Looking Beyond the Rose Veil

During last Thursday’s class we discussed the various levels of discrimination and how they differ in both what parties they encompass and how discrimination at each level is carried out. Most tension in ethnic relations occurs at the micro level and usually involves individuals. Whether it be a store owner who discriminates against a customer or a police officer treating a motorist unjustly because of their ethnicity these situations tend to be where racial animosity occurs most frequently. These situations are also the easiest to highlight as having a racial component.

Unfortunately, the other two forms of discrimination are much more difficult to address. They include macro-level discrimination and structural discrimination. Macro-discrimination is when discrimination against a particular group is imbedded into the society’s legal, political, and social institutions to perpetuate a system of sustained inequality. However, this form of discrimination is still noticeable, such as the case of Jim Crow laws in the South before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While one could turn a blind eye to such discrimination it can still be tackled, but only by changing the attitudes and ideology of an entire nation or community rather than the personal beliefs of a single individual.

The final level of discrimination is perhaps the most elusive and opaque form to handle. In most modern societies the apparent systems of institutional discrimination such as apartheid or Jim Crow have been largely abandoned. Instead discrimination on the macro level occurs in the manner known as structural discrimination. Rather than ethnicity serving as the primary motivation of the discrimination it instead relates only indirectly to the discrimination taking place. One example is when a bank refuses to give a loan to someone so they can make a major necessary repair. Their reason is that the house is in a low-profit neighborhood and therefore the applicant cannot afford the repair and the value of the house plummets. Coincidentally the applicant was African American and the neighborhood in question is made up almost entirely of African Americans. However, that was not technically the reason the applicant was denied the loan, instead they were denied for a reason that, to anyone on the surface, appears perfectly logical and reasonable.

It is this aspect of structural discrimination is what makes it the most effective and pervasive form of discriminatory action. It thrives off our logic as well as being the ultimate byproduct of other forms of ethnic discrimination. The reasons so many predominantly African-American neighborhoods have lower property values is the direct result of years of intentional institutional discrimination. Whether it was Caucasians refusing to let African Americans move into their neighborhoods or simply fleeing when they could not prevent them or whether it was banks refusing to give loans solely because of their ethnicity this has overtime created a self-perpetuating cycle. Now that such actions are no longer legal it is no longer even necessary since now discrimination can be based off facts that appear completely logical, yet are the direct result of previous decades of open discrimination.

In the end the ultimate goal of addressing these issues would involve a much more radical approach. T would have to involve looking at and questioning the logic behind many of the decisions and practices our society makes in fields such as housing, education, and employment. It would require us as a society to ask more of the institutions we have created and force us to remove the rose-colored glasses and admit that even after a half century since the Civil Rights Act there is still much work to be done. What I have learned is that I need to look deeper as well, rather than simply believing discrimination is now only an isolated incident.

In dealing with racial and ethnic relations these interactions can take on a variety of dynamics. What all these relationships have in common is that they involve a dominate group asserting authority over one or more subordinate groups. These subordinate groups themselves react differently to their situation. These actions range from assimilating, passively resisting, and even violently resisting. While the United States and other industrialized nations do have ethnic issues, these problems do not normally include prolonged ethnic violence. Unfortunately, in much of the developing world ethnic tensions have evolved into warfare. One such example currently happening is in the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar. Aside from simply being a conflict between two antagonistic ethnic groups the conflict ensuing in Myanmar has garnered the attention of major global powers such as the United States and China, for political, social, and economic reasons.

Formerly referred to as Burma, Myanmar is home to a major ethnic group known as the Kachin. This group posses its own military, political leadership, and sub territory. In many ways the Kachin can be seen as secessionist minority given the greater political independence and the fact that the portion of the country they occupy is regarded separately from Myanmar. Ethnic tensions between the Burmese government and the Kachin disintegrated back in June of 2011 after a nearly seventeen year ceasefire was brought to end. One possible reason for this, according to some within the Kachin military leadership, is that the Burmese government wishes to have greater influence over the Kachin-occupied territory which has in recent years become an important resource-rich region.

Here is where the situation becomes complicated, and becomes an issue of interest for not only the people of Myanmar. The northern portion of the nation, where the Kachin mostly live, is rich in jade, gold, and timber, all valuable resources to the Chinese. The area also has rivers which serve as sites for major Chinese-backed hydroelectric power projects. Here is just one example of how racial and ethnic issues is directly influenced by real world issues, namely in the case of Myanmar, access to valuable resources. Normally, it is the unequal access to these valuables that allows for the majority group within any given society to continue to assert its dominance over other subordinate groups. However, in this particular example it is the minority group that has access to these resources, and in response the other group attempts to forcibly take it.

As for China and even United States, there is a desire to see that this ethnic conflict cease, though each nation has a preferred outcome they liked to see reached. The United States is namely interested in ending the accused abuses that Kachin civilians are suffering at the hands of the Burmese military, while China is mainly interested in bringing stability to back to the profitable region. The Chinese would also prefer dealing with the Burmese military, and would therefore prefer for the region to fall under their control. Here we see how economic and political issues have fueled ethnic tensions leading to an all out war, which has claimed responsibility for the death of at least 140 Kachin soldiers and the displacement of at least five thousand civilians on the Chinese border, and over ten thousand civilians live in camps under the control of the Burmese government.

This is merely one example of how racial and ethnic issues are interwoven and how seemingly simple things such as trees, rivers, and jade can cause such terrible conflict. This story has helped me in understanding how simple phrases like secessionist minority, and ethnic stratification, which I once viewed as merely vocabulary terms, are real problems that have dramatic consequences.

You can find the full story here.

A Ray of Hope

Often times studying racial ethnic relations can be depressing. Considering my background in history I have studied human history and one of the most common themes that continues to rear its head is racism. In the case of the U.S. I try to look at how deplorable things were in comparison today, and that helps me realize just how far we have come as a nation and as a people.

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go and believing that racism has been eradicated is dangerously naive. We must always strive to tackle the real issues of ethnic stratification, rather than kid ourselves into believing that they no longer exist. I recently read a New York Times article in which those issues were being addressed by a group that perhaps has the greatest potential in overcoming our racial and ethnic differences.

At Roosevelt Intermediate School in Wesfield, New Jersey; and Cedarbrooke K-8 Center in Plainfield, New Jersey; two different groups of eighth graders were learning about the same novel, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. What makes their study of the book so unique is that the students of both schools studied the novel together. Facilitated by modern technology, such as Skype, the students were able to ask questions to each other about their feeling and ideas about the book and its characters.

Coming from different backgrounds each group of students had a preconceived concept of the other, with Westfield's mostly white students associating Plainsfield with 'fried chicken' and 'hair salons', while students from Plainsfield thought of Westfield as 'rich' and 'snotty'. Once brought together each group benefited from their experienced. Students from Westfield were exposed to people from a very different background, and the students from Plainsfield were encouraged to know they were equally capable of doing the same academic work as students from Westfield.

While this story may come off as idealistic and cheesy to some I believe stories like this are important for several reasons. One is that it shows that there is still much work to be done in the way of ethnic assumptions, stratification, and interracial relations. Second is that it helps show how we can use classic works like Steinbeck in conjunction with modern technology such as Facebook to allow teens to engage with both literature and each other. Finally, it shows us that not all is wrong in the world and that there is progress being made, and frankly who does not enjoy something positive?

You can read the article here

Catching Flies

"One can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than a gallon of vinegar". This phrase is commonly used in politics, business, and foreign relations as a means of explaining that forced coercion is not always the most effective means of accomplishing one's goals. However, this also relates to how a dominate ethnic group can continually maintain a place of authority over various other subordinate groups.

One of the general areas of racial ethnic relations deals with ethnic stratification, and how that arranges ethnic groups hierarchically and determines their access to the various forms of power. In general social stratification is defined as a system of structured inequality that distributes an unequal amount of a society's valued resources. Ethnic stratification is merely different in that it bases it hierarchy primarily on ethnicity. Overall, within every society there exists a hierarchy based on a variety of factors beyond ethnicity such as age, religion, gender, and class. These systems of inequality are used by the dominant group to ensure a continued occupation of the upper levels of the ethnic hierarchy.

One idea discussed in the chapter was how the dominate group approaches exerting their power over the subordinate groups. Two examples were used in the text, one being Whites in South Africa who used the system of apartheid to keep the significant proportion of non-whites in a state of subjugation. The other was White slave owners in the antebellum South in the US. In both of these cases the dominate groups used extreme force and regularly employed violence and fear to maintain the racial hierarchies they had put in place. Another similarity shared by these two examples is that neither exist any longer. While force has its advantages the most effective way to ensure the continuation of ethnic stratification is through shaping the culture, ideology, and presumptions of a nation so that the general populace will involuntarily see the established system of inequality as natural and fair. Unfortunately, this can be said of the US today as many see our nation as one a meritocracy, in which a person's lot in life is directly influenced by that person's abilities and motivation. The success of certain individuals from an ethnic group that largely occupy the lower end of society only further supports this assumption.

In the end while the US has made great strides in recent decades in making social mobility a greater possibility for individuals who in previous years would not have such opportunity there is more work yet to be done. I believe the first step in this process is to just simply have an open discussion on how race and ethnicity shape our lives even today. By merely admitting that there is still work to be done, rather than simply lure ourselves into a false reality we can begin to further improve these issues of ethnic stratification.

Fitting In

The first step to understanding racial ethnic relations is defining what is an ethnic group. Ethnic groups are basically smaller subgroups within a larger population that maintain a distinct identity that differentiates them from other subgroups. They have unique cultural traits, a communal connection to others in the group, and generally have a belief in the superiority of their group.

One of the more interesting qualifications of an ethnic group is the concept of ascribed membership, which is when an individual is placed within an ethnic group, usually at birth. For almost all people this is how they end up in the group they occupy. While some may attempt to leave their group ultimately it may prove difficult, if not impossible, for someone to fully escape the identity prescribed to them at birth.

In addition to learning about what traits define an ethnic group as a class we were presented with a variety of questions to ponder, one of which I see as pertaining to ascribed membership. While generally external forces place us into ethnic categories or groups, we may sometimes place ourselves into a specific group. One question given to us was how do people mold their behavior to fit in and belong to a certain group. That made me think about my life and how I have spent the majority of it doing the opposite.

An example provided in class of self ascribed membership were children whose families had not traditionally hailed from the Southeastern United States behaving as a part of this group known as 'Southerners'. Being from a family that has been in Georgia for sometime I have many family members who believe in this concept of Southern pride and see themselves as different from other Americans. One of the biggest supporters of this is my mother who doesn't see any state outside of the Deep South, which include Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,Louisiana, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina as being southern states. My entire life I have adamantly rejected this idea of being from the South somehow makes me different, which has greatly annoyed her over the years. I even consciously took extra effort in distancing myself from what the members in my family saw as being Southern.

Of those efforts perhaps the most noticeable is my accent, specifically my lack of one. Despite living in the North Georgia mountains my entire life I possess no accent and at work and among other natives of Gilmer County whenever I am asked where I am from they are astounded to learn that I come from the same place they have. Looking back the reason I chose to reject many family traditions and actively work to change how I spoke I realize that my situation is not exactly the same as that described in chapter one of the book, but this has given me the opportunity to at least try to understand the steps that some take to move away from the group they were placed into involuntarily.

My first post.

This blog shall serve to facilitate my journey in learning more about how people are grouped into various racial ethnic groups, both personally and by external forces. I will tackle these issues from both a personal and academic standpoint. While this is an assignment for class I am still looking forward to this experience and welcome discussion and comments from anyone interested.

Thank you and enjoy the future posts.