Mid-Term Flashcards
Why and how do Massey and Denton contend that the term segregation exited “the American vocabulary?”
Because most Americans viewed segregation after the 1960s as natural instead of institutional. Segregation was still the same or possibly worse, but since civil rights laws were passed the word faded due to those laws seeming to outlaw segregation.
What have been some of the main explanations of racialized poverty advanced in the US? What do you think of these?
The four are culture, racism, welfare, and economics
How does segregation occur, and why does it matter?
- For races like the Polish or Chinese, can be due to their longing to stick together, could say the same for blacks but they also have a history of whites segregating them intentionally
- Creates different societies, with different cultures, worse outcomes, worse economies, worse opportunities
- Two types of worlds are created in the same metro or rural area, limits interaction
How representative of US immigrant cities is New York?
- It is the quintessential immigrant city
- It has the longest history of immigration, and the greatest disbursement of immigrants with regards to race than of Miami where most immigrants are Cuban or LA most are Mexican
- NY is ¼ immigrants
- Also shows how immigrants tend to stick to their people, they live where it is most familiar to home rather than blending in persay
Why do Kasinitz et al think that comparisons of the current immigrant and second generation with those of the classical period of immigration are useful?
- Because of their differences and similarities
- Immigrants of the past come mostly in one period of time, 1882-1924 as they explain
- After these immigrants, most of whom were European born, had arrived war, depression, etc. halted much immigration after their period, causing them to assimilate in times of low immigration
- Created different attitudes towards these immigrants compared to current and second-gen immigrants
- Current immigrants and second-generation are coming in and assimilating in times of high immigration, with more tech, and more opportunities
- Immigrant parents also fear that their children will lose their culture as they assimilate nowadays
What are some of the limitations to theories of assimilation Kasinitz et al mention?
- Segmented theory states ethnic groups can assimilate into the mainstream, integrate into modern American society, or assimilate into side streams, denying wanting to live “American, this can limit opportunities, being closed off from the rest of the society around
- Spatial assimilation is about physically mixing with society, integration instead of self-segregation like enclaves and such, limitation is you can lose cultural values, ideals, and family structure
- Structural assimilation is basically about intermarriage and integration through person-to-person contact, one limitation is that it also causes one to become more American, and less culturally like their ethnicity
Why and how did Blacks move from the south to the north?
- Moved to escape sharecropping, violence, ignorance, poverty, prior to 1910s
- By 1910, southern farms didn’t have a high demand for labor, but industrial cities did, especially with war efforts
- Manufacturing companies recruited blacks in the south to come work in the northern cities
How, precisely, did segregation in the US change over time?
- Segregation was statistically lower in late 1800s, early 1900s, blacks lived near the white houses they worked in
- Once great migration pulled a lot of blacks to north, segregation set off
- Whites became alarmed, racist mentality grew, quickly created social segregation and lawful segregation
- Violence was a tool
- Whites formed militias to guard color line, ensuring no blacks go in their neighborhood
- Blockbusting
- Moral of story is it was low, great migration due to economics made it high in north cities and south as well, then it mostly has stayed that way since, despite laws making it illegal
What roles did demographic shifts and suburbanization play in segregation?
- Whites left inner cities because large increase of blacks migrating in, caused large numbers of blacks in central city, and whites in suburbs
- Post WW2 when suburbs became a thing, whites flocked there, made more space for blacks in inner city, even though they became more and more crammed into small ghetto neighborhoods
What role did economic shifts play in segregation? (Be specific…)
- Economic shifts of world war, increased need for workers in northern cities, brought in and recruited a lot of blacks from the south
- FHA and VA loan programs greatly encouraged white flight, by making home ownership easier, changing real estate economics
- Loans were also denied to blacks for the most part
- Post-industrial disinvestment in central cities, money for suburbs instead
Does Wilson’s account of structural forces differ significantly from that of Massey and Denton? Why or why not?
- Differs in the sense that he is describing the structural forces of segregation as being non-racial on the surface, but seeming to be racial due to their consistent hurt put on black ghettos and inner city
- Massey and Denton say it is blatant racism, Wilson takes a more stepped-back approach, saying its definitely helping whites and hurting blacks but due to politics and economic forces
How does Wilson define culture and how important does he think it is?
- Culture provides tools (habits, skills, and styles) and creates constraints (restrictions or limits on outlooks and behavior) in patterns of social interaction. These constraints include cultural frames (shared group constructions of reality) that influence or direct social action
- Says culture can determine social mobility, so very important
- Determines how one group or race may react to certain structural forces put against them, reinforces
What happened to change segregation in the 1970s?
- Courts decided to stop placing public housing in poor black neighborhoods
- Civil rights act banned descrimination in rental and sale of housing
- Demographic trends changed, blacks began to move into suburbs
- Manufacturing jobs wihtin cities provided blacks with the ability to improve their socioeconomic status
- Lowest black poverty rates were in 1973
- Fair housing act in 1968
- Civil Rights act of 1964
Why and how does segregation continue after the Fair Housing Act?
- Record unemployment, inflation, falling wages, increasing income inequality, rising rates of black poverty
- Decline in residential structure
- Instability in housing patterns, combined with gentrification, immigration, and rapid housing construction rather than neighborhood integration
- Black suburbs reinforced racial segregation
- Continued white avoidance near ghettos
- Demographic mechanisms that led to segregation in 50s and 60s persisted into 70s and 80s
- Economic problems emerging in 1973, shrinking of Black middle class
How is segregation measured?
Through the dissimilarity index and isolation index primarily
