African American Flashcards
Key features of paternalism
1) Vast power differentials and large inequalities between dominant group and minority group
2) Repressive system of control
3) Caste system (a closed stratification system– no mobility between social positions)
Definition of paternalistic relationship
Members of the minority group are viewed as being docile, childlike, in need of supervision.
African Americans as an example of Chattel
African Americans were forced into minority status by superior military power and political power of the dominant group. They were chattel.
What are the five central components of slavery?
1) Slavery was for life
2) The status was inherited
3) Slaves were considered mere property
4) Slaves were denied rights
5) Coercion was used to maintain the system
Why were African American selected to be slaves? Why not Native Americans?
Physically different
Non-Christians
Not familiar with territory
Lacked organization
Ideological belief that they were different
Slavery in Brazil (4 facts)
1) Portuguese came to Brazil with more tolerant attitudes towards people of color (had earlier contact with Africans)
2) More intermixing with native and slave populations
3) Did not see slaves as lacking souls – unfortunate human being (economic necessity)
4) Slaves were recognized as humans with certain legal rights (entitled to own property, marry freely, seek out another master if dealt with harshly, and even buy freedom)
Dred Scott Decision
The Supreme Court ruled that African
Americans had no rights which whites
were bound to respect.
They could never become citizens of the US
Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Proclaimed slaves to be free and authorized
the armed forces of the United States to enlist free slaves.
13th Amendment (1865)
The legal institution of slavery was abolished.
Civil Rights Act (1866)
Declared Blacks to be citizens of the United States, gave
them equal civil rights, and gave federal courts jurisdiction over cases arising under
the act.
14th Amendment (1868)
Declared that states could not deprive any person of
Life, liberty, or property without ‘due process of the law.’
De jure segregation
The system of rigid competitive race relations that was characterized by laws mandating racial separation and inequality.
De facto segregation
A system of racial separation and inequality that appears to result from voluntary choices about where to live, work, and so forth. (It “just happens.”)
Booker T. Washington
Argued that Blacks were still too recently removed from slavery to take their place as equals among the Whites.
He emphasized that Blacks must adopt an economic program of manual labor and self-help as the best means to win their full rights as citizens rather than engaging in political action
W.E.B. Du Bois
Du Bois formed the Niagara Movement to express opposition to Washington’s views. He advocated that Blacks should protest the curtailment of their political and civil rights.
Blacks should strive to establish economic independence. They should join together to attempt to solve their problems, and that the ultimate goal of any strategy should be the full acceptance of African Americans as first-class citizens of the US.
NAACP (The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People)
Niagara group’s members merged with a group of White liberals to form the NAACP.
NAACP adopted a legal and legislative strategy. It called on Congress and the president to enforce strictly the Constitution’s provisions on civil rights.
Major outcome of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
“separate is not equal”
Marcus Garvey (key contributions
Garvey organized the Universal Negro Improvement Association which
had as its long-range goal to help African Americans leave the US and settle in an independent nation in Africa.
Garvey believed that the solution to America’s racial problem was the
Renunciation of American citizenship and permanent separation of the two races.
What is civil disobedience?
Civil disobedience is based on the belief that people have the right to disobey the law under certain circumstances.
Some ways to show civil disobedience (6)
1) Active nonviolent resistance to evil
2) Not seeking to defeat or humiliate opponents but to win their friendship and understanding
3) Attacking the forces of evil rather than the people who happen to be doing the evil
4) Willingness to accept suffering without retaliating
5) Refusing to hate the opponent
6) Acting with conviction that the universe is on the side of justice
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Banned discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, and gender.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The act banned literacy tests and other practices that had been used to prevent Blacks from voting
Factors that Facilitated the Success of
the Civil Rights Movement (4)
1) The changing economic, social, and political environment
2) The movement embraced the dominant code of American values and beliefs
3) Support from other groups
4) The influence of the mass media
Why are reparations troublesome?
Victims of direct harm are dead
Perpetrators are diffuse
Some of the actual harms were legal at the time they were committed
The causal chain of harm is long and complex
Malcom X (contributions)
In the mid 1960s, many African Americans were losing hope that new laws would end segregation and bring equality. They were frustrated with integrationist goals. Black power movement emphasized separation and power.
The Black Muslims advocate for a separate nation right here in the US and have suggested that several states should be set aside for this purpose
Culture of Poverty
Poor people develop particular patterns of values and ways of coping (e.g., not working hard, not valuing school) with their difficulties and pass these patterns down from one generation to the next.
Ethnic Resource Model
Cultural strengths (e.g., extended families, strong kinship bonds, high values on family stability) have protected the Black family through devastating effects of slavery and recent pattern of Black male unemployment.
Secondary Structural Assimilation in African Americans
Since their emancipation, African Americans have moved in many ways toward the goal of full secondary assimilation. However, large gaps still persist between whites and blacks in regards to income, jobs, education, and housing.
Primary Structural Assimilation in African Americans
Black – White relations in the US are changing as the social and historical contexts of racial relations change.
Studies reveal that contact in the ‘public’ sphere is more common than contact in the ‘private sphere’ (social contact is close, of long duration, frequent, and involves a significant numbers of African Americans).
Marital Assimilation in African Americans
Out-marriages among Black have been much less common than out-marriage among other racial and ethnic groups.
The rate of Black – White intermarriage went up rapidly during the 1960s and nearly doubled in the 1980s and 1990s.
The declining pool of of Black males who are eligible as marriage partners has resulted in more Black families that are headed by women who have never married and has encouraged those who do marry to marry outside their racial group.
cultural encapsulation
Cultural encapsulation is the lack of understanding, or ignorance, of another’s cultural background and the influence this background has on one’s current view of the world
Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States.
Plessy vs Ferguson
In 1892, in a planned act of civil disobedience, Plessy boarded a train in New Orleans and sat in the car reserved for whites only.
Plessy, a man who was one-eighth black, but classified as black by Louisiana law, refused to leave in order to trigger a case about the legality of segregation.
In 1896, after years of trials appeals, the Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” was fair, and was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment requiring equal protection to all.
Be familiar with the concept of white enrichment, black losses
Overall, Whites benefited from federal programs, jobs (due to economic multiplier effects) and Blacks were excluded from benefits, worked harder and made less(Jim Crow Laws)
the pseudoscience of “intelligence” testing.
IQ tests don’t reflect environmental factors but genetic differences between black and white groups. Low social status/income = intellectually & genetically inferior.
