Lecture 8

Race and Social Institutions: Economy, Education, and the Family

Social Institutions: Choices are made As a society we

decided what policies are institutions put into practice; these policies build the institutions that create our social sructure

Actions/Behavior

Social Structure

Culture & Ideology

Residential Segregation:Massey and Denton Strongest residential segregation among

American Blacks Little spatial integration between 1970-1980

Segregation in large cities did not change

Socioeconomic influences do not matter

Issue of race still matters when it comes to our neighbors

Ten Most Segregated Cites in the US http://www.salon.com/news/politics/

war_room/2011/03/29/most_segregated_cities/slideshow.html

Stagnant and Increasing Segregation The U.S. population is more racially and ethnically

diverse than ever before. Yet…

The 2010 census shows that overall the nation's largest cities have lost large numbers of white residents to suburban and outlying areas and segregation has increased in almost every large suburban area from 1990 to 2000.

Across the nation, four out of five whites live outside of the cities and 86 percent of whites live in neighborhoods where minorities make up less than 1 percent of the population. In contrast, 70 percent of Blacks and Latinos live in the cities or inner-ring suburbs.

Diversity in Bay Area Index of Diversity: Probability that if two people are

chosen at random they will be from different races

Most Diverse - Alameda County Least Diverse – Marin County

Largest Percentage of: Black Americans – Alameda and Solano (14%) Latino/Latina – Santa Clara (11%) Asian Americans – San Francisco (30%)

Do We Live Together? Dissimilarity Index: These measures show the

percentage of people from one group that would have to move or relocate out of their current neighborhood in order to be evenly distributed with another group in the county.

Residential segregation is highest for: Blacks (32-57%) Latinos (23-46%) Asians (15-28%)

Alameda County: Black – White: 56% Latino- White: 40% Asian – White: 34%

Why are we segregated?

http://www.pbs.org/race/006_WhereRaceLives/006_03-spiral.htm

Segregation and Homeownership According to the Census Bureau's 1999

American Housing Survey: 74 percent of suburban residents owned their own homes, while

only about half of urban residents are homeowners.

The proportion is similar when you compare homeowners by race - in 1999, 74 percent of whites were homeowners, while only 45 percent of Latinos, 46 percent of Blacks and 51 percent of Asians owned their homes.

Residential Redlining Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, the federal

government created programs that subsidized low-cost loans, opening up home ownership to millions of average Americans for the first time.

In 1935, branches of FHA were asked to to look at 239 cities and create "residential security maps" to indicate the level of security for real-estate investments in each surveyed city. All-white communities received the highest ratings and benefited from

low-cost, government-backed loans, while minority and mixed neighborhoods received the lowest ratings and were denied these loans

Of the $120 billion worth of new housing subsidized by the government between 1934 and 1962, less than 2 percent went to nonwhite families.

What does Williams mean when she states, “Black people end up paying higher prices for the attempt to integrate, even as the integration of oneself threatens to lower the value of one’s investment”?

Reverse Redlining

Reverse redlining occurs when a lender or insurer particularly targets minority consumers to charge them more than would be charged to a similarly situated majority consumer Home loans Consumer credit

Who experiences foreclosure? According to the Center for Responsible

Lending majority (56%) of completed foreclosures involved white borrowers, but a higher share of African American and Latino borrowers are affected: The completed foreclosure rate of recent loan

originations for these groups was nearly 8%, compared to 4.5% for whites.

Who is at risk for foreclosure? An additional 5.7 million borrowers at

imminent risk of foreclosure, but homeowners non-whites continue to be disproportionately at risk Non-Hispanic White 14.8% African-American 21.6% Latino 21.4% Asian 15.7%

Loss of wealth for communities? “Spillover Costs”: Indirect losses in

property value to neighboring households In general a $1.86 trillion in spillover from

2009-2012 African-Americans: $193 billion Latinos: $180 billion

African-American and Latino communities, combined, are estimated to lose more than $350 billion.

Black/White Wealth Gap

Wealth is the engine of social mobility Location, education, employment

Average white family has a net worth 7 times that of the average Black family This gap has grown since the 1960’s

The wealth gap accounts for many of the racial inequities Racial disparities almost disappear when economic

resources are equal

Economy

Economy: a system that organizes production, distribution, and consumption Roots of capitalism in the US are gendered and

racialized

Capitalism creates an institution of wage labor that forms the foundation of our social structure We must sell our labor (wages)

Human Development Index

http://www.measureofamerica.org/maps

Race and Poverty in CA

Poverty and Race in CA (US): White 7% (8%) Black 22% (25%) Latino 22% (23%) Asian 13% (13%)

Foreign born residents are more likely to be living in poverty

Highest rate of poverty is among children in single-parent households headed by Hispanic women – 48% are in poverty

Race and Income in CA

Per Capita Income White, $31,000 Black, $17,000 Latino, $11,000 Asian $22, 000

Percent Change Per capita income grew 49% 1990-2000

White 67% Black 50% Latino 37% Asian 59 %

Gender/Race Wage Gap:For Every White Man’s $...

Year Black men

Hispanic Men

White Women

Black Women

Hispanic Women

1970 $.69 na $.58 $.48 na

1980 $.70 $.70 $.58 $.55 $.50

1990 $.73 $.66 $. 69 $.62 $.54

2003 $.78 $.63 $. 75 $.65 $.54

What accounts for the decline in Latino Men’s Wages? The labor-market that is open to Latino immigrants

is generally a low-wage market Native Latinos earn more than immigrants, but after the

second generation increasing wages stall Differential price employers pay for Latino workers

Improvements in quantity and quality of education will narrow the wage gap between Latinos and Whites Nationally 21% of Latino students drop out of high school –

2x the rate for all students

Occupational Segregation

Occupations in which at least 25% are African American Taxi driver, postal clerk, correctional officer,

security guard, nurse’s aid/health aid, barber

Occupations in which at least 25% are Latino/a Private house cleaner, maid/janitor, gardener,

construction worker, farm worker, food service

What about Silicon Valley? The Mercury News used the Freedom of Information Act to get

hiring data as late as 2005 from the U.S. Department of Labor Every two years major corporations are audited for their racial and gender

demographics at all levels of hiring.

According to the 2005 data: Of the 10 companies only 2.1 percent of the workforce is Black while only 5.2

percent of the workforce is Hispanic. “Of the 5,907 top managers and officials in the Silicon Valley offices of the 10 large

companies in 2005, 296 were Black or Hispanic, a 20 percent decline from 2000

In 2008, the share of computer workers living in Silicon Valley who are Black or Latino was 1.5 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively—shares that had declined since 2000. Nationally, Blacks and Latinos were 7.1 percent and 5.3 percent of computer workers,

respectively, shares that were up since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Ratio of Highest: Lowest Average Expenditure per Pupil Within the State California 4.24:1 Illinois 3.89:1 New York 3.47:1 Massachusetts 3.31:1 Missouri 2.76:1 New Jersey 2.76:1 Pennsylvania 2.71:1 Virginia 2.18:1

* Using the latest available data for the 2004-2005 school year from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Census.  Excludes the following LEAs: very small (enrollment below 200 students), special purpose LEAs, those providing only special or vocational/technical education, and individual charter schools.

Education in CA

Coleman Study (1966) Most extensive sociological study on race

and education was done by Coleman in the 1960’s ½ million students

Major conclusions : Material resources provided in schools made little

difference in educational success Family background and non-school factors had

the largest impact The social networks of students mattered

Bourdieu: Culture and Schooling Schools reproduce inequalities by rewarding

some cultural practices over others Schools appear to be culturally neutral, but in fact

the education system is a mechanism by which power and privilege are reproduced in society

Habitus: class-based set of dispositions (language use, taste, demeanors) Mediation between structure and practice Cultural capital

“Acting White” “Acting White” Thesis (1986): Black students

reluctance to embrace school norms/culture, which they associate with “white culture” Abstract attitude about education was similar to the mainstream Concrete attitude reflects their view that they had different

options after school

Carter’s study (2005) found that Black and Latino students that were cultural navigators were the most successful Drew from resources in home and mainstream cultures

The Family

A family is a group of people linked by kin connections and adult members take care of the children Nuclear family Extended family

Families share economic, social, and cultural resources

Family, Education, and Cultural Capital Cultural capital: forms of knowledge, skills,

education, and advantages that a person has, which give them a higher status in society. Parents provide their children with cultural capital

by transmitting the attitudes and knowledge needed to succeed in the current educational system

Intersecting Institutions

The institutions that make up our social structure and interrelated and intersect

These social institutions have a historical basis which determines how they are set up and which groups in society are best served by these institutions Our social institutions can deepen racial inequality

or be a path to creating more racial equality