Lecture 10 - Social Psych
Prejudice
Introductory comments. (Adapted from Sociology 311 notes, which were based on World Population: An Introduction to Demography; U.S. Hispanics: Changing the face of America; Immigration to the U.S.: The Unfinished Story; Weeks, ch. 7; Menard & Moen)
When we think of prejudice, we tend to think of Blacks in America today. It is important to remember that prejudice goes beyond just today's issues, and beyond race. For example, migration is often a source of social conflict, especially if the natives see their way of life as threatened by the migrants. In Great Britain, there has been a movement to curtail immigration from former and present commonwealth territories out of fear that the country is being swamped by people of a different culture. Algerian workers were attacked in France because of a perceived association between immigration and unemployment. In Nigeria, workers from Ghana were initially welcome, but after some economic problems they were given two weeks to pack up and leave the country! In the U.S., economic competition has at various times generated violence toward Irish Catholic immigrants, imported Chinese laborers, Mexican aliens, and Vietnamese shrimp fisherman along the Gulf Coast.
To elaborate on that - Immigrants who came to the U.S. after the civil war came primarily from eastern and southern Europe (Poland, Italy, Baltic countries). They did not fit in very well, because (1) most were illiterate and possessed no industrial skills (2) all were poor (3) their strange languages and customs made them easily identifiable (3) labor was getting organized, and didn't want poor foreigners who would work for low wages. This led to nationwide concern. The Dillingham Commission concluded in 1911 that the new immigrants were racially inferior, inclined toward violent crime, resisted assimilation, and drove old-stock citizens out of some lines of work.
In the 1920s, severe restrictions were placed on immigration. Ethnic and racial discrimination became official U.S. policy, and remained the law of the land until the mid-1960s.
National Origins act of 1924: Set an annual quota of 150,000 immigrants. Set quotas for each country based on the number of people enumerated in the census of 1890. This strongly discriminated against S and E Europe, who mostly came after 1890.
Status of blacks today - has the position of blacks improved across time?
(Adapted from Sociology 311 Notes; The Social Animal; Vander Zanden; Meyers; Cook's chapter in Brigham and Wrightsman)
A. Advances:
- The proportion of blacks aged 18-24 enrolled in college has nearly doubled since 1965, from 10.3% in 1965 to 19.4% in 1981 (not sure about since then) - white enrollment stayed at 26%
- Between 1960 and 1975, the number of blacks in professional occupations more than tripled, while the number of whites only increased by 1 and 2/3. By the late 1970s, a substantially higher proportion of blacks held high status positions than ever before
- Between 1970 and 1979, the number of black elected officials more than tripled, from 1,300 in 1970 to 4,500 in 1979
- Deliberate racial discrimination is today illegal and less common than in the past
B. Continued inequality:
- In the 1940s, median family income for blacks was 50% of whites; today it is about 59%
- Black unemployment has been about twice the white rate since the end of WWII
- The fact that blacks are less educated and more likely to be in lower paying jobs contributes to the income differential. But studies have found that the differential persists among blacks and whites of similar education and occupation and in the same regions
- Black political representation is well below their share of the population. Blacks have 12% of the population, but only about 1% of the elected officials
- On the average, blacks live about 5 years less than white Americans. The infant mortality rate is about twice as high for blacks as it is whites. This is partly because black mothers are more likely to be under 20 or over 35, unmarried, and of low income and minimal education.
- Over 1/3 of the black population is poor and the poverty rate for blacks is three times that of whites - 35.7% vs. 12.1% in 1983. This 3-1 ratio has been fairly steady across the last 30 years. In 1983 almost 10 million blacks lived in poverty, comprising 28% of the poor (blacks are only 12% of the total population).
Pervasiveness of racial prejudice
A. Polls suggest that racism is not as overt as it used to be. However, prejudice may be more subtle though.
Experimental studies show that we have not become a color-blind society. Whites are more likely to assist blacks whom they perceive to occupy a subordinate or non-assertive role than blacks who do not conform to traditional stereotypes. And when the conditions are "safe" (no retaliation is possible) whites experimentally deliver more intense shocks to blacks than whites. When asked to evaluate intentions, black aggressors are seen as more hostile.
While polls show there is very strong support among whites for non-discriminatory principles, there is much less support for policies to implement those proposals. Socially desirable responses may be given. Friends, neighbors and classmates still tend to be of the same race. Blacks strongly prefer integrated neighborhoods, whites tend to dislike them.
A number of social scientists have recently argued that a new form of prejudice toward blacks has developed among relatively affluent, suburban segments of the American white population, what has come to be termed symbolic racism. It is not, they say, the racism of the Old South with its doctrines of racial inferiority and legally instituted segregation. Rather, three elements coalesce to form the new racism:
1. There is a feeling that blacks have become too demanding, too pushy, and too angry, and that blacks are getting more than they deserve
2. There is the belief that blacks are not playing by the rules of the game, in accordance with traditional American values of hard work, individualism, sexual repression, and the delay of gratification.
3. Whites are particularly hostile toward such things as black welfare, urban riots, black mayors, crime in the streets, affirmative action programs, and quota systems.
In short, blacks are violating cherished values and making illegitimate demands on whites for social change. Studies show that many whites resent the economic improvements made by blacks in the 1960s and 1970s. In its behavioral component, this new prejudice finds expression in voting against blacks and candidates favorable to black programs. (NOTE: It has been argued that the 1965 Voting Rights act is the biggest single reason Republicans have won 5 of the last 6 Presidential elections - because that act cost the Democrats the South.)
Causes/sources of prejudice
A. Economic and Political Competition.
1. According to this view, limited resources cause the dominant group to exploit or derogate a minority group in order to gain some material advantage. The business class aims to secure as cheap and docile a labor force as possible in order to compete effectively with other businesses and maximize profits. To do so, it frequently imports cheap labor - African slaves in the pre-Civil War South, Oriental labor on the west coast in the 19th century, Mexicans today in the Southwest. Cheap labor, however, would displace higher-paid labor. Thus higher-paid labor finds its interests threatened. What is basically class conflict becomes translated into racial conflict.
1. EX: Prejudice directed against Chinese immigrants in the U.S. fluctuated wildly throughout the 19th century, spurred largely by changes in economic competition. For example, when the Chinese were trying to mine gold in California, they were described as "depraved and vicious...bloodthirsty and inhuman." However, just a decade later, when they were willing to accept dangerous and arduous work building the transcontinental railroad - work that Caucasian Americans were unwilling to undertake - they were generally regarded as sober, industrious, and law abiding. After the railroad was finished, jobs became more scarce, and the stereotype changed to "criminal, conniving, crafty, and stupid."
2. In a survey conducted in the 1970s, most anti-black prejudice was found in groups that were just one rung above the blacks socio-economically. This tendency was most pronounced in situations in which whites and blacks were in close competition for jobs.
3. An experimental test of the conflict hypothesis was conducted by Sherif in the natural environment of a boy scout camp. The subjects were normal, well-adjusted 12 year old boys who were randomly assigned to one of two groups, the Eagles and the Rattlers. Within each group, the youngsters were taught to cooperate. After strong feelings of cohesiveness were developed within each group, the stage was then set for conflict. The two groups were pitted against each other in such games as football, baseball, and tug of war. In order to increase the tension, prizes were awarded to the winning team. This resulted in some hostility and ill will during the games. To further promote conflict, a camp party was arranged. The Eagles were allowed to arrive a good deal earlier than the Rattlers. About half the food was fresh and appealing, the other half was ugly and unappetizing. The Eagles ate most of the good stuff, and when the Rattlers got there they were very annoyed. This led to a lot of name calling which led to food throwing which very quickly led to a full scale riot.
Following this incident, competitive games were eliminated and a great deal of social contact was initiated. However, hostility continued to escalate, even when the boys were engaged in such benign activities as sitting around watching movies. (Hostilities were eventually decreased - more on that later.)
B. The scapegoat theory. (NOTE: Myers covers this well.)
1. Aggression is frequently caused by aggression, and there is a strong tendency for the frustrated individual to lash out at the cause of the frustration. Frequently, however, the cause is either too big or too vague for direct retaliation. For example, if there is mass unemployment, how can you possibly strike out against the economic system? It would be more convenient if the frustrated, unemployed worker could find something or someone less vague to blame. If people are unemployed, or inflation has depleted their earnings, they can't very easily beat up on the economic system - but they can find a scapegoat. In Nazi Germany, it was the Jews; in 19th century California, it was Chinese immigrants; in the rural South, it was black people.
2. Hovland and Sear found that, in the period between 1882 and 1930, they could predict the number of lynchings in the South in a given year from a knowledge of the price of cotton in that year; as prices went down, the number of lynchings increased.
3. The general picture of scapegoating that emerges is that individuals tend to displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, that are visible, and that are relatively powerless.
C. The prejudiced personality. There are people who are predisposed toward being prejudiced just because of the kind of person they are. These are referred to as "authoritarian personalities." They tend to be rigid in their beliefs; they tend to possess conventional values; they are intolerant of weakness; they tend to be highly punitive; they are suspicious; and they are respectful of authority to an unusual degree. They tend to agree with such statements as
1. Obedience for respect and authority are the most important virtues children should learn.
2. Most people don't realize how much our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
D. Institutional supports.
1. Political leaders can support prejudice - e.g. George Wallace.
2. Governmentally sanctioned segregation can foster racism. EX: An investigator interviewed white South Africans to find reasons for their negative attitudes toward blacks. He found that the typical white South African was convinced the great majority of crimes were committed by blacks, which was not true. How did such a misconception develop> The individuals reported they saw a great many black convicts working in public places - they never saw any white convicts. Doesn't this prove blacks are convicted of more crimes than whites? No. In fact, the rules forbade white convicts from working in public places!
3. In our own society, forcing blacks to ride in the back of the bus, keeping women out of certain clubs, preventing Jews from staying at exclusive hotels are all part of our recent history - and create the illusion of inferiority or unacceptability.
4. The media are another institutional support for prejudice. Newspapers have tended to identify the race of a nonwhite criminal or suspect but never bothered to mention the wrong-doer's race if he or she happened to be white. This undoubtedly contributed to a distorted picture of the amount of crime committed by nonwhites. Until the early 1970s, it was rare to see a black face on TV in a non-stereotypic role or in a commercial. Shows like Amos and Andy reinforced the stereotype that blacks are stupid, shiftless, and lazy. Blacks occur with more frequency now, yet the world of TV remains highly segregated. Blacks tend to be concentrated in virtually all black shows or featured as token characters in otherwise all-white shows. Latino and other nonwhite characters are still a rarity on network television and in advertisements.
E. Attributional biases and the creation/preservation of prejudice. It is easy to make attributions that create or preserve prejudice. For example, Cal. Gov. Earl Warren testified during WWII: "I take the view that this lack of subversive activity is the most ominous sign in our whole situation. It convinces me more than perhaps any other factor that the sabotage we are to get ... is timed just like Pearl Harbor was timed."
Some more specific types of attributional biases:
1. Just world hypothesis. Because we desire to see the world as a just place, we often blame victims for their victimization. People tend to assign personal responsibility for any inequitable outcome that is otherwise difficult to explain.
EX: German citizens were shown the concentration camps after WWII. One commented, "The Jews must have been awful people to warrant such treatment."
EX: "If she got raped, she must have been doing something provocative."
2. Ultimate attribution error. People tend to make attributions consistent with their beliefs or prejudices.
a. when prejudiced people perceive what they regard as a negative act by an outgroup member, they will be more likely than others to make a dispositional attribution
b. when prejudiced people perceive what they regard as a positive act by an outgroup member, they will be more likely than non-prejudiced people to make one of the following attributions:
1. Exceptional case - view the behavior as unrepresentative. This can lead to generous, if often patronizing, exaggeration of the positive qualities of this "exceptional" individual in order to differentiate this good person from the bad outgroup members. "She is really the exception that proves the rule." "He's really bright and hard-working, not like other Chicanos."
2. Luck or special advantage - the positive outgroup act can be seen as beyond the control of the actor. "He is dumb like the rest of his group, but he won anyway by sheer luck." Or, the actor had the benefit of a special advantage conferred by his outgroup status. Typically, the special advantage is viewed as discriminatory and accompanied by a sense of resentment. Black Americans have traditionally explained away positive behavior and outcomes of white Americans in this manner. Of course, whites have also expressed strong opposition affirmative action programs.
3. High motivation and effort - Individual members of a disliked outgroup are often seen by more benign bigots as "overcoming" through great personal effort the handicaps involved with belonging to an unfortunate people. The traditional phrase for such compensatory behavior is "a credit to his race." NOTE: They are not seen as "exceptional cases," because they would return to their stereotypical state if it were not for their keen motivation.
4. Situational context - Positive acts are a consequence of situational factors at least partially influenced by others.
F. Other cognitive sources of prejudice. (NOTE: Myers covers this well.)
1. This is a relatively new approach. One should not always assume that prejudices stem from malice. Rather, stereotypes are a price we pay for simplifying our complex world - stereotypes are perceptual illusions.
2. Categorization - one way we simplify the world is by organizing objects into groups. One consequence of this, though, is that similarities within other groups and differences between groups are misperceived. "They are alike, we are diverse". People of other races look more alike than people of own race.
3. Distinctive people draw attention - distinctive people and vivid or extreme occurrences often capture our attention, distort our judgments. If we are self-conscious about being different, we may misinterpret mannerisms and comments that we would otherwise not notice. This can affect behavior.
4. Vivid, distinctive cases get remembered. For example, we tend to notice athletes. Distinctive cases are most easily remembered, hence they dominate our images of various groups.
5. Distinctive events produce illusory correlations. Because we are sensitive to distinctive events, the co-occurrence of such events is especially noticeable. EX: Homosexual murderer.
Mechanisms of discrimination, and their effects.
In recent decades minority-group militancy has come to challenge the more traditional and blatant forms of discrimination. As a result, it is argued that covert and subtle mechanisms now occupy an even more important place.
1. Gatekeeping.
a. Within the United States, at least, a great many offices and positions are, at least in theory, open to individuals on the basis of merit. The doctrine of equality of opportunity has always insisted that individuals must not be judged on the basis of their race, ethnicity or other class attributes. Rather, each individual should be evaluated on the basis of their talent and skill.
b. In the last analysis, however, talent and skill are relative matters. Which group's values will be used in determining who is "bright, industrious, resourceful, and proficient"? More importantly, who will control the gates that regulate the flow of people into those positions that provide access to society's good things? Gatekeeping refers to the decision-making process by which individuals are admitted to scarce positions and offices of power, privilege, and status within a society.
c. Most gatekeepers are white. They are usually professionals with experience and credentials in the fields they monitor. Even when white gatekeepers are well-intentioned, many non-whites often feel that they are victimized in their encounters with them.
d. EX: Black and white high school students were trained to be job applicants. They devised answers to questions that, though not identical, represented equally qualifying answers. They then rehearsed their answers until their performances were judged to be equal. They were then interviewed by naive whites. The results showed that white interviewers (1) placed themselves further back from white than black applicants (2) made more speech errors with the blacks (3) spent 25% less time with the blacks than the whites
e. EX: A second experiment was conducted to ascertain what effect the differential treatment of black and white candidates would have on a applicant's job performance. Interviewers were trained to treat white applicants the same way the black applicants had been treated. Independent judges rated whites who had been treated as blacks to be much less adequate for the job than whites treated as whites were. The researchers concluded that analyses of white-black interactions might profit if it were assumed that the "problem" of black performance resides not entirely within blacks, but rather within the interaction setting itself.
NOTE: This is an example of the "self-fulfilling prophesy."
f. EX: Housing discrimination. Despite the apparent liberalization of white racial attitudes, segregated housing patterns remain basically unchanged. Although more whites are exposed to token integration than in the past, the predominant residential experience of most Americans remains that of a relatively homogeneous racial neighborhood. Real estate agents, acting as community gatekeepers, play an important part in perpetuating these patterns. Numerous studies show that agents commonly differentiate among people by race, both as to whether homes are shown and as to where the homes are located. This is referred to as racial steering. (NOTE: in the typical study, two couples who are basically alike except for race separately approach a realtor as prospective clients. Dick LaManna has done this here in South Bend.)
g. Concerns over gatekeeping mark part of the rationale for Affirmative Action programs; they are the only way to get around the white gate-keepers.
2. Schooling. Studies suggest that black students and white students are treated differently. Randomly chosen black and white students were labeled as "gifted" or "nongifted". The teachers in the study were young, idealistic, and generally expressed liberal beliefs. Both black students were given less attention, ignored more, and criticized more than the white students. This may help to explain why teachers are frequently unable to equalize the performance levels of blacks and whites.
Combatting racism.
A. Information. Back in the 1950s, social scientists thought they could change bigoted behavior via information campaigns. They thought that, if prejudiced people believed blacks were shiftless and lazy, then all you had to do was show them a movie depicting blacks as industrious, decent people. The idea is that you can combat misinformation with information. Unfortunately, numerous studies suggest that "All we can claim for instruction of a purely factual kind is that it tends to mitigate some of the more extreme expressions of prejudice." Over the years, most people become deeply committed to their prejudicial behavior, and a mere movie cannot undo a way of thinking and acting that has persisted for years.
The information campaigns failed because people were not inclined to sit still and take in information dissonant with their beliefs. For example, a series of radio programs in the 1940s were designed to reduce ethnic prejudice by presenting information about various ethnic groups in a warm and sympathetic manner. One program was devoted to Polish Americans, another to Italian Americans. Unfortunately, mostly Poles listened to the former and mostly Italians took in the latter. If people are compelled to listen to information uncongenial to their deep-seated attitudes, they will reject it, distort it, or ignore it.
B. Education. Anti-prejudice education is one thing, but what about education in general? Does its emphasis on rational processes contribute to lower levels of prejudice among better-educated people? The evidence is contradictory. College graduates are the most likely to defend exclusiveness in social clubs. Education is unrelated to attitudes toward intergroup marriage. It may just be that education affects the type of prejudice that is held.
C. Intergroup Contact. "Bring ethnic and racial groups into contact with one another, and their prejudices will wither away." This folk wisdom is widely accepted in the U.S. - we think that "getting to know one another" is the solution to all our difficulties. However, Sherif's study of the boys camp suggests that contact may merely provide an arena for hatreds to be translated into hostilities.
However, contact may reduce prejudice under certain conditions:
1. The contact occurs between status equals. Many whites have always had a great deal of contact with blacks, but typically in situations in which the blacks played such menial roles as slaves, porters, dishwashers, shoe-shine boys, washroom attendants, and domestics. This kind of contact serves only to increase stereotyping by whites.
EX: Those assigned to integrated housing in public housing projects came to be less prejudiced than those assigned to segregated housing.
EX: Hallinan argues that schools could promote greater interracial friendship by treating students more as equals.
2. The members of the different groups have a common interest, task, or goal that is the focus of their interaction.
EX: In Sherif's study, the investigators set up an emergency situation by damaging the water supply system. The only way the system could be repaired was if all the children cooperated immediately. On another occasion, the camp bus broke down, and the boys had to all help pull it up a steep hill. The boys then became friends across groups, began to get along better, and began to cooperate spontaneously.
EX: Aronson argues that the typical classroom is highly competitive. Some students compete to be called on by the teacher, while others try there hardest to be invisible. There is no payoff for consulting with peers - peers are enemies to be beaten. Those who fail resent those who succeed, those who succeed hold the unsuccessful in contempt.
Aronson therefore devised the jigsaw technique. Student's were placed in six person groups, and each student received one paragraph about Joseph Pulitzer's life. Like a jigsaw puzzle, each student had one piece of the puzzle, and each was dependent on the other children for the completion of the big picture. Each child had to master a paragraph and teach it to the others. At first, the students remained competitive, and mocked those who did not speak well. But, they soon realized that none of them could do well without the aid of each person in the group - and that each member had a unique and valuable contribution to make. They began asking probing questions, that made it easier for the quiet students to participate. Children in the jigsaw classrooms grew to like each other better, developed a greater liking for school, and developed greater self-esteem than students in traditional classrooms. Minority students increased their performance almost an entire letter grade, without any cost to the performance of the other children. Most of the teachers continued to use the jigsaw method after the experiment was over.
EX: As Cook notes, Other types of interracial learning teams have been examined, with generally positive results.
D. Legal intervention. It is often said you "can't legislate morality." Yet, we have been able to do just that. What people do in intergroup situations appears to be almost independent of how they feel or what they think. As Gordon Allport notes, "Segregationists act like integrationists where social prescription requires; integrationists behave like segregationists when it is socially appropriate to do so."
Further, as we have seen, behavior can come to influence attitudes. As desegregation has spread, favorable attitudes toward desegregation have increased. In 1942, only 30% of whites favored desegregated schools; in 1956, it was 49%; in 1970, 75%; and in 1980, 90%.
E. School integration. During the 1950s there was optimism that school desegregation would almost automatically improve intergroup relationships. Evidence from the last three decades suggests that, at best, the evidence is mixed.
1. The 1966 Coleman Report was a major impetus for busing in the United States. Based on a nationwide study of 645,000 pupils in 4,000 schools, it seemed to show that the academic performance of blacks increased as the proportion of white students in the school increased. Some argued that this was because of the higher levels of educational motivation and background present in predominantly white student bodies. Others argued that it is not the presence of white students per se that leads to higher achievement for black children; it is the quality of education that is provided because white children are there that makes the difference. Studies showed that teachers and administrators had higher standards for predominantly white classes.
2. Achievement - Studies done since then suggest only that desegregation rarely lowers achievement for either white or black pupils. There is virtually no evidence that whites suffer academically, but there is only mixed evidence as to whether or not blacks benefit. It seems that desegregation begun at kindergarten has positive effects, while students desegregated in secondary schools are far less likely to experience positive outcomes. This suggests that school de-segregation is more effective when it does not have to overcome the effects of prior segregation.
3. Self-esteem - As noted before, black self-esteem used to be very low. Recent investigators have found that the levels of self-esteem among black children are either higher than or no different than the levels among white youth. It is not clear that this is because of desegregation though; indeed, children who show the highest self-esteem are black children in all-black schools, especially in the South. It has been suggested that black militancy has contributed to enhanced feelings of black dignity, pride, and unity.
4. Interracial harmony. One of the key reasons for desegregation was interracial harmony.
a. Research by Hallinan and Williams, however, shows that interracial friendships are still extremely rare. Interracial friendships are only 1/6th as common as would be expected if race were irrelevant in forming friendships. Most other studies fail to find consistent evidence one way or the other.
b. Counter to popular belief, desegregation has not usually been accompanied by major conflicts. Areas where there has been conflict have gotten a lot of attention. But, by 1974, 5,000 small and medium sized communities of the South had been desegregated peacefully. When school superintendents were asked if desegregation in their districts had resulted in serious disruption of the educational process for more than a total of 2 weeks, 82% said "no."
5. Possible reasons for not doing better:
a. White flight. In the mid 1970s, Coleman argued that the results his work promised in 1966 had not been realized. He concluded that school desegregation had contributed to white flight from big cities and was fostering resegregation of urban districts. Others argued that white outmigration from central cities was a long-term trend, and would have occurred even without desegregation. Regardless of why it has occurred, white outmigration probably has hampered integration efforts.
b. Internal re-segregation. It has been argued that, by such things as tracking practices and classroom assignments, schools can effectively re-segregate a desegregated school.
6. Discussion. As noted by Cook (in Brigham and Wrightsman) desegregation has taken place under widely varying circumstances, and has rarely been carried out under the conditions social scientists thought would be optimal. Rather than just saying desegregation has not worked, social scientists should propose and study alternative methods by which desegregation might be successful. Work on Jigsaw classrooms and other techniques that place students in cooperative situations with equal status is one step in the right direction.
F. Affirmative Action
1. Arguments for affirmative action.
a. It is the only way for minorities to receive fair treatment.
1. Left to their own devices, whites will, intentionally or unintentionally discriminate.
2. This is evidenced by our early analysis of gatekeeping, which is dominated by whites. There is evidence that, while there have been major improvements in major years, blacks do not get as high a return from their education as whites do, possibly because of continuing discrimination.
Question: Would you really trust white males to follow non-discriminatory policies, if they weren't forced to do it? Most of our history suggests you can't.
3. Note that, from this perspective, blacks are not being done any special favors; they are simply being given what they are entitled to.
b. The university and the workplace benefit from diversity, and, in fact, have encouraged it in many ways in the past.
1. Admittance decisions have never been based purely on SAT scores. A number of factors, both ascribed and achieved, are considered. At Notre Dame, men have preference over women. Alumnae, which account for 15% of all applications, account for 25% of all acceptances. As Rev. Beauchamp points out in the current Notre Dame magazine, athlete and alumnae are not competing with other students, they are competing with each other. Why, then, should there be such hostility for following similar practices with minority students?
2. A diverse environment is beneficial to all concerned.
c. Simply eliminating prejudicial practices is not enough to make up for the effects of past discrimination. Compensatory actions are called for.
1. Past discrimination has hampered the life prospects of minorities. Had their parents and grandparents not been discriminated against, they would be in a better position today.
When we think of affirmative action and compensatory practices, we tend to think that unqualified people are being admitted into the university or being offered jobs. This is a very distorted view of how compensation works. Typically, a university or employer will have more qualified applicants than it has positions. Some means has to be used for narrowing the field, and SAT scores, grades, and other so-called "merit" based measures are only a few of the several things considered. Further, there is no sure-fire way to know who will be the most successful - people with high SAT scores flunk out of college all the time, while others with low scores do just fine. Even when some people are less qualified, it does not mean they cannot become qualified. Compensation, then, can take the following forms:
(a). Take a higher percentage of qualified minority candidates than non-minority candidates (just like we take a higher percentage of men than women, and alumnae children than non-alumnae, Catholics than non-Catholics). At N.D. and many other universities, I suspect more qualified whites have failed to be admitted because of preferential treatment of alumnae children than will ever be denied because of affirmative action, yet we see very little anti-alumnae prejudice. Further, N.D. makes a conscious decision to favor Catholics in the admissions process, because it feels that is most in keeping with the spirit of the University. Favoring minorities could also be seen as keeping with the principles of the University.
(b). Provide scholarships for minority students
(c). Provide tutoring, job-training, or other special services
(d). Have explicit racial quotas. Explicit quotas may be the approach most likely to result in unqualified candidates being accepted or hired. The Supreme Court ruled against such explicit quotas in the Bakke decision.
(e). Abrogate job seniority rules and other procedures that tend to work against blacks. During times of economic decline, it is frequently the case that you have "last hired, first fired" - minorities, because they have only recently been hired, tend to especially suffer when cutbacks are made. One way to get around this is by not making seniority the sole determinant of who gets laid off. Not surprisingly, though, whites are often upset when blacks with less seniority get to keep their jobs while whites with more seniority are fired.
Whether or not you approve of such measures probably depends on (1) the extent to which you think compensation is morally called for, and (2) the extent to which your own economic interests are threatened by such practices. But again, compensation is only one of many arguments that can be offered for affirmative action, just as there are many other arguments that can be offered against it.
2. This is probably one of the least popular arguments in favor of affirmative action. While decrying discrimination, whites are hostile to the idea of compensation.
d. Affirmative action is a way of complying with the law.
1. Discrimination is illegal. The presence of an affirmative action is one way of protecting an employer or university from lawsuits.
2. Note that this is a purely pragmatic argument - you don't have to agree with affirmative action to go along with it for this reason.
e. Regardless of what you think of affirmative action, it looks bad if you don't have it. This is particularly true of a Catholic University which stresses values of social justice and equality.
2. Arguments against affirmative action:
a. Truly non-discriminatory policies should be color-blind. Affirmative action is itself seen as prejudicial.
b. It does no favor to minorities to admit them to positions for which they are not qualified. At N.D., we provide special tutoring services for athletes, but not to other students. If you are going to have different standards for one group, you should provide support services to help them compete. Such services, of course, are themselves subject to claims of unfairness.
c. Affirmative action is patronizing and stigmatizing, and implies that minorities can't compete without it. This is unfair to the minorities that can.
d. Affirmative action primarily benefits the middle class, and does little for those who most need help. (Variations of this argument show up all the time in debates over liberal policies. For example, raising the minimum wage is supposed to help the poor, but detractors argue that it will primarily benefit white middle-class teenagers.)
Gender
(Adapted from Meyers; Sociology 311 notes, which were adapted from Weeks, chapter. 10; Juggling jobs and babies: America's child care challenge; The changing American Family; Demographics and housing in America)
[NOTE: * = material is mostly not from Meyers]
*I. Status of women today
A. Between 1950 and today there has been a substantial increase in the number and proportion of women working in the labor force and earning independent incomes. The 53 million women in the labor force in 1986 were over 3 times the number working just after WWII. Married women have accounted for most of this increase, and among married women the most rapid increase took place among mothers of preschool children. Only about 1/8 of married women with a child under 6 was working in 1950; today the figure is just over 50%.
B. Jobs are still highly segregated. Women predominate in schoolteaching, secretarial positions, and nursing. Few are construction workers or engineers. Jobs tend to be less prestigious. However, more women are becoming doctors and lawyers. And, there are more female entrepreneurs. From 1976 to 1986, the share of small businesses owned by women soared from 5% to 25%. Small Business Administration projections show that 50% of small businesses will be woman-owned by the end of this century.
C. Women get paid less than men. This stems from:
1. Occupational segregation - women are concentrated in low paying jobs. But, are they low paying because they are female dominated?
2. Within occupations, women generally earn less than men. A study by Bielby and Baron found that there was extreme segregation by occupational title - men and women might be doing virtually identical work, but the titles of their job would be different. And, of course, the men got paid more.
3. Married women are more likely to work part-time and take time out from the labor force, usually for family related reasons. Some economists say these gender differences in work patterns account for wage differences.
D. Women still do most of the housework. A newsweek survey found that only 14% of the men in two-earner families perform as much as half the housework, and 60% do less than 1/4.
II. Prejudice against women. (NOTE: Adapted from Myers)
A. Strong gender stereotypes exist - and both men and women tend to accept these stereotypes. Only 22% feel men and women are equally emotional - of those who think there is a difference, 15 to 1 think women are more emotional. Both M and F percentages are identical here.
B. By a 2 to 1 margin though, Americans feel these differences are due to the way people are raised, not because they are in-born.
C. Prejudice may be unconscious - people aren't even aware of their prejudice.
1. People sitting at table - In mixed groups, it is assumed that men are the leaders.
2. Misogyny and the college girl - women gave lower ratings to men than they did to women.
D. Negative: while 3/4 approve of a married woman's being employed, only 1/3 disagree that "a woman's place is in the home" . Also, female success in male areas tends to be attributed to luck, but not so for males. Students believed anyone could perform the feminine tasks,, but it took a mans skill (or good luck) to perform the masculine tasks.
E. overwhelming majority of both men and women want their first-born to be a boy. Those who have girls tend to have the next child sooner.
F. while 16% of women would have preferred to have been born as men, only 4% of men wish they had been women.
G. Note that, while some differences do exist, the actual behavioral differences are small. Men often behave more aggressively and take more sexual initiative than women; they tend to have keener visual-spatial skills, to be less empathetic and less sensitive to nonverbal cues, and to exert more social power. These differences are small, however, and there is more variation within the sexes than between them. But differences are what catch the eye. EX: Don Shollanders record-setting swim in the 1964 olympics would have placed him fourth among the women in the 1984 olympics.
III. REASONS FOR INEQUALITY/ PREJUDICE
A. Biological. (NOTE: Taken from Myers)
1. Men were hunters and warriors, women were food gatherers and bore and nursed children. Thus natural selection favored the emergence of differing physical traits in males and females, and also of differing psychological traits.
2. It pays for men to be fickle and undiscriminating - the more children they have, the more likely it is their genes will be passed on. For women, it pays to be coy and to hold back, so they can identify the males with the best genes.
3. Problems: It would also have been plausible for women to be the stronger sex, since they need to take care of the children. Fidelity would be beneficial for men, since it would enhance the likelihood their children would survive.
B. Cultural. Culture clearly has an enormous impact on male-female differences.
1. Some cultural similarities: Virtually all societies are patriarchal. Men's work, no matter what it is, is more prestigious.
*2. There are numerous differences. What is defined as normal masculine behavior in one society may be viewed as normal feminine behavior in another. In many sections of the U.S., local laws restrict the weights that a working woman can lift. Yet among the Arapesh of New Guinea, women regularly carry heavier loads than men "because their heads are so much harder and stronger." In the U.S., heavy-equipment operators, dentists, and doctors are primarily male. In China, a woman can operate a crane without being thought masculine. In Denmark, dentistry is dominated by women, and in the USSR, 70% of doctors are women.
*C. Demographic perspective on gender roles:
According to Weeks, demographic conditions facilitate male domination of women. When mortality is high, women are busy with pregnancy, nursing, and child care, and their status is closely linked to their performance in those activities. However, changes in demographic processes have expanded the social roles of women.
1. Mortality and fertility have both declined in the past few centuries. Lower mortality reduces the pressure to initiate childbearing at a young age and to have several children. Hence, the status of women has improved.
2. Increased urbanization. Urbanization actually increased women's dependence on men before increasing their liberation. This is because it lead to the breadwinner system. In premodern societies, women made a substantial contribution to the family economy through agricultural work and the marketing of produce. The city changed all that: men had to be breadwinners while women were charged with domestic responsibility. An increase in real income also made it feasible for most wives to devote their time solely to housekeeping. The breadwinner system is really an anomaly when viewed from a long historical view. Now, urbanization has led to an increase in women's opportunities.
B. Institutional supports (NOTE: Myers covers this)
1. schools - one analysis of children's readers prior to 1970 found that stories focusing on boys outnumbered those on girls by 2 to 1. Portrayals also differed. EX: "She cannot skate, said mark. I can help her. Look at her mother. She's just like a girl. She gives up."
*2. Photographs - Dane Archer and his colleagues showed that men are more often represented in the mass media by their heads and faces whereas women are featured showing more of their bodies. Archer concluded that the essence of a man is sought in his face whereas that of a woman is sought in her body. A study of several publications, including Time, Ms., and Newsweek, showed that, on average, approximately 2/3 of a photograph was devoted to a man's face, as opposed to less than half for a woman's face. These results showed up in all the publications, even Ms. The same face-ism was found in publications from 11 other nations and in portraits from six centuries.
Why is this important? Archer and his colleagues also found that when they manipulated the degree to which they displayed the face and body to subjects, the attributions made about a person's qualities changed. Subjects perceived the person more favorably when the face was prominent than when it was not. Both men and women judged individuals who were depicted high in facial prominence as more intelligent, more ambitious, and more attractive.
Thus, face-ism not only mirrors sexist stereotypes, but helps to perpetuate them.