DISCRIMINATION

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DISCRIMINATION

• CHAPTER 3

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Understanding Discrimination

• Discrimination
• The denial of opportunities and equal rights to
  individuals and groups because of prejudice or
  for other arbitrary reasons
• Two patterns of deprivation, relative and
  absolute
• Relative Deprivation
• The conscious experience of a negative
  discrepancy between legitimate expectations and
  present actualities
• Absolute Deprivation
• Implies a fixed standard based on a minimum level
  of subsistence below which families should not be
  expected to exist

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Institutional Discrimination

• The denial of opportunities and equal rights to
  individuals and groups that results from the
  normal operations of a society
• Institutional forms of discrimination are
  committed collectively against a group
• May be unconscious - in that it is not a
  function of awareness of discrimination

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Examples of Institutional Discrimination

• Standards for assessing credit risks do not work
  for Hispanics and African Americans
• IQ testing favors middle-class children
• The entire criminal justice system, from the
  patrol officer to the judge and jury, is
  dominated by Whites who find it difficult to
  understand life in poverty areas
• Hiring practices often require several years of
  experience at jobs only recently opened to
  members of subordinate groups
• Many jobs automatically eliminate a person with
  felony records or past drug offenses, which
  disproportionately reduces employment
  opportunities for people of color

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Low-Wage Labor

• Informal Economy (Irregular/Underground Economy)
• Consists of transfers of money, goods, or
  services that are not reported to the government
• The regular labor market operates according to
  the principles of the conventional labor market
• Irregular economy - operates outside the
  boundaries of the regular economy as it relates
  to job stability, wages, working conditions or
  benefits

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• Dual Labor Market Model
• According to this model, minorities have been
  relegated to the informal economy
• Informal economy offers few safeguards against
  fraud or malpractice
• Few fringe benefits such as stability, wages,
  health insurance, and pension
• Criticized for promoting unfair and dangerous
  working conditions
• Workers are ill prepared to enter the regular
  economy permanently

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Informal Economy and Discrimination

• Subordinate groups have often been used as an
  elastic part of the labor force and relegated to
  the informal economy
• Because of past discrimination, workers are
  unable to secure traditional employment
• Many workers driven into such jobs as
  better-paying jobs move far away or as
  globalization creates more international trade

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Discrimination Today

• Discrimination is widespread in the U.S.
• Sometimes results from prejudices held by
  individuals, but more significantly, is found in
  institutional discrimination and the presence of
  the informal economy
• Quantifying discrimination is problematic
• 1. Identifying the different treatment of
  minorities
• 2. Determining the cost of discrimination
• Distribution of income as a measure of
  discrimination

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• Double Jeopardy
• Refers to the combination of two subordinate
  statuses, defined as experienced by women of
  color
• Disparity in income between Black women and White
  men has remained unchanged for over fifty years
• Direct discrimination in hiring
• Promotion
• Past discrimination

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Eliminating Discrimination

• Two major sources for the elimination of
  discrimination
• Voluntary associations
• Governmental agencies and policies
• Roosevelts 1943 and the Fair Employment
  Practices Commission (FEPC)
• Supreme court decision - 1954 Brown v. Board of
  Education
• States Rights
• Each state is sovereign in most of its affairs
  and has the right to order them without
  interference from the federal government

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• Since 1964, several acts and amendments have been
  made to the original Civil Rights Act to cover
  the many areas of discrimination left untouched
• Criminal Justice and Housing
• Redlining
• The pattern of discrimination against people
  trying to buy homes in minority and racially
  changing neighborhoods
• Applied to areas other than housing

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Wealth Inequality Discriminations Legacy

• Past discrimination carries into the present and
  future
• No inherited wealth is element of the past
• Less opportunity of Blacks to accumulate assets
• Income
• Salaries and wages
• Wealth
• Encompasses all a persons assets, land, stocks,
  and other types of property

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Environmental Justice

• Refers to the efforts to ensure that hazardous
  substances are controlled so that all communities
  receive protection regardless of race or
  socioeconomic circumstance
• Executive order (1994)
• Requires all federal agencies to ensure that
  low-income and minority communities have access
  to better information about their environment and
  have an opportunity in shaping government
  policies that affect their communitys health

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• Issues of environmental justice not limited to
  metropolitan areas
• Abuse of Native American reservation land
• Tribal lands regarded as dumping grounds for
  toxic waste that go to the highest bidder
• Controversy within the scientific community over
  potential hazards
• Complexity of the issues in terms of social class
  and race are apparent

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Affirmative Action

• The positive effort to recruit subordinate-group
  members, including women, for jobs, promotions,
  and educational opportunities
• Today, has become a catchall term for racial
  preference programs and goals
• Lightning rod for opposition to any programs that
  suggest special consideration of women and racial
  minorities

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Affirmative Action Explained

• Affirmative Action has been viewed as an
  important tool for reducing institutional
  discrimination
• Federal measures aimed at procedures that deny
  equal opportunities, even if not intended to be
  overtly discriminatory
• Lack of minority-group or female employees may in
  itself represent unlawful exclusion

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Examples of Affirmative Action and Institutional
Discrimination

• Height and weight requirements that are
  unnecessarily geared to the physical proportions
  of White males
• Seniority rules, when applied to jobs
  historically held only by white males
• Nepotism-based membership policies
• Restrictive employment leave policies
• Rules requiring only English be spoken at the
  workplace
• Standardized academic tests or criteria
• Preferences shown by law and medical schools
• Credit policies of banks and lending institutions

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Reverse Discrimination

• An emotional term because it conjures up the
  notion that somehow women and minorities will
  subject White men in the U.S. to the same
  treatment received by minorities during the last
  three centuries
• Supporters of affirmative action
• As long as businesses rely on informal social
  networks, personal recommendations, and family
  ties, White men will have a distinct advantage
  built on generations of being in positions of
  power

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The Glass Ceiling

• Refers to the barrier that blocks the promotion
  of a qualified worker because of gender or
  minority membership
• Additionally, they face glass walls that block
  lateral moves to areas from which executives are
  promoted
• Barriers contribute to women not moving into
  ultimate decision-making positions in the
  nations corporate giants

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• Determinants of the Glass Ceiling
• Lack of management commitment to establishing
  system, policies, and practices for achieving
  workplace diversity and upward mobility
• Pay inequities for work of equal or comparable
  value
• Sex, race, and ethnic-based stereotyping and
  harassment
• Unfair recruitment practices
• Lack of family-friendly workplace policies
• Parent-track policies
• Limited opportunities for advancement to
  decision-making positions

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• Glass Escalator
• Refers to the male advantage experienced in
  occupations dominated by women
• Men who chose to enter female-dominated
  occupations are often rewarded with promotions
  and positions of responsibility coveted by their
  fellow female workers

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Questions
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• Provide an example each of relative deprivation
  and absolute deprivation.

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• What current issues in American society, that
  you can think of, demonstrates total
  discrimination?

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• What employment practices, that you can think of,
  demonstrate the informal economy and dual labor
  market?

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• Why is it difficult to quantify discrimination?

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• Based on the numbers provided in Table 3.1, how
  can the wide gap between Black and Asian income
  statistics be explained?

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• How can Affirmative Action be better utilized so
  that it protects minority groups from
  discrimination while protecting the rights of
  deserving Whites in gaining upward mobility?

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• Is reverse discrimination a myth or is it an
  accurate social phenomenon?

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• Provide an example each of the glass ceiling, the
  glass wall, and the glass escalator?

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• Explain Derrick Bell (1994) assertion that
  racism is permanent.