Reminders, Follow-up & Lecture Material

First of all, one last reminder about posting a comment in reaction to my comment, "Reflections on the Jena 6," from last Wed., Sept. 26th. You have until midnight tonight (Fri., Oct. 5th) to post your comment and earn 3 activity points. Also, for those interested in 2 extra credit points, don't forget the Spartanburg International Festival tomorrow at Barnet Park. Again, I am just asking you to check in with one of the booths in the "Ave. of Nations" and ask them if they think there is anything about their group that they wished the people of Spartanburg knew better what would that be. Just write up a brief paragraph on their response which you must turn in next Tuesday. Finally, next week Thursday we will do another family exercise to determine two more midterm exam questions.

Follow-up: I want to follow-up briefly on my comments on ethnocentrism. Remember, ethnocentrism is to racism as ethnic group is to race. Ethnocentrism is an attitude of superiority based on one's culture or way of life, which may not have to do with race. I also suggested that all cultures promote a certain degree of ethnocentrism which isn't necessarily bad (eg. patriotism), but that I have trouble accepting the notion that any degree of racism can be good. So, I would make a distinction between ethnocentrism and racism. The reason these two terms have often been lumped together or seen as virtually the same is because they did go hand in hand during the days of European colonization of the New World, Africa, and Asia. I hope that helps clarify my position on that.


NEW LECTURE MATERIAL: As usual, I find myself behind, so I will use the rest of this post to wrap up my comments on prejudice and then move on to the final basic definition of discrimination.

PREJUDICE: We were considering ways of overcoming prejudice. I want to pick up here with the fourth and final way, LAW.
A. Although law by itself is no solution because you obviously can't legislate attitudes or morality, or pass a law against prejudice, that does not mean law may not have an indirect effect. We can and have legislated against discrimination which may at least help to eliminate barriers to opportunity, contact, and equality, all of which may help to reduce prejudice.

1. Dr. King acknowledged this important indirect role of law in his book, Stride Toward Freedom, He said: "Government action is not the whole answer in the present crisis, but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin. We must depend on religion and education to alter the errors of the heart and mind; but meanwhile it is an immoral act to compel a man to accept injustice until another man's heart is set straight. As the experience of several northern states has shown, antidiscrimination laws can provide powerful sanctions against this kind of immorality."
"Moreover, the law itself is a form of education."

2. So, law may force people or institutions to take steps to eliminate prejudice and discrimination which they may not otherwise have taken on their own. Legislation, federal enforcement, assisted lots of silent white supporters of the civil rights movement in the South to "do the right thing."

3. And, finally, it should also be noted that law is only as effective and strong as it is enforced.


DISCRIMINATION:
A. Whereas prejudice involves attitudes, discrimination has to do with actions, actions which may involve individuals, groups, or institutions -- actions which deny certain people access to significant objects and opportunities in society.

1. Discrimination is not just "drawing a distinction" (which is one of the dictionary's definitions), as in the sentence: "She has a discriminating eye for art."

2. Discrimination is serious business, especially when it is written into law or part of the "normal" operation of society (i.e., institutionalized). Racially discriminatory laws have been in place for much of our history, at least up until the 1960s civil rights legislation was passed.

a.) As Harry Kitano comments "... discriminatory laws have been the most powerful weapon to exclude groups from participation as equals in our society. Immigration, citizenship, housing, education, and marriage have been denied through legal means in the past so the (proverbial) level playing field has been tilted against minority groups."

3. The definition of discrimination raises a question about the validity of the term "reverse discrimination," which is often used to attack programs such as affirmative action. Minorities, by definition, do not wield the kind of power over the dominant group implied by that term, unless many in the dominant group are won over to their cause.

a.) Eg. Affirmative action programs were adopted and implemented by a majority of white decision-makers in government and business, and both government and business are still dominated by white males. (82% of members of boards of directors of the top 1000 corporations are non-Hispanic white males, and that percentage is even higher for CEOs, Fortune magazine 2002)

b.) And to suggest (as the term "reverse discrimination" does) that affirmative action is on a par with past discrimination is a gross distortion of history.

c.) I can understand the use of this term on an individual level where someone may feel they were unfairly denied a position because of race, but in a broader sense I do not think the term is legitimate.

4. The causes or explanations of discrimination are generally comparable to the theories of prejudice -- these actions have a lot to do with the perceived threat minority groups represent.

5. Finally, overcoming or correcting for discrimination is not easy because the primary responsibility for change lies with the perpetrators -- they have to be made aware of the injustice. Which is why victims of discrimination have to resort to "extra-legal" means such as protests and boycotts, etc. in order to get the attention of the perpetrators of discrimination.


That's all for now. I'll highlight a few of these points on Tuesday, but then plan to quickly move on to discussing in more detail each of the major racial and ethnic minority groups.