Mixed-Race Couples 10

Question 1

In 2008, the education gradient among ______ __________ was much stronger in 2008 than in 1980. Race in 2008 was no longer ‘‘trumping’’ education in the same way it did in the past.

Answer 1

African Americans (Qian & Lichter 2011)

Question 2

What is the main problem with depictions of neighborhoods as monochrome, such as those found in many spatial assimilation narratives.

Answer 2

They render mixed-race households and multiracial people invisible. (Wright et al. 2003)

Question 3

What is Blau’s theory concerned primarily with?

Answer 3

Blau’s theory is concerned primarily with the structural determinants of social associations. He proceeds to reason that the greater the opportunities for these contacts, greater the likelihood will be that meaniful social relations will be established. Blau’s principal theoretical objective is to make explicit just how structural arrangements constrain or facilitate opportunities for contacts, thereby influencing the observed volume of social interaction.

Question 4

Is intermarriage more likely among the middle- or lower-class for whites as well as minorities?

Answer 4

Middle-class. This result is more consistent with the prediction derived from Wilson’s discussion on class and race, rather than the tradeoff notion implied by Merton’s thesis. (Jacobs et al. 2002)

Question 5

Wilson’s analysis of class leads to two predictions regarding interracial and interethnic marriages. What are they?

Answer 5

First, intermarriage should be more likely for minority group members who have more socioeconomic resources, such as income and education. This prediction partly overlaps with Merton’s ex- change perspective, but it differs in part as well. Both Wilson and Merton predict that it is the most advantaged minorities that will tend to marry whites. But Merton predicts that it will be less-advantaged whites who will be more likely to marry minorities, whereas Wilson’s thesis holds that it will be middle-class whites that will be most likely to enter into marriages with minorities. There is also a second prediction that derives from Wilson’s analysis which is also distinct from Merton’s exchange thesis. Specifically, sex differentials in intermarriage among the middle class should narrow or disappear.