Black Americans

Chapter 10

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Questions We Will Explore

In what ways is the black experience in the United States unique?

What similarities exist among the experiences of blacks, Native Americans, and Asians in the United States?

How are the cultural orientations of African immigrants dissimilar to those of U.S.-born blacks?

What insights into the black experience do the three major sociological perspectives provide? Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

The Black Experience - Unique in Comparison to Other Groups

To ease their transition to a new land, other ethnic groups recreated in miniature the society they left behind; but most Africans who came unwillingly as slaves to the United States from 1619 to 1808 were not allowed to do so.

Other groups could use education to give themselves and their children a better future, but state laws in the South made educating black slaves a crime. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

The Unique Black Experience (continued)

Other groups may have encountered some hostility and discrimination, but through hard work and perseverance many were able to overcome fear and prejudices.

For blacks, 200 years of master-slave relations did much more than prevent their assimilation; they shaped values and attitudes about the two races that are still visible today.

The institution of slavery created an inferior status for blacks and led to much prejudice and discrimination. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

The Unique Black Experience (continued)

Through 200 years of slavery and 100 additional years of separate-and-unequal subjugation, blacks found society unresponsive to their needs and wants.

Slaves headed to America (1), (2), (3) Negatively categorized by skin color, they saw

clearly that two worlds existed in this country: the white and the nonwhite.

Many blacks remain trapped in poverty and isolated in urban ghettos; many who have achieved upward mobility find that they are still not accepted in white society, at least in meaningful primary relationships. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Similarities of the Experiences of Blacks, Native Americans, and Asians in the U.S.

Numerous similarities exist between the black experience in the U.S. and the experiences of other minority peoples.

Like Asians and Native Americans, blacks frequently have been judged on the basis of their physical characteristics and not their individual capabilities.

They have experienced (as other groups) countless instances of stereotyping, scapegoating, prejudice, discrimination, segregation, deprivation, and violence.

When they have become “too visible” in a given area or have moved into economic competition with whites, the dominant group has perceived them as a threat. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Cultural Orientations of African Immigrants and American Blacks

Although many native-born U.S. Blacks call themselves African Americans, a wide cultural gulf separates them from the more recent African immigrants.

Because of their cultural distinctions, Africans do not identify with American blacks, and American blacks do not identify with them.

Successful American blacks interested in helping the less fortunate of their race usually concentrate on U.S.-born poor, not on newcomers from Africa. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Cultural Orientations (continued)

As a matter of preference and necessity, the African immigrants seek out one another for mutual support and refuge.

A high percentage of African immigrants are well educated and possess occupational skills that enable them to secure economic security quickly.

Having achieved a middle-class socioeconomic status, or at worst working-class stability, these first-generation Americans usually prefer to retain their African identity rather than to blend in with the Black American community.

African students tend to show some degree of contempt and arrogance toward Black American students. copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Cultural Orientations (continued)

Africans are frequently more achievement-oriented and competitive than Black Americans students, in part because they have had help from white supporters and no “history of denials and exclusion” from white America.

African college students are also less racially conscious in the U.S. and therefore are more likely to participate in interracial primary relationships (parties, dating, and marriage) than are Black American college students. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

The Black Experience - 3 Perspectives Functionalist:

During the 17th-19th centuries, slavery offered the South an effective means of developing an agricultural economy based on cotton; slaves provided a cheap labor force.

Post slavery, Jim Crow laws in the South formalized a system of inequality in all social institutions. In the North, blacks filled a labor need but remained unassimilated.

In the North and South in the 20th century, the waste of human resources and productivity of Black Americans produced problems of poor education, low income, unemployment, poor housing, high disease and mortality rates, and crime and delinquency. > Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Perspectives (continued)

Federal judicial and legislative action helped restore some balance to society, reorganizing social institutions, and eliminating barriers to full social, political, and economic opportunities.

The Vietnam War, rampant inflation during the 1970s, structural blue-color unemployment, and sporadic economic downturns curtailed some gains by blacks. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Perspectives (continued)Conflict theory:

Recent practices against blacks include job and labor-union discrimination and prejudices in educational institutions leading to low achievement and high dropout rates have forced many blacks into low paying, low status, economically vulnerable jobs.

Confining blacks to marginal positions preserved better-paying job opportunities for whites. Maintaining a low-cost surplus labor pool that was not in competition for jobs sought by whites benefited employers and the dominant society, providing domestic and sanitation workers and seasonal employees as well as job opportunities for whites in social work, law enforcement, and welfare agencies.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Perspectives (continued)

De jure and de facto segregation illustrate how those with power successfully protected their self-interests by maintaining the status quo. Control by whites of social institutions confined blacks to certain occupations and residential locations, away from participation in the political process out of the mainstream.

Interactionist: Skin color often triggers negative responses about

busing, crime, housing, jobs, and poverty.Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Perspectives (continued)

Opposition to integration usually comes from fear of unlike strangers. Expressed reasons may include preserving neighborhoods or schools, but the real reason is concern that blacks will “contaminate” the area or school. Beliefs that the crime rate, school discipline, property values, and neighborhood stability will be adversely affected often prompts whites to resist integration.

Unfounded beliefs that blacks are less reliable, less honest, and less intelligent than whites frequently influence hiring and acceptance decisions. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003

Summary More than 200 years of slavery exacted a heavy toll on

the black people of the United States, and the exploitation and discrimination did not end with the abolition of slavery.

Blacks and other groups in the U.S. share similar but also different experiences.

In the U.S., Blacks and African immigrants have different cultural orientations.

The functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives offer explanations for the Black American experience. Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2003