly ingrained in southern culture. some courtrooms maintained separate bibles White southerners were predisposed by this for black witnesses to swear on. Also, in cultural legacy to see racial inequality and Birmingham, Alabama, it was against the exploitation of African Americans as normal law for blacks and whites to play each other and desirable, and after Reconstruction ended in checkers and dominoes (Woodward, and the federal government withdrew, they 1974, p. 118). were able to construct a social system based What were the causes of this massive sep- on the assumption of racial inferiority. aration of the races? Once again, the concepts of the Noel hypothesis prove useful. Because strong anti-black prejudice was already in De Jure Segregation existence when segregation began, we don’t need to account for ethnocentrism. The post- The system of race relations that replaced Reconstruction competition between the slavery in the South was de jure segregation, racial groups was reminiscent of the origins of sometimes referred to as the Jim Crow sys- slavery in that black southerners had some- tem. Under segregation, the minority group thing that white southerners wanted: labor. is physically and socially separated from the In addition, a free black electorate threatened dominant group and consigned to an infe- the political and economic dominance of rior position in virtually every area of social the elite segments of the white community. life. The phrase de jure (“by law”) means Finally, after the withdrawal of federal troops that the system is sanctioned and reinforced and the end of Reconstruction, white south- by the legal code; the inferior status of erners had sufficient power resources to end African Americans was actually mandated the competition on their own terms and con- or required by state and local laws. For struct repressive systems of control for black example, southern cities during this era had southerners. laws requiring blacks to ride at the back of public buses. If an African American refused to comply with this seating arrange- The Origins of De Jure Segregation ment, he or she could be arrested. De jure segregation came to encompass Although the South lost the Civil War, its all aspects of southern life. Neighborhoods, basic class structure and agrarian economy jobs, stores, restaurants, and parks were remained intact. The plantation elite, with segregated. When new social forms, such as their huge tracts of land, remained the dom- movie theaters, sports stadiums, and inter- inant class, and cotton remained the pri- state buses appeared in the South, they, too, mary cash crop. As was the case before the were quickly segregated. Civil War, the landowners needed a work- The logic of segregation created a vicious force to farm the land. Because of the depre- cycle. The more African Americans were dations and economic disruptions of the excluded from the mainstream of society, war, the old plantation elite was short on the greater their objective poverty and pow- cash and liquid capital. Hiring workers on erlessness became. The more inferior their a wage system was not feasible for them. status, the easier it was to mandate more In fact, almost as soon as the war ended, inequality. High levels of inequality rein- southern legislatures attempted to force forced racial prejudice and made it easy to African Americans back into involuntary use racism to justify further separation. The servitude by passing a series of laws known system kept turning on itself, finding new as the Black Codes. Only the beginning of social niches to segregate and reinforcing Reconstruction and the active intervention the inequality that was its starting point. of the federal government halted the imple- For example, at the height of the Jim Crow mentation of this legislation (Geschwender, era, the system had evolved to the point that 1978, p. 158; Wilson, 1973, p. 99). 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 80

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The plantation elite solved their man- actually fell lower than it had been during power problem this time by developing a slavery. For example, in 1865, 83% of system of sharecropping, or tenant farming. the artisans in the South were African The sharecroppers worked the land, which Americans; by 1900, this percentage had was actually owned by the planters, in fallen to 5% (Geschwender, 1978, p. 170). return for payment in shares of the profit The Jim Crow system confined African when the crop was taken to market. The Americans to the agrarian and domestic landowner would supply a place to live and sectors of the labor force, denied them the food and clothing on credit. After the har- opportunity for a decent education, and vest, tenant and landowner would split the excluded them from politics. The system profits (sometimes very unequally), and was reinforced by still more laws and cus- the tenant’s debts would be deducted from toms that drastically limited the options and his share. The accounts were kept by the life courses available to black southerners. landowner. Black sharecroppers lacked A final force behind the creation of de political and civil rights and found it diffi- jure segregation was more political than cult to keep unscrupulous white landowners economic. As the 19th century drew to a honest. The landowner could inflate the close, a wave of agrarian radicalism known indebtedness of the sharecropper and claim as populism spread across the country. This that he was still owed money even after anti-elitist movement was a reaction to profits had been split. Under this system, changes in agriculture caused by industrial- sharecroppers had few opportunities to ization. The movement attempted to unite improve their situations and could be poor whites and blacks in the rural South bound to the land until their “debts” were against the traditional elite classes. The eco- paid off (Geschwender, 1978, p. 163). nomic elite were frightened by the possibil- By 1910, more than half of all employed ity of a loss of power and split the incipient African Americans worked in agriculture, coalition between whites and blacks by fan- and more than half of the remainder (25% of ning the flames of racial hatred. The strat- the total) worked in domestic occupations egy of “divide and conquer” proved to be such as maid or janitor (Geschwender, 1978, effective (as it often has both before and p. 169). The manpower shortage in southern since this time), and states throughout the agriculture was solved, and the African South eliminated the possibility of future American community once again found itself threats by depriving African Americans of in a subservient status. At the same time, the the right to vote (Woodward, 1974). white southern working class was protected The disenfranchisement of the black from direct job competition with African community was accomplished by measures Americans. As the South began to industrial- such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and prop- ize, white workers were able to monopolize erty requirements. The literacy tests were the better paying jobs. With a combination officially justified as promoting a better of direct discrimination by whites-only labor informed electorate but were shamelessly unions and strong anti-black laws and cus- rigged to favor white voters. The require- toms, white workers erected barriers that ment that voters pay a tax or prove owner- excluded black workers and reserved the ship of a certain amount of property could better industrial jobs in cities and mill towns also disenfranchise poor whites, but again, for themselves. White workers took advan- the implementation of these policies was tage of the new jobs brought by industrial- racially biased. ization, whereas black southerners remained The policies were extremely effective, a rural peasantry, excluded from participa- and by the early 20th century, the political tion in this process of modernization. power of the southern black community In some sectors of the changing southern was virtually nonexistent. For example, as economy, the status of African Americans late as 1896 in Louisiana, there had been 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 81

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more than 100,000 registered black male eyes downward, and enact the role of the voters, and black voters were a majority in subordinate in all interactions with 26 parishes (counties).1 In 1898, the state whites. If an African American had reason adopted a new constitution containing stiff to call on anyone in the white community, educational and property requirements for he or she was expected to go to the back voting unless the voter’s father or grandfa- door. ther had been eligible to vote as of January These expectations and “good manners” 1, 1867. At that time, the 14th and 15th for black southerners were systematically Amendments, which guaranteed suffrage enforced. Anyone who ignored them ran the for black males, had not yet been passed. risk of reprisal, physical attacks, and even Such “grandfather clauses” made it easy death by lynching. During the decades in for white males to register while disenfran- which the Jim Crow system was being chising blacks. By 1900, only about 5,000 imposed, there were thousands of lynchings African American males were registered to in the South. From 1884 until the end of the vote in Louisiana, and black voters were not century, lynchings averaged almost one a majority in any parish. A similar decline every other day (Franklin & Moss, 1994, occurred in Alabama, where an electorate p. 312). The great bulk of this violent of more than 180,000 black males was terrorism was racial and intended to rein- reduced to 3,000 by provision of a new force the system of racial advantage or pun- state constitution. This story repeated itself ish real or imagined transgressors. Also, throughout the South, and black political various secret organizations, such as the Ku powerlessness had become a reality by 1905 Klux Klan, engaged in terrorist attacks (Franklin & Moss, 1994, p. 261). against the African American community This system of legally mandated racial and anyone else who failed to conform to privilege was approved by the U.S. Supreme the dictates of the system. Court, which ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that it was constitutional Increases in Prejudice and Racism for states to require separate facilities (schools, parks, etc.) for African Americans As the system of racial advantage formed as long as the separate facilities were fully and solidified, levels of prejudice and racism equal. The southern states paid close atten- increased (Wilson, 1973, p. 101). The new tion to separate but ignored equal. system needed justification and rationaliza- tion, just as slavery did, and anti-black sen- timent, stereotypes, and ideologies of racial Reinforcing the System inferiority grew stronger. At the start of the Under de jure segregation, as under 20th century, the United States in general— slavery, the subordination of the African not just the South—was a very racist and American community was reinforced and intolerant society. This spirit of rejection supplemented by an elaborate system of racial and scorn for all out-groups coalesced with etiquette. Everyday interactions between the need for justification of the Jim Crow blacks and whites proceeded according to system and created an especially negative highly stylized and rigidly followed codes of brand of racism in the South. conduct intended to underscore the inferior status of the African American community. THE “GREAT MIGRATION” Whites were addressed as “Mister” or “Ma’am,” whereas blacks were called by Although African Americans lacked the their first names or perhaps by an honorific power resources to withstand the resurrec- title such as Aunt, Uncle, or Professor. Blacks tion of southern racism and oppression, they were expected to assume a humble and def- did have one option that had not been avail- erential manner, remove their hats, cast their able under slavery: freedom of movement. 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 82

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African Americans were no longer legally to live in the South, but the group is more tied to a specific master or to a certain plot evenly distributed across the nation and of land. In the early 20th century, a massive much more urbanized than a century ago. population movement out of the South The significance of this population redis- began. Slowly at first, African Americans tribution is manifold. Most important, per- began to move to other regions of the nation haps, was the fact that by moving out of and from the countryside to the city. The the South and from rural to urban areas, movement increased when hard times hit African Americans began to move from southern agriculture and slowed down dur- areas of great resistance to racial change to ing better times. It has been said that African areas of lower resistance. In the northern Americans voted against southern segrega- cities, for example, it was far easier to reg- tion with their feet. ister and to vote. Black political power As Exhibits 4.1 and 4.2 show, an urban began to grow and eventually provided black population living outside the South many of the crucial resources that fueled is a late 20th-century phenomenon. Today, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and the majority of African Americans continue 1960s.

Exhibit 4.1 Regional Distribution of African American Population

100

50 Percent 40

0 1890 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

South Non-South

SOURCES: 1890–1960: Geschwender (1978, p. 173); 1990 (Regional Distribution): Heaton, Chadwick, and Jacobson (2000, p. 26); 2000 (Regional Distribution): U.S. Bureau of the Census (2005, p. 25). 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 83

Industrialization and Dominant-Minority Relations 83

Exhibit 4.2 Percentage of African American Population Living in Urban Areas, 1890–2000

100

50 Percent 40

0 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

SOURCES: 1890–1960: Geschwender (1978, p. 173); (Urbanization): 1950: U.S. Bureau of the Census (1996); 1960–1990: Pollard and O’Hare (1999, p. 27); 2000: U.S. Bureau of the Census (n.d.-d).

Life in the North black ghettoes and new forms of oppression and exploitation. What did African American migrants find when they got to the industrializing cities of the North? There is no doubt that Competition With life in the North was better for the vast White Ethnic Groups majority of black migrants. The growing northern black communities relished the It is useful to see the movement of African absence of Jim Crow laws and oppressive Americans out of the South in terms of the racial etiquette and the greater freedom to resultant relationship with other groups. pursue jobs and educate their children. Southern blacks began to migrate to the Inevitably, however, life in the North fell North at about the same time that a huge short of utopia. Many aspects of African wave of emigration from Europe that had American culture—literature, poetry, begun in the 1820s came to an end. By the music—flourished in the heady new atmo- time substantial numbers of black southern- sphere of freedom, but on other fronts, ers began arriving in the North, European northern black communities faced discrimi- immigrants and their descendants had had nation in housing, schools, and the job mar- years, decades, and even generations to estab- ket. Along with freedom and such cultural lish themselves in the job markets, political flowerings as the Harlem Renaissance came systems, labor unions, and neighborhoods of 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 84

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the North. Many of the European ethnic emigration from Europe had been curtailed, groups had also been the victims of discrimi- and no newly arrived immigrants appeared nation and rejection, and their hold on eco- to continue the pattern of succession for nomic security and status was tenuous for northern African Americans. Instead, much of the 20th century. They saw the American cities developed a concentration of newly arriving black migrants as a threat to low-income blacks who were economically their status, a perception that was reinforced vulnerable and politically weak and whose by the fact that industrialists and factory position was further solidified by anti-black owners often used blacks as strikebreakers prejudice and discrimination (Wilson, 1987, and scabs during strikes. The white ethnic p. 34). groups responded by developing defensive strategies to limit the dangers presented by THE ORIGINS OF BLACK PROTEST these migrants from the South. They tried to exclude blacks from their labor unions and As I pointed out in Chapter 3, African other associations and limit their impact on Americans have always resisted their oppres- the political system. They also attempted, sion and protested their situation. Under often successfully, to maintain segregated slavery, however, the inequalities they faced neighborhoods and schools (although the were so great and their resources so meager legal system outside the South did not sanc- that the protest was ineffective. With the tion de jure segregation). increased freedom that followed slavery, a This competition led to hostile relations national black leadership developed, spoke between black southern migrants and white out against oppression, and founded organi- ethnic groups, especially the lower- and zations that eventually helped to lead the working-class segments of those groups. fight for freedom and equality. Even at its Ironically, however, the newly arriving birth, the black protest movement was African Americans actually helped white diverse and incorporated a variety of view- ethnic groups become upwardly mobile. points and leaders. Dominant group whites became less Booker T. Washington was the most vocal about their contempt for white ethnic prominent African American leader prior to groups as their alarm over the presence World War I. Washington had been born of blacks increased. The greater antipathy in slavery and was the founder and first of the white community toward African president of Tuskegee Institute, a college in Americans made the white ethnic groups Alabama dedicated to educating African less undesirable and thus hastened their Americans. His public advice to African admittance to the institutions of the larger Americans in the South was to be patient, to society. For many white ethnic groups, the accommodate the Jim Crow system for increased tolerance of the larger society now, to raise their levels of education and coincided happily with the coming of age of job skills, and to take full advantage of the more educated and skilled descendants whatever opportunities became available. of the original immigrants, further abetting This nonconfrontational stance earned the rise of these groups in the U.S. social Washington praise and support from the class structure (Lieberson, 1980). white community and widespread popular- For more than a century, each new ity in the nation. Privately, he worked European immigrant group had helped to behind the scenes to end discrimination and push previous groups up the ladder of socioe- implement full racial integration and equal- conomic success and out of the old, ghet- ity (Franklin & Moss, 1994, pp. 272–274; toized neighborhoods. The Irish, for Hawkins, 1962; Washington, 1965). example, pushed the Germans up and were Washington’s most vocal opponent was in turn pushed up by Italians and Poles. W. E. B. Du Bois, an intellectual and activist Black southerners got to the cities after who was born in the North and educated at 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 85

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some of the leading universities of the day. the century was well along and some basic Among his many other accomplishments, structural features of American society had Du Bois was part of a coalition of black and changed. white liberals who founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois APPLYING CONCEPTS rejected Washington’s accommodationist Acculturation and Integration stance and advocated immediate pursuit of racial equality and a direct assault on de During this era of southern segregation jure segregation. Almost from the beginning and migration to the North, assimilation was of its existence, the NAACP filed lawsuits not a major factor in the African American that challenged the legal foundations of Jim experience. Rather, black-white relations are Crow segregation (Du Bois, 1961). As we better described as a system of structural shall see in Chapter 5, this legal strategy pluralism combined with great inequality. was eventually successful and led to the Excluded from the mainstream but freed demise of the Jim Crow system. from the limitations of slavery, African Washington and Du Bois may have dif- Americans constructed a separate subsociety fered on matters of strategy and tactics, but and subculture. In all regions of the nation, they agreed that the only acceptable goal for black Americans developed their own institu- African Americans was an integrated, racially tions and organizations, including separate equal United States. A third leader who neighborhoods, churches, businesses, and emerged early in the 20th century called for a schools. Like emigrants from Europe in the very different approach to the problems of same era, they organized their communities to U.S. race relations. Marcus Garvey was born cater to their own needs and problems and in Jamaica and immigrated to the United pursue their agenda as a group. States during World War I. He argued that During the era of segregation, a small, the white-dominated U.S. society was hope- black middle class emerged based on leader- lessly racist and would never truly support ship roles in the church, education, and integration and racial equality. He advocated business. A network of black colleges and separatist goals, including a return to Africa. universities was constructed to educate the Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improve- children of the growing middle class as well ment Association (UNIA) in 1914 in his as other classes. Through this infrastruc- native Jamaica and founded the first U.S. ture, African Americans began to develop branch in 1916. Garvey’s organization was the resources and leadership that in the very popular for a time in African American decades ahead would attack, head on, the communities outside the South, and he helped structures of racial inequality. to establish some of the themes and ideas of black nationalism and pride in African her- Gender and Race itage that would become prominent again in the pluralistic 1960s (Essien-Udom, 1962; For African American men and women, Garvey, 1969, 1977; Vincent, 1976). the changes wrought by industrialization These early leaders and organizations and the population movement to the North established some of the foundation for created new possibilities and new roles. later protest movements, but prior to the However, as African Americans continued mid-20th century, they made few actual to be the victims of exploitation and exclu- improvements in the situation of black sion in both the North and the South, black Americans in the North or South. Jim Crow women continued to be among the most was a formidable opponent, and the south- vulnerable groups in society. ern black community lacked the resources Following emancipation, there was a to successfully challenge the status quo until flurry of marriages and weddings among 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 86

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African Americans as they were finally able to 41% of black women were employed, legitimate their family relationships (Staples, compared with only 16% of white women 1988, p. 306). African American women (Staples, 1988, p. 307). continued to have primary responsibility for In 1890, more than a generation after home and children. Historian Herbert the end of slavery, 85% of all black men Gutman (1976) reports that it was common and 96% of black women were employed in for married women to drop out of the labor just two occupational categories: agricul- force and attend solely to household and ture and domestic or personal service. By family duties, because a working wife was too 1930, 90% of employed black women were reminiscent of a slave role. This pattern still in these same two categories, whereas became so widespread that it created serious the corresponding percentage for employed labor shortages in many areas (Gutman, black males had dropped to 54% (although 1976; see also Staples, 1988, p. 307). nearly all of the remaining 46% were The former slaves were hardly affluent, unskilled workers) (Steinberg, 1981, however, and as sharecropping and segrega- pp. 206–207). Since the inception of segre- tion began to shape race relations in the gation, African American women have had South, women often had to return to the consistently higher unemployment rates fields or to domestic work for the family to and lower incomes than black men and survive. One former slave woman noted that white women (Almquist, 1979, p. 437). women “do double duty, a man’s share in the These gaps, as we shall see in Chapter 5, field and a woman’s part at home” (Evans, persist to the present day. 1989, p. 121). During the bleak decades fol- During the years following emancipation, lowing the end of Reconstruction, southern some issues did split men and women, within black families and black women in partic- both the black community and the larger ular lived “close to the bone” (Evans, 1989, society. Prominent among these was suf- p. 121). frage, or the right to vote, which was still In the cities and in the growing black limited to men only. The abolitionist move- neighborhoods in the North, African ment, which had been so instrumental in American women played a role that in some ending slavery, also supported universal suf- ways paralleled the role of immigrant women frage. Efforts to enfranchise women, though, from Europe. The men often moved north were abandoned by the Republican Party first and sent for the women after they had and large parts of the abolitionist movement attained some level of financial stability or to concentrate on efforts to secure the vote after the pain of separation became too great for black males in the South. Ratification of (Almquist, 1979, p. 434). In other cases, the 15th Amendment in 1870 extended the black women by the thousands left the South vote, in principle, to African American men, to work as domestic servants; they often but the 19th Amendment enfranchising replaced European immigrant women who women would not be passed for another 50 had moved up in the job structure (Amott & years (Almquist, 1979, pp. 433–434; Evans, Matthaei, 1991, p. 168). 1989, pp. 121–124). In the North, discrimination and racism created constant problems of unemployment for the men, and families often relied INDUSTRIALIZATION, THE SHIFT on the income supplied by the women to TO POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY, make ends meet. It was comparatively easy AND DOMINANT-MINORITY for women to find employment, but only in GROUP RELATIONS: the low-paying, less desirable areas, such as GENERAL TRENDS domestic work. In both the South and the North, African American women worked The process of industrialization that began in outside the home in larger proportions than the 19th century continued to shape the larger did white women. For example, in 1900, society and dominant-minority relations 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 87

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throughout the 20th century. In the 21st size means little, and urbanization increased century, the United States bears little resem- both the concentration of populations and blance to the society it was a century ago. The the freedom to organize. population has more than tripled in size and has urbanized even more rapidly than it grew. Occupational Specialization New organizational forms (bureaucracies, corporations, multinational businesses) and One of the first and most important results new technologies (nuclear power, cell phones, of industrialization, even in its earliest days, computers) dominate everyday life. Levels of was an increase in occupational specializa- education have risen, and the public schools tion and the variety of jobs available in the have produced one of the most literate popu- workforce. The growing needs of an urbaniz- lations and well-trained workforces in the ing population increased the number of jobs history of the world. available in the production, transport, and Minority groups also grew in size, and sale of goods and services. Occupational spe- most became even more urbanized than the cialization was also stimulated by the very general population. Minority group members nature of industrial production. Complex have come to participate in an increasing manufacturing processes could be performed array of occupations, and their average levels more efficiently if they were broken down of education have also risen. Despite these into the narrower component tasks. It was real improvements, however, virtually all U.S. easier and more efficient to train the work- minority groups continue to face racism, force in the simpler, specialized jobs. poverty, discrimination, and exclusion. In this Assembly lines were invented, the work was section, we outline the ways in which indus- subdivided, the division of labor became trialization has changed American society and increasingly complex, and the number of examine some of the implications for minor- different occupations continued to grow. ity groups in general. We also note some of The sheer complexity of the industrial the ways in which industrialization has aided job structure made it difficult to maintain minority groups and address some of the bar- rigid, caste-like divisions of labor between riers to full participation in the larger society dominant and minority groups. Rigid com- that continue to operate in the present era. petitive forms of group relations, such as The impact of industrialization and the com- Jim Crow segregation, became less viable as ing of postindustrial society will be consid- the job market became more diversified and ered in detail in the case studies that comprise changeable. Simple, clear rules about which Part III of this text. groups could do which jobs disappeared. As the more repressive systems of control weakened, job opportunities for minority Urbanization group members sometimes increased. But as We have already noted that urbanization the relationships between group member- made close, paternalistic controls of minor- ships and positions in the job market ity groups irrelevant. For example, the became more blurred, conflict between racial etiquette required by southern de groups also increased. For example, as we jure segregation, such as African Americans have noted, African Americans moving deferring to whites on crowded sidewalks, from the South often found themselves in tended to disappear in the chaos of an competition for jobs with white ethnic urban rush hour. Besides weakening domi- groups, labor unions controlled by whites, nant group controls, urbanization also cre- and other elements of the dominant group. ated the potential for minority groups to mobilize and organize large numbers of Bureaucracy and Rationality people. As stated in Chapter 1, the sheer size of a group is a source of power. As industrialization continued, privately Without the freedom to organize, however, owned corporations and businesses came to 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 88

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have workforces numbering in the hundreds manage, and deal with the flow of paper- of thousands. Gigantic factories employing work—continued to expand. As industrial- thousands of workers became common. To ization progressed, mechanization and coordinate the efforts of these huge work- automation reduced the number of manual or forces, bureaucracy became the dominant blue-collar workers, and white-collar occupa- form of organization in the economy and, tions became the dominant sector of the job indeed, throughout the society. Bureaucra- market in the United States. The changing cies are large-scale, impersonal, formal nature of the workforce can be illustrated by organizations that run “by the book.” They looking at the proportional representation of are governed by rules and regulations (i.e., three different types of jobs: “red tape”) and are rational in that they attempt to find the most efficient ways to • Extractive (or primary) occupations are accomplish their tasks. Although they typi- those that produce raw materials, such as cally fail to attain the ideal of fully rational food and agricultural products, minerals, efficiency, bureaucracies tend to recruit, and lumber. The jobs in this sector often reward, and promote employees on the involve unskilled manual labor, require lit- basis of competence and performance tle formal education, and are generally low (Gerth & Mills, 1946). paid. The stress on rationality and objectivity • Manufacturing (or secondary) occupations can counteract the more blatant forms of transform raw materials into finished prod- racism and increase the array of opportuni- ucts ready for sale in the marketplace. Like ties available to members of minority groups. jobs in the extractive sector, these blue-col- Although they are often nullified by other lar jobs involve manual labor, but they forces (see Blumer, 1965), these anti-prejudicial tend to require higher levels of skill and are tendencies do not exist at all or are much more highly rewarded. Examples of occu- weaker in preindustrial economies. pations in this sector include the assembly The history of the concept of race illus- line jobs that transform steel, rubber, trates the effect of rationality and scientific plastic, and other materials into finished ways of thinking. Today, virtually the entire automobiles. scientific community regards race as a • Service (or tertiary) occupations don’t pro- biological triviality, a conclusion based on duce “things,” but, rather, provide services. decades of research. This scientific finding As urbanization increased and self-suffi- undermined and contributed to the destruc- ciency decreased, opportunities for work in tion of the formal systems of privilege based this sector grew. Examples of tertiary occu- solely on race (e.g., segregated school sys- pations include police officer, clerk, waiter, tems) and individual perceptual systems teacher, nurse, doctor, and cab driver. (e.g., traditional prejudice) based on the assumption that race was a crucial personal The course of industrialization is traced in characteristic. the changing structure of the labor market depicted in Exhibit 4.3. In 1840, when indus- Growth of White-Collar trialization was just beginning in the United States, most of the workforce was in the Jobs and the Service Sector extractive sector, with agriculture being the Industrialization changed the composi- dominant occupation. As industrialization tion of the labor force. As work became progressed, the manufacturing, or secondary, more complex and specialized, the need to sector grew, reaching a peak after World War coordinate and regulate the production pro- II. Today, the large majority of jobs are in the cess increased, and as a result, bureaucra- service, or tertiary, sector. This shift away cies and other organizations grew larger from blue-collar jobs and manufacturing is still. Within these organizations, white- sometimes referred to as deindustrialization collar occupations—those that coordinate, or discussed in terms of the emergence of 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 89

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postindustrial society. The U.S. economy has few benefits and little security (e.g., recep- lost millions of unionized, high-paying fac- tionist, nurse’s aide). For the past half cen- tory jobs over the past several decades, and tury, job growth in the United States has the downward trend will continue. The been either in areas in which educationally industrial jobs that sustained so many gener- deprived minority group members find it ations of American workers have moved to difficult to compete or in areas that offer lit- other nations, where wages are considerably tle compensation, upward mobility, or secu- lower than in the United States, or have been rity. As we will see in Part III, the economic eliminated by robots or other automated situation of contemporary minority groups manufacturing processes (see Rifkin, 1996). reflects these fundamental trends. The changing structure of the job market helps to clarify the nature of intergroup The Growing Importance competition and the sources of wealth and of Education power in the society. Job growth in the United States today is largely in the service Education has been an increasingly impor- sector, and these occupations are highly tant prerequisite for employability. A high variable. At one end are low-paying jobs school or, increasingly, a college degree has with few, if any, benefits or chances for become the minimum entry-level requirement advancement (e.g., washing dishes in a for employment. However, opportunities for restaurant). At the upper end are high- high-quality education are not distributed prestige, lucrative positions, such as equally across the population. Some minority Supreme Court justice, scientist, and finan- groups, especially those created by coloniza- cial analyst. The new service sector jobs are tion, have been systematically excluded from either highly desirable technical, profes- the schools of the dominant society, and sional, or administrative jobs with demand- today, they are less likely to have the educa- ing entry requirements (e.g., physician or tional backgrounds needed to compete for nurse) or low-paid, low-skilled jobs with better jobs. Access to education is a key issue

Exhibit 4.3 The Changing American Workforce: Distribution of Jobs

80 Service

50 Extractive Manufacturing Percent 40

0 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

SOURCE: 1840–1990: Adapted from Lenski, Nolan, and Lenski (1995); 2002 and 2004 calculated from U.S. Bureau of the Census (2006, p. 407). 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 90

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for almost all U.S. minority groups, and the movement and have changed the status of average educational levels of these groups others. Immigration to this country has been have been rising since World War II. Still, considerable for the past three decades. The minority children continue to be much more American economy is one of the most pro- likely to attend segregated, underfunded, dete- ductive in the world, and jobs, even those in riorated schools and to receive inferior educa- the low-paid secondary sector, are the pri- tions (see Orfield, 2001). mary goals for millions of newcomers. For other immigrants, this country continues to play its historic role as a refuge from politi- A Dual Labor Market cal and religious persecution. The changing composition of the labor Many of the wars, conflicts, and other dis- force and increasing importance of educa- putes in which the United States has been tional credentials has split the U.S. labor involved have had consequences for American market into two segments or types of jobs. minority groups. For example, both Puerto The primary labor market includes jobs Ricans and Cuban Americans became U.S. usually located in large, bureaucratic orga- minority groups as the result of processes set nizations. These positions offer higher pay, in motion during the Spanish-American War more security, better opportunities for of 1898. Both World War I and World War II advancement, health and retirement bene- created new job opportunities for many fits, and other amenities. Entry require- minority groups, including African Americans ments often include college degrees, even and Mexican Americans. After the Korean when people with fewer years of schooling War, international ties were forged between could competently perform the work. the United States and South Korea, and this The secondary labor market, sometimes led to an increase in emigration from that called the competitive market, includes low- nation. In the 1960s and 1970s, the military paid, low-skilled, insecure jobs. Many of involvement of the United States in South- these jobs are in the service sector. They do east Asia led to the arrival of Vietnamese, not represent a career and offer little oppor- Cambodian, and other Asian immigrants. tunity for promotion or upward mobility. Dominant-minority relations in the Very often, they do not offer health or retire- United States have been increasingly played ment benefits; have high rates of turnover; out on an international stage as the world and are part time, seasonal, or temporary. has effectively “shrunk” in size and become Many American minority groups are more interconnected by international orga- concentrated in the secondary job market. nizations such as the United Nations, by ties Their exclusion from better jobs is perpetu- of trade and commerce, and by modern ated not so much by direct or obvious dis- means of transportation and communica- crimination as by educational and other tion. In a world in which two thirds of the credentials required to enter the primary population is nonwhite and many impor- sector. The differential distribution of edu- tant nations (such as China, India, and cational opportunities, in the past as well as Nigeria) represent peoples of color, the in the present, effectively protects workers treatment of racial minorities by the U.S. in the primary sector from competition dominant group has come under increased from minority groups. scrutiny. It is difficult to preach principles of fairness, equality, and justice—which the United States claims as its own—when Globalization domestic realities suggest an embarrassing Over the past century, the United States failure to fully implement these standards. became an economic, political, and military Part of the pressure for the United States to world power with interests around the end blatant systems of discrimination such globe. These worldwide ties have created as de jure segregation came from the desire new minority groups through population to maintain a leading position in the world. 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 91

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THE SHIFT FROM RIGID TO FLUID less restrictive and burdensome. Rigid caste COMPETITIVE RELATIONSHIPS systems of stratification, in which group The recent changes in the structure of membership determines opportunities, adult American society are so fundamental and statuses, and jobs, are replaced by more open profound that they are often described in class systems, in which there are weaker rela- terms of a revolution in subsistence technol- tionships between group membership and ogy: from an industrial society, based on wealth, prestige, and power. Because fluid manufacturing, to a postindustrial society, competitive systems are more open and the based on information processing and composition of the minority group is less fixed, puter-related or other new technologies. the fear of competition from minority groups As the subsistence technology has evolved becomes more widespread for the dominant and changed, so have American dominant- group, and intergroup conflict increases. minority relations. The rigid competitive Exhibit 4.4 compares the characteristics of systems (such as Jim Crow) associated with the three systems of group relations. earlier phases of industrialization have given Compared with previous systems, the way to fluid competitive systems of group fluid competitive system is closer to the relations. In fluid competitive relations, there American ideal of an open, fair system of are no formal or legal barriers to competition stratification in which effort and compe- such as Jim Crow laws. Both geographic and tence are rewarded and race, ethnicity, social mobility are greater, and the limita- gender, religion, and other “birthmarks” tions imposed by minority group status are are irrelevant. However, as we will see in

Exhibit 4.4 Characteristics of Three Systems of Group Relationships

Competitive

Paternalistic Rigid Fluid

Subsistence Technology Agrarian Early Industrial Advanced Industrial

Stratification Caste. Group Mixed. Elements of Variable. Status strongly determines status caste and class. affected by group. Status largely Inequality varies determined by group within groups Division of labor Simple. Determined More complex. Job Most complex. Group by group largely determined and job less related. by group but some Complex specialization sharing of jobs by and great variation different groups within groups Contact between Common but statuses Less common and More common. Highest groups unequal mostly unequal rates of equal-status contact Overt intergroup Rare More common Common conflict Power differential Maximum. Minority Less. Minority groups Least. Minority groups groups have little have some ability to have more ability to ability to pursue pursue self-interest pursue self-interest self-interests

SOURCE: Based on Farley (Ed.) (2000, p. 109). Majority-Minority Relations (5th ed.). Copyright © 2005. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ. 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 92

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chapters to come, race and ethnicity con- century. Women are now employed at tinue to affect life chances and limit oppor- almost the same levels as men. In the year tunities for minority group members even 2004, for example, 66% of single women in fluid competitive systems. As suggested (vs. about 70% of single men) and about by the Noel hypothesis, people continue to 61% of married women (vs. about 77% of identify themselves with particular groups married men) had jobs outside the home (ethnocentrism), and competition for (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006, p. 392). resources continues to play out along group Furthermore, between 1970 and 2004, the lines. Consistent with the Blauner hypothe- participation of married women with chil- sis, the minority groups that were formed dren in the workforce increased from a little by colonization remain at a disadvantage in less than 40% to almost 70% (U.S. Bureau the pursuit of opportunities, education, of the Census, 2006, p. 393). prestige, and other resources. Many female workers enter the paid labor force to compensate for the declining GENDER INEQUALITY earning power of men. Before deindustrial- IN A GLOBALIZING, ization began to transform U.S. society, men monopolized the more desirable, POSTINDUSTRIAL WORLD higher-paid, unionized jobs in the manufac- Deindustrialization and globalization are turing sector. For much of the 20th century, transforming gender relations along with these blue-collar jobs paid well enough to dominant-minority relations. Everywhere, subsidize a comfortable lifestyle, a house even in the most traditional and sexist in the suburbs, and vacations, with enough societies, women are moving away from their money left over to save for a rainy day or traditional “wife/mother” roles, taking on for college for the kids. However, when new responsibilities, and facing new chal- deindustrialization began, many of these lenges. Some women are also encountering desirable jobs were lost to automation and new dangers and new forms of exploitation to cheaper labor forces outside the United that perpetuate their lower status and extend States and were replaced, if at all, by low- it into new areas. paying jobs in the service sector. Thus, deindustrialization tended to drive down men’s Changing Gender Relations wages, and many women were forced to take jobs to supplement the family income. in the United States This trend is reflected in Exhibit 4.5, which The transition of the United States to a shows that, from the early 1970s until the postindustrial society has changed gender rela- mid-1990s, average wages for men have tions and the status of women on a number of been stagnant or actually declining. levels. Women and men are now equal in A large number of the “new” female terms of levels of education (U.S. Bureau of the workers have taken jobs in a limited Census, 2006, p. 147), and the shift to fluid number of female-dominated occupations, competitive group relations has weakened the most of which are in the less well-paid ser- barriers to gender equality along with the bar- vice sector, and this pattern of occupational riers to racial equality. The changing role of segregation is one important reason for women is also shaped by other characteristics the continuing gender gap in income. For of a modern society: smaller families, high example, Exhibit 4.6 lists some of the occu- divorce rates, and rising numbers of single pations that were dominated by females in mothers who must work to support their chil- 1983 and 2004 along with the percentages dren as well as themselves. of females in comparable but higher-status Many of the trends have coalesced to occupations. For example, 93% of nurses motivate women to enter the paid labor force and nearly 100% of dental hygienists were in unprecedented numbers over the past half female in 2004. The comparable figures for 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 93

Industrialization and Dominant-Minority Relations 93

Exhibit 4.5 Median Earnings for Full-Time, Year-Round Workers Over Age 15 by Gender, 1966–2003

45000 40000 35000 Men 30000 25000

Dollars 20000 Women 15000 10000 5000 0

1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the Census, De-Navas, Proctor, and Mills (2004).

Exhibit 4.6 Gender Composition of Selected Occupations, 1983 and 2004

100

40 Percent Female

RN Sec’y Doctor Dentist Lawyer Elem TchrUniv. Prof Executuve Dental Hyg. Legal Assistant

1983 2004

SOURCE: Calculated from U.S. Bureau of the Census (2006, pp. 401–403). 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 94

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physicians and dentists were 29% and part, the trends worldwide parallel those 22%, respectively. in the United States. According to a recent In part, this occupational segregation is United Nations report (United Nations, a result of the choices women make to 2000), indicators such as rising education balance the demands of their jobs with levels for women and lower rates of early their family obligations. Whereas men are marriage and childbirth show that women expected to make a total commitment to around the world are moving out of their their jobs and careers, women are expected traditional (and often highly controlled to find ways to continue to fulfill their and repressed) status. They are entering the domestic roles even while working full-time, labor force in unprecedented numbers virtu- and many “female jobs” offer some flexibil- ally everywhere, and women now comprise ity in this area (Shelton & John, 1996). For at least a third of the global workforce. example, many women become elementary Although their status is generally rising, educators despite the relatively low salaries the movement away from traditional gender because the job offers predictable hours and roles also exposes many women to new long summer breaks, both of which can forms of exploitation. Around the globe, help women meet their child care and other women have become a source of cheap labor, family responsibilities. This pattern of gen- often in jobs that have recently been exported der occupational segregation testifies to from the U.S. economy. For example, many the lingering effects of minority status for manufacturing jobs formerly held by men in women and the choices they make to recon- the United States have migrated just south of cile the demands of career and family. the border to Mexico, where they are held by Exhibit 4.6 also shows that gender segre- women. Maquiladoras are assembly plants gation in the world of work is declining, built by corporations, often headquartered in at least in some areas. Women are moving the United States, to take advantage of the into traditionally male (and higher-paid) plentiful supply of working-class females occupations, as reflected by the rising per- who will work for low wages and in condi- centages of female physicians, dentists, uni- tions that would not be tolerated in versity professors, and lawyers. Also, some the United States (for a recent analysis of of the occupational areas that traditionally the Mexican female labor force and the have had high concentrations of women— maquiladora phenomenon, see Parrado & for example, the so-called FIRE sector, or Zenteno, 2001). finance, insurance, and real estate—actually The weakening of traditional gender benefited from deindustrialization and the roles has increased women’s vulnerability in shift to a service economy. Job opportuni- other areas as well. A global sex trade in ties in the FIRE sector have expanded prostitution and pornography is flourishing rapidly since the 1960s and have provided and accounts for a significant portion of opportunities for women to rise in the social the economy of Thailand, the Philippines, structure, and this has, in turn, tended to and other nations. This international indus- elevate the average salaries for women in try depends on impoverished women (and general (Farley, 1996, pp. 95–101). The children) pushed out of the subsistence rural movement of females into these more lucra- economy by industrialization and globaliza- tive occupations is one reason why the gen- tion and made vulnerable for exploitation der gap in income is decreasing, as reflected by their lack of resources and power in Exhibit 4.5. (Poulan, 2003). Across all these changes and around the Changing Gender Relations globe, women commonly face the challenge of reconciling their new work demands with Around the World their traditional family responsibilities. How have deindustrialization and glob- Also, women face challenges and issues, alization affected women internationally? In such as sexual harassment and domestic 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 95

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violence, that clearly differentiate their groups than in the intentions or prejudices status from that of men. In this context, of dominant group members. Modern insti- minority group women face a double disad- tutional discrimination is not necessarily vantage because the issues they face as linked to prejudice, and the decision makers women are overlaid on the barriers of racial who implement it may sincerely think of and ethnic prejudice and discrimination. As themselves as behaving rationally and in the we shall see in Chapters 5 to 10, minority best interests of their organizations. group women are often the poorest, most When employers make hiring decisions vulnerable, and most exploited groups in based solely on educational criteria, they U.S. society and around the globe. may be putting minority group members at a disadvantage. When banks use strictly economic criteria to deny money for home Modern Institutional Discrimination mortgages or home improvement loans in Virtually all American minority groups certain run-down neighborhoods, they may continue to lag behind national averages in be handicapping the efforts of minority income, employment, and other measures of groups to cope with the results of the bla- equality despite the greater fluidity of group tant, legal housing segregation of the past. relations, the greater openness in the U.S. When businesspeople decide to lower their stratification system, dramatic declines in overhead by moving their operations away overt prejudice, and the introduction of from center cities, they may be reducing numerous laws designed to ensure that all the ability of America’s highly urbanized people are treated without regard to race, minority groups to earn a living and educate gender, or ethnicity. After all this change, their children. When educators rely solely shouldn’t there be more equality? on standardized tests of ability that have In fact, many Americans attribute the per- been developed from white, middle-class sisting patterns of inequality to the minority experiences to decide who will be placed in groups’ lack of willpower or motivation to college preparatory courses, they may be get ahead. In the remaining chapters of this limiting the ability of minority group chil- text, however, I argue that the major barrier dren to compete for jobs in the primary facing minority groups in late industrial, sector. post-Jim Crow America is a more subtle but Any and all of these decisions can and do still powerful form of discrimination: mod- have devastating consequences for minority ern institutional discrimination. individuals, even though decision makers As you recall from Chapter 1, institu- may be entirely unaware of the discrimi- tional discrimination is built into the every- natory effects. Employers, bankers, and day operation of the social structure of educators do not have to be personally prej- society. The routine procedures and poli- udiced for their actions to have negative cies of institutions and organizations are consequences for minority groups. Modern arranged so that minority group members institutional discrimination helps to perpet- are automatically put at a disadvantage. In uate systems of inequality that can be just as the Jim Crow era in the South, for example, pervasive and stifling as those of the past. African Americans were deprived of the To illustrate, consider the effects of past- right to vote by overt institutional discrimi- in-present institutional discrimination, nation and could acquire little in the way of which involves practices in the present that political power. have discriminatory consequences because The forms of institutional discrimination of some pattern of discrimination or exclu- that persist in the present are more subtle sion in the past (Feagin & Feagin, 1986, and less overt than those that defined the p. 32). One form of this discrimination is Jim Crow system. In fact, they are often found in workforces organized around the unintentional or unconscious and are mani- principle of seniority. In these systems, fested more in the results for minority which are quite common, workers who 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 96

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have been on the job longer have higher such past grievances could be redressed, and incomes, more privileges, and other bene- in the eyes of many observers, dealt serious fits, such as longer vacations. The “old- blows to affirmative action programs (e.g., timers” often have more job security and Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena, 1995). are designated in official, written policy as One of the more prominent battle- the last to be fired or laid off in the event of grounds for affirmative action programs has hard times. Workers and employers alike been in higher education. Since the 1960s, it may think of the privileges of seniority as has been common for colleges and universi- just rewards for long years of service, famil- ties to implement programs to increase the iarity with the job, and so forth. number of minority students on campus at Personnel policies based on seniority may both the undergraduate and graduate levels, seem perfectly reasonable, neutral, and fair. sometimes admitting minority students However, they can have discriminatory who had lower grade point averages or test results in the present because in the past, scores than dominant group students who members of minority groups and women were turned away. In general, universities were excluded from specific occupations by have justified these programs in terms of racist or sexist labor unions, discriminatory redressing past discriminatory practices or employers, or both. As a result, minority increasing diversity on campus and making group workers and women may have fewer the student body a more faithful representa- years of experience than dominant group tion of the surrounding society. workers and may be the first to go when To say the least, these programs have been layoffs are necessary. The adage “last hired, highly controversial and the targets of fre- first fired” describes the situation of minor- quent lawsuits, some of which have found ity group and female employees who are their way to the highest courts in the land. more vulnerable not because of some The future of these programs remains overtly racist or sexist policy, but because unclear. At present, a number of states have of the routine operation of the seemingly banned affirmative action programs in their neutral principle of seniority. universities and colleges, but the legality of It is much more difficult to identify, mea- these outright bans remains in some doubt. sure, and eliminate the more subtle forms For example, in 1996, the voters in of modern institutional discrimination, and California passed an amendment to the state some of the most heated disputes in recent constitution that banned all use of racial, eth- group relations have concerned public policy nic, or sexual preferences in education, hir- and law in this area. Among the most con- ing, and the conduct of state business. In the troversial issues are affirmative action pro- spring of 2001, after years of protest and grams that attempt to ameliorate the legacy pressure by a variety of groups, the govern- of past discrimination or increase diversity in ing body of the California system of higher the workplace or schools. In many cases, the education ended the ban on affirmative Supreme Court has found that programs action. This decision seems mainly symbolic, designed to favor minority employees as a however, because the university system can- strategy for overcoming overt discrimina- not exempt itself from the state constitution. tion in the past are constitutional (e.g., Recent lawsuits have upheld some affir- Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 v. Stotts, mative action programs in higher education 1984; Sheet Metal Workers v. EEOC, 1986; but only under very limited conditions. In United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO- the spring of 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court CLC v. Weber, 1979). Virtually all of these ruled in two cases involving the University decisions, however, were based on narrow of Michigan (Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz margins (votes of 5 to 4) and featured acri- vs. Bollinger). monious and bitter debates. More recently, The Court ruled that the university’s law the Court narrowed the grounds on which school could use race as one criterion in 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 97

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deciding admissions, but that undergradu- available to combat modern institutional ate admissions could not award an auto- discrimination will be eliminated. matic advantage to minority applicants. Both rulings were split, and these decisions were widely interpreted as, at best, weak SOCIAL CHANGE AND endorsements of very limited affirmative MINORITY GROUP ACTIVISM action programs. The administration of President Bush took the side of the plaintiffs This chapter has focused on the continuing in both cases (i.e., in opposition to affirma- industrial revolution and its impact on tive action) and made it clear that, while minority groups in general and black-white respecting the law, they were opposed to relations in particular. For the most part, affirmative action in general and would not changes in group relations have been pre- place a high priority on these programs. sented as the results of the fundamental Although the Supreme Court did not end transformation of the U.S. economic institu- affirmative action with these decisions, these tion from agrarian to industrial to late indus- programs appear to be very much in danger. trial (or postindustrial). However, the Furthermore, there is very little support for changes in the situation of black Americans affirmative action in the society as a whole. and other minority groups didn’t “just According to a public opinion survey con- happen” as society modernized. Although ducted in 2004, affirmative action based on the opportunity to pursue favorable change race is supported by only 12% of white was the result of broad structural changes in respondents and, perhaps surprisingly, by less American society, the realization of these than a majority of black respondents (45%). opportunities came from the efforts of the Also, affirmative action for women is sup- many who gave their time, their voices, their ported by about 18% of men and 40% of resources, and sometimes their lives in pur- women (National Opinion Research Council, suit of racial justice in America. Since World 2004). War II, African Americans have often been It would not be surprising to see all affir- in the vanguard of protest activity, and we mative action programs end in the next 5 to focus on the contemporary situation of this 10 years, and if they do, one of the few tools group in the next chapter.

MAIN POINTS

• Group relations change as the subsistence technology and the level of development of the larger society change. As nations industrialize and urbanize, dominant-minority relations change from paternalistic to rigid competitive forms. • In the South, slavery was replaced by de jure segregation, a system that combined racial separation with great inequality. The Jim Crow system was motivated by a need to control labor and was reinforced by coercion and intense racism and prejudice. • Black southerners responded to segregation in part by moving to northern urban areas. The northern black population enjoyed greater freedom and developed some political and economic resources, but a large concentration of low-income, relatively powerless African Americans developed in the ghetto neighborhoods. • In response to segregation, the African American community developed a separate institutional life centered on family, church, and community. A black middle class emerged, as well as a protest movement. • African American women remain one of the most exploited groups. Combining work with family roles, black females were employed mostly in agriculture and domestic service during the era of segregation. 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 98

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• Industrialization continued throughout the 20th century and has profoundly affected dominant- minority relations. Urbanization, specialization, bureaucratization, and other trends have changed the shape of race relations, as have the changing structure of the occupational sector and the growing importance of education. Group relations have shifted from rigid to fluid competitive. Modern institutional discrimination is one of the major challenges facing minority groups.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW AND STUDY

1. A corollary to two themes from Chapter 3 is presented at the beginning of Chapter 4. How exactly does the material in the chapter illustrate the usefulness of this corollary? 2. Explain paternalistic and rigid competitive relations and link them to industrialization. How does the shift from slavery to de jure segregation illustrate the dynamics of these two systems? 3. What was the “Great Migration” to the North? How did it change American race relations? 4. Explain the transition from rigid competitive to fluid competitive relations, and explain how this transition is related to the coming of postindustrial society. Explain the roles of urbanization, bureaucracy, the service sector of the job market, and education in this transition. 5. What is modern institutional discrimination? How does it differ from “traditional” institutional discrimination? Explain the role of affirmative action in combating each. 6. Explain the impact of industrialization and globalization on gender relations. Compare and contrast these changes with the changes that occurred for racial and ethnic minority groups.

INTERNET RESEARCH PROJECTS

A. Everyday Life Under Jim Crow The daily workings of the Jim Crow system of segregation are analyzed and described in a collec- tion of interviews, photos, and memories archived at http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/ remembering/. Explore the site, look at the photos, listen to the clips, and analyze them in terms of the concepts introduced in this chapter.

B. The Debate Over Affirmative Action Update and supplement the debate on affirmative action presented at the end of the chapter. Start with newspaper home pages and search for recent news items or opinion pieces on the issue. Search the Internet for other viewpoints and perspectives from other groups and positions on the political spectrum. One place you might start is http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/, a Web site that presents diverse opinions on the topic and brings many different voices to the debates. Analyze events and opinions in terms of the concepts introduced in this chapter, especially modern institutional discrimination.

FOR FURTHER READING Bluestone, Barry, & Harrison, Bennet. 1982. The Deindustrialization of America. New York: Basic Books. An important analysis of the shift from a manufacturing to a service-based, information society. Feagin, Joe R., & Feagin, Clairece Booher. 1986. Discrimination American Style: Institutional Racism and Sexism. Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger. A comprehensive and provocative look at modern institutional discrimination. 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 99

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Pincus, Fred. 2003. Reverse Discrimination: Dismantling the Myth. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. An excellent review and analysis of the myths and realities surrounding affirmative action. Geschwender, James A. 1978. Racial Stratification in America. Dubuque, IA: William. C. Brown. Wilson, William J. 1973. Power, Racism, and Privilege: Race Relations in Theoretical and Sociohistorical Perspectives. New York: Free Press. Woodward, C. Vann. 1974. The Strange Career of Jim Crow (3rd rev. ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. Three outstanding analyses of black-white relations in the United States, with a major focus on the historical periods covered in this chapter.

NOTE

1. Women (of all races) were not given the right to vote until the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. 04-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:46 PM Page 100 05-Healey.qxd 11/7/2006 9:47 PM Page 101

PART III

Understanding Dominant-Minority Relations in the United States Today

CHAPTER 5 African Americans: From Segregation to Modern Institutional Discrimination and Modern Racism

CHAPTER 6 Native Americans: From Conquest to Tribal Survival in a Postindustrial Society

CHAPTER 7 Hispanic Americans: Colonization, Immigration, and Ethnic Enclaves

CHAPTER 8 Asian Americans: Are Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans “Model Minorities”?

CHAPTER 9 New Americans: Immigration and Assimilation

CHAPTER 10 White Ethnic Groups: Assimilation and Identity—The Twilight of Ethnicity?

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n Part III, we turn to contemporary intergroup relations in the United States. The empha- sis is on the present, but the recent past also is investigated to see how present situations I developed. We explore how minority and dominant groups respond to a changing American society and to each other, and how minority groups define and pursue their own self- interest in interaction with other groups, American culture and values, and the institutions of the larger society. The themes and ideas developed in the first two parts of this text will continue to be cen- tral to the analysis. For example, the case study chapters are presented in an order that roughly follows the Blauner hypothesis: Colonized groups are presented first, and we end with groups created by immigration. We also will continue to rely on the concepts of the Noel hypothesis to analyze and explain contemporary dominant-minority patterns. The history and present conditions of each minority group are unique, and no two groups have had the same experiences. To help identify and understand these differences, a common comparative frame of reference—stressing assimilation and pluralism; inequality and power; and prejudice, racism, and discrimination—is used throughout these case studies. Much of the conceptual frame of reference employed in these case studies can be sum- marized in six themes. The first five themes are based on material from previous chapters; the sixth is covered in forthcoming chapters.

1. Consistent with the Noel hypothesis, the present condition of America’s minority groups reflects their contact situations, especially the nature of their competition with the dominant group (e.g., competition over land vs. competition over labor) and the size of the power differential between groups at the time of contact. 2. Consistent with the Blauner hypothesis, minority groups created by conquest and colonization experience economic and political inequalities that have lasted longer and been more severe than those experienced by minority groups created by immigration. 3. Power and economic differentials and barriers to upward mobility are especially pronounced for groups identified by racial or physical characteristics, as opposed to cultural or linguistic traits. 4. Consistent with the themes stated in Chapters 3 and 4, dominant-minority relations reflect the economic and political characteristics of the larger society and change as those characteristics change. Changes in the subsistence technology of the larger society are particularly consequen- tial for dominant-minority relations. The shift from a manufacturing to a service economy (“deindustrialization”) is one of the key factors shaping dominant-minority relations in the United States today. 5. The development of group relations, both in the past and for the future, can be analyzed in terms of assimilation (more unity) and pluralism (more diversity). Group relations in the past (e.g., the degree of assimilation permitted or required of the minority group) primarily reflected the needs and wishes of the dominant group. Although the pressure for Americanization remains considerable, there is more flexibility and variety in group relations today. One important variation on the theme of assimilation is segmented assimilation. This concept was introduced in Chapter 2 and will be applied in this part to post-1965 immigrants, particularly in Chapter 9. 6. Since World War II, minority groups have gained significantly more control over the direction of group relationships. This trend reflects the decline of traditional prejudice in the larger society and the successful efforts of minority groups to protest, resist, and change patterns of exclusion and domination. These successes have been possible, in large part, because American minority groups have increased their share of political and economic resources.