01:920:108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Ethnic Enclave, Asian Americans, Acculturation
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
1.
Importance of subsistence technology--> postindustrial: unlikely to offer many opportunities for people with lower education and skills.
2.
Agrarian→paternalistic relations (African Americans, American Indians and Mexican Americans)--> land and labor
3.
Industrial→rigid competitive relations→white ethnics, Asian Americans--> capital
4.
Post-industrial→fluid competitive relations→recent immigration→knowledge, tech, information
1.
Subsistence Tech→dominant-minority relations shaped by political, economic, social forces
1.
Chinese and Japanese Americans survived in ethnic enclaves (provided integration for various racial/ethnic minorities)
2.
Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans supplied low-paid manual labor for both the rural and urban economy
3.
Both groups were barred from access to dominant-group institutions and higher paid jobs
2.
Social mobility-- like w/European Americans did not work for other minority groups (Mexican Americans, African Americans, etc)--> confronted urban poverty
and bankrupt cities in addition to the continuing barriers of racial prejudice and institutional discrimination
1.
Colonized minority group are at a greater power disadvantage than immigrant groups
2.
African Americans and American Indians (greater disadvantage than other groups in modern times)--> they are considered a colonized minority
group
3.
Both women and LGBT→patterns of inequality, marginalization, and denigration are easily documented
4.
Women→system of oppression has been maintained and reinforced by highly visible physical markers of group membership
5.
LGBT→dynamics of social visibility are more subtle and variable.
1.
Blauner’s hypothesis→colonized minority groups and immigrant minority groups
2.
Contemporary immigrant groups at opposite end of continuum (ex: Asian Indians)→are more likely to approx. experiences of white ethnics and find
themselves in some version of middle-class suburbia
1.
Ethnocentrism, competition (increases prejudice→discrimination of minority group), differential in power→power of dominant group helps sustain
inferior position of minority) →Ex: Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882→1st significant restriction on immigration to U.S→Differential in power→
determines outcome of initial contact situation and which group becomes dominant and which becomes minority
2.
Both women and LGBT→both have to organize, acquire resources, and confront bastions of privilege in streets and courtrooms to improve their
situations and move closer to equality. Women→the system made a formal commitment to equality many decades ago.
3.
Noel hypothesis→if three conditions-ethnocentrism, differential in power, and competition are present in contact situation, then ethnic or racial
stratification will occur
4.
Jobs will continue to be the primary objects of competition
3.
Contact situation→conditions under which the minority group and dominant group first come into contact with each other
1.
Different group members can put a person at a disadvantage and influence their life changes
2.
Women of the dominant group and minority women have had much less access to leadership roles and higher-status positions and have generally occupied
a subordinate status, even in their own groups.
3.
LGBT people→experiences of members of these groups vary by race, class, and gender
4.
Women of every minority group have tended to take the least-desirable, lowest-status positions available in the economy
4.
Intersectionality
1.
Highly acculturated (share language, values, and beliefs of white Americans of similar class and educational background)
2.
Integration→African Americans present mixed picture (ex: larger percentage of African Americans remain mired in urban poverty)
3.
Overall, the group as a whole are still highly segregated in their residential and school attendance patterns, and unemployment and poverty remain
serious problems
1.
African Americans
1.
Less acculturated than African Americans, and some tribes and organizations are trying to preserve American Indian cultures and languages
2.
Integration→there is some indication of improvement, but many American Indians are among the most isolated and impoverished minority-group
members in the U.S.
2.
American Indians
1.
Members of the largest Hispanic American groups are generally less acculturated than African Americans.
2.
Hispanic traditions and Spanish language have been sustained by the exclusion and isolation of these groups within the U.S.
3.
Cubans have moved closer to equality than Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans, but they resisted assimilation and built ethnic enclave economy
(immigrant minority group)--> Cubans
4.
Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans share many of the problems of urban poverty that confront African Americans and they are below nat’l norms
on measures of equality and integration (both colonized minority groups)
5.
Mexican Americans→moved to rural areas
6.
Cuban and Puerto Ricans→moved to urban areas
7.
Smaller Hispanic groups→new immigrants beginning assimilation process→Many members of this group, and Mexican Americans and Puerto
Ricans, are less educated and have few occupational skills, and face dangers of blending into a permanent underclass.
3.
Hispanic Americans
1.
Extent of assimilation among this group and Hispanic Americans is highly variable
2.
Some Asian American groups (more elite immigrants from India or the Philippines) seem to be finding a place in American mainstream
3.
Other groups consist largely of newer immigrants w/ occupational and educational profiles that often resemble those of colonized minority groups→
face danger of permanent marginalization and exclusion
4.
Other Asian American groups (ex: Korean Americans) have constructed ethnic enclaves and pursue economic equality by resisting acculturation
4.
Asian Americans
5.
European American ethnic groups→Approximate traditional model of assimilation, and Culturally and racially, these groups are closest to dominant group
6.
Women→“Acculturation” has not been accomplished→women are equal to men on some measures of equality (ex: education) but large gaps in other
areas (ex: income) persist
7.
LGBT→Increasingly included in pop culture of dominant society and Patterns of inequality generally follow those in larger society, and like women, seem
not to receive rewards proportionate to their degree of preparation for the job market.
5.
Assimilation and Pluralism→Gordon’s traditional view of assimilation→believes that assimilation is a linear, inevitable process→acculturation to secondary
structural assimilation to primary structural assimilation, to intermarriage→but traditional view is not always the case (like ethnic enclaves→Cubans did not
assimilate to dominant culture)
6.
Assimilation→group membership is important b/c it is linked to patterns of inclusion, exclusion, and inequality
Lecture: Day 24
Monday, April 23, 2018
12:27 AM
Minority Groups in American Society Page 1
