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Vincent ParrilloStrangers to These Shores

Chapter Four

Dominant-Minority Relations

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Minority-Group Responses

• Dominant and Minority Groups respond in a variety of way depending on:

• Prevailing cultural patterns

• Racial differences

• Ethnic differences

• Sociohistorical (time) period

BCMinority-Group Responses

• Depends on:

• Minority’s perception of its power resources– Determines the responses they make

• Responses include– Avoidance, … Deviance, … Defiance, …

Acceptance, … Negative self-image

BCAvoidance

• A way of dealing with discrimination, …a way to leave one’s problems behind

• Cluster into small sub-communities, … a miniature version of a familiar world– A safe place to live with others like them– Accused of being clannish– Accused of not wanting to assimilate into

American culture

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Avoidance Cont.

• Asian groups followed this example

• Clustered together in “China Towns”

• Limited residential choices

• Limited occupational choices– Not competitive with white Americans

• Other minorities who practiced avoidance– Blacks (African Americans), … Irish, …

Chinese, … Japanese, .. Mexican Americans, … consider Los Angeles, …

BCDeviance

• A discriminated group may find it difficult to identify with the core’s norms, values and culture.

• Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory– Immigration & settlement in Chicago– Study of the city’s immigrants by generation– As immigrants assimilate they deviate less

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Deviance Cont.• American criminal justice system has been

subjective in handling violations by immigrants

• Disparities in fair and equal treatment of the poor compared to the upper classes

• Police likely to assume the poor and minorities are guilty

• Under-representation on juries, ..minorities• Disparities in affording legal services and

sentencing

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Defiance• A minority group may openly challenge to

eliminate discriminatory practices if:– They are sufficiently cohesive– Aware of its economic or political power

• Gain in structural assimilation– Re. Milton Gordon’s, Seven Stages of

Assimilation

• Defiance, by minority, may be violent or not– Riots of 1863, 1963, and 1992

BCAcceptance

• Minority’s may accept their situation, … accommodation– May be resentful, but accept their social

position

• Native Americans

• Blacks (African Americans)

• Mexicans (Chicanos)

• Japanese, … Relocation camps

• Jews

BC Consequences of Minority Group Status

• Negative Self-image– A common consequence of prejudice and

discrimination

• Difficult to remain optimistic and determined in the face of constant negative experiences, … interactions

• A function of social structure, … time, and:– Race, … Religion, … Ethnicity, … Gender, …

• Cooley’s “Looking Glass Self”

BCThe Vicious Circle (Cycle)

• The Vicious Circle• Gunnar Myrdal, … Cumulative Causation

– Prejudice and discrimination perpetuate each other

• The “Cycle:” A discriminatory action in job acquisition, … advancement, …– Discrimination

• Leads to a minority’s reaction, ..condition, poverty

• Reinforces prejudice of minority inferiority

BCVicious Circle Cont.

• Leads to justification of prejudice and more discrimination– Completes the circle and leads to continued

poverty and further discrimination

• If minorities are made welcome, they in turn will react in a positive manner

• If made unwelcome they will react in a negative manner

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Minority Group Marginality

• Robert E. Park: “Marginal Minorities”– A minority attempting to enter the

mainstream culture– Not gaining full acceptance by the core– No longer a full member of ethnic culture

• Causes the individual an great deal of strain– Confined to live between to cultures and not

a true member of either

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Marginality Cont.• Children of immigrants find themselves

caught between two worlds– A second and third generation phenomenon

• Marginality is an example of cultural conflict caused by a clash of cultural (ethnic) values

BCMiddleman Minorities

• Hubert Blalock: “Middleman Minorities”• The dominant core places middleman

minorities in an intermediate position between the lower and higher classes– They forge a mediating commerce link

between minorities and dominant core group

• Serve as a buffer groups between the two– Experience hostility from both the lower and

upper classes– Example: Koreans in Los Angeles

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Dominant Group Responses• Legislative Controls

• Laws to regulate and restrict immigration in favor of NW Europeans

• Restrictions on educational opportunities

• Restrictions of voting rights, to maintain political control (Blacks mainly)

• Other countries: South Africa (Apartheid), Australia (Restricted Asian Immigration)

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Segregation

• Spatial segregation: Physical separation of a minority from the rest of society, … a policy of containment

• Areas of separation:– Residential, … education, … public facilities, .

Occupations

• May be “institutionalized”

• May be overt of covert, de jure or defacto

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Segregation Cont.

• Social segregation: Involves confining participation in social, service, political, and other types of activities

• Dominant group excludes the outgroup from meaningful primary-group interaction– May be voluntary or involuntary, … mostly

involuntary

• Frequent interaction may lessen prejudice, but interaction is often severely controlled

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Expulsion

• To eject a minority group from a territory or country

• England, … Gypsies in the 16th century

• Spain, … The Moors in early 17th century

• British, … Acadians from Nova Scotia in the mid 18th century

• Americans, … Cherokee from Georgia in 1838, “The Trail of Tears”

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Xenophobia

• Def. The undue fear of, or contempt of strangers or foreigners

• Often reflected in print, speeches, sermons, legislation, and violent actions

• Examples in the United States– The Wild Irishman– The French radicals– Immigrants in general (except NW Europe)

• Related to Ethnocentrism

BCEthnocentrism

• One’s group is seen as the center of everything, others are defined negatively

• Encourages the creation of negative stereotypes, …in turn invites prejudice

• Results in discrimination

• Escalates to ongoing institutional discrimination

• Becomes a normal social behavior, … a part of the normative culture

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Annihilation

• The killing of all men, women, and children of a particular group

• Goes back to ancient times

• Examples in more recent times– The British, … the Tasmanians– The Portuguese in Brazil, … infected natives

with smallpox– Germans, … The Jewish holocaust– Others: … ?

BCHate Groups and Hate Crimes

• In the past, U.S., … the Know-Nothings• Mid-19th century and beyond, …Ku Klux

Klan• The rise of hate groups usually occurs in

times of economic stress• Florida contains the largest number of

hate group (48), … California (35)• Hate crimes: Criminal offense against a

person, .. “bias against,”…race, …religion, … sexual orientation, … ethnic group

BCExploitation

• Usually members of a dominant group exploit a subordinate (minority) group

• Power-differential Theory: S. Lieberson• Intergroup relations depend on the relative

power of the migrant and indigenous group

• Each group strives to maintain its own culture and institutions

• The “Dominant” group will control the interaction and the subordinate group

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Internal Colonialism Theory

• Robert Blauner: Integrated elements of caste, racism, ethnicity, culture, and economic exploitation into a single theory

• Theorized that the treatment of Native Americans, Blacks, and Mexicans resembled a colonial like relationship much like the European colonies of non-Western peoples– Not as a colony, but “internal colonialism”

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Internal Colonialism Cont.

• These groups were ghettoized into colonial like communities– Reservations, … Ghettos, … Barrios

• Their culture is transformed

• Their colony is controlled by external forces– Politically, … economically, … socially

• They are relegated to subordinate status

• Interactions reinforce exploitation

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Split-Labor Market Theory

• Edna Bonacich: Ethnic antagonism results from a combination of economic exploitation and economic competition– A wage differential for competing groups

• Ethnic antagonism is based not on ethnicity or race but on the conflict between higher-paid and lower-paid labor

• See Figure 4.3 for a summary

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Limitation to These Theories

• Power Differential Theory– Only offers one variable to explain conflicts

between dominant and subordinate groups

• Internal-Colonialism Theory– Applies to only three groups at best– It doesn't explain relations with other groups

• Split-Labor Market Theory– Doesn’t address other sources of conflict,

discrimination, and prejudice, … only wages

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Key terms• Annihilation• Avoidance• Cumulative causation• Defiance• Exploitation• Expulsion• Internal-Colonialism• Marginality

• Middleman Minorities• Negative Self-image• Paternalism• Power-differential• Social segregation• Spatial segregation• Split-labor-market• Vicious circle• Xenophobia