FAQ: Cultures in America

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Claribel Quinn
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1 Question 1: What varieties of pathways into the United States were pursued by European immigrants? Answer: Northern and Western Europeans were similar to the dominant group in both racial and religious characteristics and also shared similar cultural values including adherence to the principles of a democratic form of government and a Protestant work ethic that stresses hard work, rugged individualism, and discipline. These immigrants came from similarly developed countries and therefore tended to be more skilled, have more economic resources, and possess more education than other immigrant groups. Their dispersion throughout the Midwest not only reduced their visibility but the degree of competition with already established dominant groups. All of these factors paved the way for a relatively smooth and successful integration and attainment of equality compared to racial minority groups created by conquest and colonization. Immigrant laborers from Ireland and Southern and Eastern Europe experienced much less ease of assimilation because their cultural background was less compatible with the industrializing, capitalistic, individualistic, Protestant, Anglo- American culture of the United States. These immigrant laborers were mostly peasants who came with fewer resources and were from rural, small village cultures that emphasized family and kin over individualism. As a result, this group experienced greater levels of rejection, ethnic and religious prejudice, and discrimination, which led to barriers to upward mobility. Conversely, Eastern European Jewish immigrants were mostly fleeing religious persecution. Unlike the previous immigrant laborer groups who were young and single sojourners and economic refugees, Jewish immigrants arrived as family units whose intention was permanent settlement and citizenship. These groups settled in the urban areas between Boston and Philadelphia or in the Midwest, relying on a thriving urban economy for their livelihoods. Capitalizing on their urban skills and residential concentration, they created enclaves (or dense networks of commercial, financial, and social cooperation) that proved an effective means from which to integrate into American society. 1

2 Question 2: What is the "American Dilemma," and what are some examples of the ways in which it is instantiated socially? Answer: A sociologist named Gunnar Myrdal coined the phrase the "American Dilemma" (Gunnar Myrdal, n.d.). The concept, which he was describing in American society, was based on the fact that a celebrated democratic society could deny the basic rights and freedoms to an entire category of people. An example of this would of course be our historic treatment of Native Americans and African-Americans. Question 3: How was the contact situation of African-Americans different from American Indians or Mexican Americans? Answer: "The Noel hypothesis states: If two or more groups come together in a contact situation characterized by ethnocentrism, competition, and a differential in power, then some form of racial or ethnic stratification will result" (Healey, 2006, p. 163). Only African-Americans fit all three conditions under a system of slavery not shared by the other two groups while competition centering on control of the land pressed American Indians into a paternalistic relationship with the dominant group (Healey, 2006). Mexican Americans' competition over land and labor was what forced them into minority group status. Question 4: What role might prejudice and racism have played in the creation of slavery? Answer: Slavery emerged as an attempt to meet a labor supply problem. Therefore, slavery can best be understood in terms of the plantation elite using power differentials and a paternalistic system to reinforce and rationalize a system that consigned one group to minority status and exploitation. As the abolitionist movement challenged the collective social conscience of America and the Industrial Revolution brought a shift to competitive group relations, prejudice and racism became the means through which apologists for the system of slavery could justify, rationalize, and ensure the survival of certain aspects of a paternalistic system soon to be dismantled. Question 5: What is the difference between de jure segregation and de facto Answer: De jure segregation refers to a system of rigid competitive race relations that followed the Reconstruction Period at the end of the Civil War. This system lasted from the 1880s until the 1960s and was characterized by 2

3 segregation? legislation that mandated racial separation and inequality. De facto segregation, in contrast, is a system of racial separation and inequality that seems to result from the voluntary choices of individuals as to where to live, study, and work. This is a thinly veiled form of segregation that continues up to the present. De jure segregation ended as a result of several social, political, economic, and legal processes. First, mechanization and modernization of agriculture in the South brought profound change to a subsistence technology that was labor intensive, required maintenance of a powerless workforce, and promoted the rigid competitive system of group relations known as Jim Crow segregation. Second, newfound mobility to northern states and urbanized areas facilitated voter registration and subsequent political changes necessary for a new social agenda. A third factor was the civil rights movement with its successful challenge to the laws of racial segregation, such as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), and legislature that promoted racial equality, such as the Civil Rights Act of Question 6: How did the response to segregation lead to changes in American race relations? Answer: In response to segregation, African-Americans "voted with their feet" and moved north during the Great Migration. In the North, many aspects of African-American culture flourished, including African-American literature, poetry, art, and music. In addition, African-American communities developed a separate institutional life centered on family, church, and community from which a black middle class emerged (Healey, 2006). It was within this newfound freedom that African-Americans developed the political and economic resources from which effective leadership and the origins of Black protest emerged. As a result of African-Americans being on the vanguard of protest activity, these changes brought about by classbased affirmative action have certainly increased lifechanging opportunities and made profound changes in the structural fabric of America's institutions so as to negotiate more equitable and positive race relations in America. Question 7: What was the central strategy and main Answer: The principle of nonviolent direct action was the primary method used by the civil rights movement to defeat 3

4 effects of the civil rights movement? de jure segregation. Based on a philosophy of nonviolent protest, it used different tactics as required by different situations (Healey, 2006). These included sit-ins at segregated public facilities, protest marches, demonstrations, prayer meetings, voter registration drives, and economic boycotts such as the one spearheaded in December of 1955 by Rosa Park's arrest for violating Montgomery, Alabama's local bus segregation ordinance. By passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress banned discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or gender in publicly owned facilities or programs that received federal aid (Civil Rights Act, 2007). The Voting Rights Act, which followed in 1965, called for the same voting registration standards to be applied in federal, state, and local elections (Voting Rights Act, 2007). By banning the literacy test, whites-only primaries, and other methods used to prevent African-Americans from registering to vote, this law and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 brought profound changes to dominant-minority relations, further dismantled Jim Crow segregation, and promoted black political power. Question 8: What is the culture of poverty theory's perspective on the cycle of poverty and its solution? Answer: The culture of poverty theory attributes the problem of urban poverty to what it sees as negative characteristics of the poor. These include a sense of fatalism, or feeling that one's destiny is beyond one's control, a present orientation characterized by instant gratification rather than a future orientation, and the lack of hard work and discipline essential for economic success. It also identifies violence, high rates of alcoholism, and female-headed families as structural weaknesses that are the source rather than the result of poverty. In a culture of poverty perspective, the solution to African-American urban poverty lies in making significant changes to "poor cultural values" to make them more consistent with traditional, white, middle-class values. Question 9: What are the differences between American Indian tribes and the dominant society? Answer: Several cultural differences between American Indians and the dominant society have affected the dynamics between these two groups. These include the importance placed on groups (extended family, clans, etc.) 4

5 versus individualism, cooperation versus competition, and living in harmony versus exploiting the natural world. The concept of private property, prominent in Anglo-American culture, was notably absent in American Indian cultures (Healey, 2006). Notions of owning, selling, or buying of property were therefore foreign to them and placed them at a disadvantage in protecting their landholdings when dealing with land titles, deeds, contracts, and other Western legal concepts. Furthermore, power differentials paved the way to coercive Americanization and forged a paternalistic, dominant-minority relationship between these two groups. Question 10: What goals and methods characterize the self-determination efforts of American Indian activism? Answer: The goals of the American Indian protest movement are complementary in that they seek to strike a balance between assimilation and pluralism. This has forced them to establish common ground among themselves in the form of a generic American Indian culture. Successful protest, therefore, has required fluency in English, training in law, familiarity with the legislative formulation and execution of public policy, and skill in dealing with bureaucracies. Furthermore, in their struggle to improve their socioeconomic status, American Indians have turned their focus to the socioeconomic development of their reservations by capitalizing on natural resources. using the freedom from state regulations and taxes on their reservations to attract industry and jobs. promoting gaming establishments and other profitable operations that benefit tribal members in a variety of ways. References Civil Rights Act (1964). (2007). Retrieved April 8, 2008, from Historical Documents in United States History Web site: 5

6 Gunnar Myrdal ( ). (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2008, from The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics Web site: Healey, J. F. (2006). Race, ethnicity, gender, and class: The sociology of group conflict and change (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Healey, J. F. (2006). The development of dominant-minority group relations in Preindustrial America: The origins of slavery. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from Sage Publications Web site: Voting Rights Act of (2007). Retrieved April 8, 2008, from Historical Documents in United States History Web site: 6

Minorities in American Society (SYD 3700) Concepts, Themes, History, and Theories Healy Text

1 Minorities in American Society (SYD 3700) Concepts, Themes, History, and Theories Healy Text Chapter 1: What is a minority group? Inequality --Most important defining characteristic of minority groups.