Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian Americans, and the Achievement Gap by Gilda L. Ochoa

Gilda Ochoa’s new book, Academic Profiling, is based on intensive ethnography and over 100 interviews with students at Southern California High School (SCHS). Ochoa sets out to understand how racial stereotypes and institutional practices affect the educational opportunities of Latino and Asian students.

This book reminds me of another excellent tome: Ann Arnett Ferguson’s Bad Boys. Two important differences are that Ochoa’s book focuses on Latinos and Asians instead of African Americans, and that Ochoa’s book is set in a high school instead of an elementary school. The two books remind me of one another in terms of the careful attention to gender and race as well as the balanced discussion of theory and ethnographic and interview data.

Academic Profiling focuses on SCHS – a high school where the students are 46% Asian, 43% Latino, 7% White, 2% African American, and 1% Native American. In contrast to the student population, about half of the teachers and administrators are White. This highly diverse high school makes an excellent setting for understanding contemporary educational disparities. Whereas much of the focus in educational literature has been on the black-white achievement gap, we know much less about the distinctions between Asian and Latino students.

At SCHS, Asian and Asian American students are over-represented in the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) classes. In the elite IB track, there is only one Latino student – the remaining students are Asian. And, in the AP classes, only about five percent of the students are Latino. Ochoa sets out to explain this “gap” as well as to consider the discourses that students, staff, and faculty use to discuss these disparities.

Ochoa argues that internal disparities within the school are a consequence of “academic profiling” – a process whereby teachers and counselors are more likely to place Asian American students in more rigorous courses than Latino students. This process creates a situation where Asian American students are privileged academically and Latino students are privileged socially.

This book is unique insofar as the author looks simultaneously at Asians and Latinos, and also takes an intersectional perspective. Ochoa takes class and gender seriously in her analyses by considering the roles gender and socioeconomic status play at SCHS.

Ochoa’s interviews with teacher reveal that teachers often attribute Asian American success to parental involvement and assume that Latino parents do not value education. This is the case even when Latino parents actually invest significant time and energy in their children’s education. For example, many of the Latino students explained that their parents had learned that SCHS is a high-performing school and drive their children across town each day so that they can attend this school. The presumption that Latino parents are not invested in their children’s education prevents teachers and administrators from seeing the significant investments and sacrifices Latino parents are actually making.

Ochoa points out that staff and faculty at SCHS give Latino and Asian students different messages about their academic abilities as well as different forms of support. These racialized messages and structured inequalities exacerbate disparities between the two groups.

The disparities are most notable between the elite IB students and everyone else. The IB students are given preferred access to counselors, allowed to roam the halls without question, and rarely subject to the school’s disciplinary tactics. In contrast, nearly all of the students who are subject to disciplinary actions are Latino. This reminds me of Bad Boys, insofar as Ferguson found that black boys were much more likely to be suspended than any other group at the school she studied.

The disparities are notable enough that Asian students often notice the differential treatment. One Asian American student pointed out that when Asian students are late to class, they get a pass whereas teachers often send Latino students to the office for tardiness. In contrast, Asian students are held to higher academic standards. Another student pointed out that the high expectations for Asian students mean that teachers will nag them more if they don’t perform exceptionally well. In contrast, when Latino students get a relatively good grade, teachers congratulate them.

With respect to this, Ochoa notes that “academic profiling does not leave space for students to be understood as individuals with their own interests and capabilities” (129). An interview with an Asian student renders this evident. Student Nathan Yi tells the interviewer:

“[The teacher] expects Asians to have a higher standard. I hate that kind of stereotyping …. Just because I’m Asian doesn’t mean I have to get all straight As and study all the time.” (130)

Asian students are often able to perceive the inequalities. Student Becky Han points out:

“I’m Chinese, and lots of people pressure you to do good, and they want you to succeed more. It’s kind of not fair to other races. I think everyone should be pushed, but we get pushed more than Mexicans, Blacks, and Whites.” (166)

Latino students also resist the typecasting. Student Dolores Anaya told the interviewer:

“Latinos in general in this school are not encouraged enough … I don’t think they’re expected to do much.” (225)

At the end of Academic Profiling, Gilda Ochoa tells the reader that she presented her findings at the school and describes the reactions of the staff and faculty. Whereas some of the staff and faculty were receptive to her analysis and encouraged by her suggestions, others were clearly resistant.

Ochoa explains this resistance through Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s term analyses of color blind racism. She points to three aspects of this framework: 1) faculty blamed the disparities on Latino versus Asian culture (cultural racism); 2) not everyone wants to go to college; and 3) any changes should be small, as it is not the school that reproduces inequality. In general, most staff and faculty chalked up the disparities to cultural differences and denied that they had any role in reproducing the inequalities. This is a classic example of “racism without racists.” Of course, the teachers and administrators would deny their role in reproducing inequalities, given the stigma associated with being a racist in this country.

It is admirable that Ochoa presented her findings to the school, and it is evident that this action did change some hearts and minds. It is also not surprising that she could not convince everyone of the need for change.

In the end, educational institutions reproduce societal inequalities. There is always some room for change, but it would be extraordinarily hard to operate a school outside the boundaries of the persistent inequalities between Latinos and Asians as well as to overcome deeply entrenched inequalities between these two groups.

It is not solely through education that we will overcome societal inequality. Nevertheless, studies such as this one are needed in order to demonstrate how educational institutions reproduce societal inequalities as well as provide some ideas for meaningful change.

Race Decoded: The Genomic Fight for Social Justice

In Race Decoded, sociologist Catherine Bliss endeavors to understand why genomicists shifted from “a science uninterested in race to one devoted to its understanding” (2). She explains that, in 2000, when the initial mapping of the human genome was completed, scientists came to a consensus that humans are 99.9 percent identical genetically, and that there are no genetic distinctions between the races. However, shortly thereafter, genomic scientists who studied racial differences emerged on the center stage of a renewed debated over racial and genetic differences.

To understand these shifts, Bliss interviewed 36 elite genomic scientists, read their reports, attended their workshops, and went to their labs. Bliss finds that the genomics researchers at the forefront of this return to race view their research as part of their commitment to racial justice.

Yes. You read that right.

Even though there is a long history of the pseudoscientific study of biological differences between races, Bliss found that this new generation of scientists have decided to engage with the field and deploy genomics research in the pursuit of racial justice.

Bliss argues that

“genomics does not mark the reemergence of a prior science of race; rather, it is devoted to a new understanding of race – as a hybrid of molecular science, social epidemiology, public health, and bioethics. Within the field of genomics, scientists join social science experts in their efforts to recast race in historically conscious, yet politically empowering, terms” (9).

She goes on to contend that the new genomic racial experts have racial justice as a central goal and that they endeavor to change how we think about race. In this line of thinking, racial science is not necessarily racist. In fact, scientists can participate in

"antiracist racialism … the idea that there is no rank to races but that there are nevertheless discrete populations worth studying” (15).

Reading these lines in the introduction, it was a bit hard for me to believe that this is possible. Think about it.

The idea of race was created in order to justify genocide and slavery. The lines that were drawn between humans were clearly politically motivated. Europe – the home of the slavers and colonizers – became “white.” The Americas – the land Europeans desired to colonize – became “red.” Africa – the land of human and material resources European wanted access to – became “black.” And, the rest of the world became “yellow.” This process is decidedly unscientific. Moreover, European pseudoscientists in the 1500s and 1600s assigned characteristics and values to these groups that correlated with their profit motives. They characterized the people of the Americas as savage in order to justify the takeover of their land and Africans as lazy to justify slavery.

How, then, can twenty-first century scientists claim to be participating in a scientific study of race divorced from this history?

In Bliss’s interviews with genomicists, it becomes evident that they see racial justice and minority inclusion as central to their work. Esteban Burchard, for example, sees his research on the gene-environment causes of asthma as work that will reduce health disparities. Burchard finds convincing the evidence that there is a genetic basis to asthma and thinks that ignoring that will be detrimental to asthma sufferers – who are disproportionately minorities.

Thinking about Burchard’s work, I am reminded of Dorothy Roberts’ excellent book, Fatal Invention. In Fatal Invention, Dorothy Roberts explains how race, as a proxy for genetics, is increasingly being used to explain health disparities. Rather than blame structural inequality for poor health outcomes for people of color, researchers point to race and genetics. Roberts is critical of Burchard’s work and contends that work that focuses on hunting for genetic causes for asthma is possible because of the profit potential. Roberts argues that, if there are genetic causes for diseases, corporations can design personalized medicine to confront it. In contrast, there is no profit to be found in addressing deep structural inequalities that contribute to health disparities.

Although Bliss focuses on many of the same scientists as Roberts does, she shies away from making such a direct critique. Instead, Bliss concludes that the primary motivation for Burchard’s research is to reduce health and other disparities.

Bliss’s critique is much more subtle than that of Dorothy Roberts. She concedes, as Roberts does, that racial categories are a weak substitute for actual genetic differences between people. And, she would agree with Stephen Gould that scientists own ethical beliefs and biases influence their work.

In the last few pages of the book, Bliss acknowledges that not all genomicists work in the pursuit of racial justice. Some, in fact, continue to do work that reinforces racial biases by searching for genetic bases to intelligence and aggression.

Race Decoded does an excellent job of revealing the genomic fight for social justice, and contains some surprising findings about how these scientists see their work.

The problems with white allies and white privilege - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Suey Park and Trudy of Gradient Lair have called out writer and anti-racist activist Tim Wise recently for some of his work and for his statements on social media. His reaction has been that he is fighting the good fight.

In this essay I will focus on two concepts that are at the center of this debate on the role of whites in anti-racist activism: "white allies" and "white privilege."

The concepts of "white allies" and "white privilege" are problematic insofar as they rely on an individualist-based notion of how racism works when racism is a structural problem and needs to be addressed as such.

Of course white privilege exists. I am not trying to deny that it exists nor that I can benefit from it. I know that, as a white woman, when I go into a store no one follows me around thinking I am a thief. But, is that a privilege, or just how we should behave towards one another?

If I were to take a white privilege standpoint, that would mean that I should feel guilty when the clerk does not assume I am a thief. The white privilege standpoint does not get me very far. It allows me to see my privilege, but does not make it clear what the next step is.

If I see a store clerk following a black man, as a white ally, I should ask her why she is following the black man and not me. Ok. I can do that. But, how far does that get us? My personal experience with calling people out on racism is that they get mad at me and vehemently deny having been racist. I do continue to call people out, because I feel compelled to do so. However, I recognise the limitations of this approach.

You see, I think that calling people out for being racist should not be at the centre of the struggle against racism. I see racism as deeply rooted in structures of power, not in individual white bigots. Racism is structural and has to be fought against from that standpoint. We are not going to win the battle against racism one bigot at a time.

Furthermore, I don’t fight against racism on behalf of my black, Latino, Asian, and Native American brothers and sisters. As Andy Smith pointed out on Twitter, people of colour are fully capable of fighting on their own behalf. Instead, I fight against racism because I want a better society for all. For me, it is not a privilege to live in a racist society.

Racist Ideologies Are Harmful to All

The United States is a deeply racist society.

Racism is an ideology and a set of practices. Racist ideologies justify the racist practices that are predominant in our society. For example, the racist ideology that black men are dangerous creates a situation where most people in the United States are not up in arms about mass incarceration of black men.

This racist ideology that black men are violent and are to be feared is linked to the unfortunate fate of Jonathan Ferrell – 24 year old former football player. Jonathan Ferrell, seeking assistance after crashing his car, knocked on the door of a nearby house. The homeowner called the police when she realised a black man was at her door. When the police arrived, Ferrell, who was unarmed, ran towards them. Police officer Randall Kerrick shot him several times and Ferrell died on the scene.

It is true that a white woman in the same situation as Jonathan Ferrell would almost certainly not have been shot at by the police. Is that white privilege? Perhaps. But, another way to look at is it not a privilege to not fear police. That is how things should be. No one should be shot when seeking help from the police. That is not something that should be considered a privilege.

The racist ideology that black men are disposed to violence that is behind the death of far too many black men has deep historical roots. Ideas of black male propensities to violence were used to justify Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and slavery. Today, these ideologies justify mass incarceration. These deeply rooted ideologies are not going to disappear because I declare myself an ally or come to terms with my white privilege. It is going to take a lot more than that.

It Is Not a Privilege to Live in a Racist Society

Racism is also a set of practices that ensures white dominance. For example, in Washington, DC, black men are eight times more likely than white men to be arrested for marijuana offences, even though blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates.

High rates of black male incarceration are the current manifestation of a racist system of control that goes back to Jim Crow and slavery, as Michelle Alexander eloquently argues in her book The New Jim Crow. Alexander further points out that the War on Drugs in the United States is largely responsible for the explosion in incarceration rates since 1980. Whereas 41,000 people were behind bard for a drug offence in 1980, the figure in 2010 was about half a million. In 2005, 80 percent of drug arrests were for drug possession.

It is outrageous that millions of people are in prison because of marijuana offences. Many Americans, nevertheless, accept mass incarceration because of deeply embedded racist ideologies. Mass incarceration of minor drug offenders, however, is devastating to our society. 

Mass incarceration involves billions of dollars of expenditures that are not going to our schools and our communities. You don’t have to be a white ally to see that.

Racial divisions between blacks, whites, Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans are harmful to all of these groups. We all need to develop a better understanding of how racism works and how it harms us all. If you are white, you don’t have to worry about how you can be a good ally or how to come to terms with your white privilege. Instead, you can look around you and see how racism is a scourge on our society. And, you can fight against racism by working to change the racist ideologies and racist practices that are omnipresent in our society.

You can fight against mass incarceration, mass deportation, drone warfare, school closings, and predatory lenders. You can fight against the fear and loathing that render these problems so widespread. And, you can fight this fight because winning it will create a better society for all.

Revised the first three sentences for accuracy and reposted from:

The problems with white allies and white privilege - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Income Inequality in the United States

Income inequality in the United States has increased markedly since 1980, due in large part to tremendous increases in the incomes of the highest earners and stagnation or decline in the earnings of the lowest earners. By 2007, the share of the income held by the top 1 percent was higher than it had been since 1917 (Morris and Western 1999; McCall and Percheski 2010).



By 2011, the United States was one of the most unequal among all advanced economies, with a Gini coefficient of 47.7. The Gini coefficient is a measure from 1 to 100, with 0 representing perfect equality and 100 representing perfect inequality (ILO 2013). The United States is now one of the most unequal countries in the Western Hemisphere. For example, in 2012, the richest 20 percent of people in the United States earned 16 times more than the poorest 20 percent. This is less than Brazil – where the richest 20 percent earns 21.4 times as much as the poorest 20 percent, but more than Mexico and nine other Latin American countries.

Inequality along racial lines

Overall inequality is exacerbated by inequality along racial and ethnic lines. In the United States today, Asians have the highest average earnings, followed by Whites, and then Blacks and Hispanics.


Median Weekly Earnings by Race and Ethnicity, July 2013
Asians $973
Whites $799
Blacks $634
Hispanics $572
Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf


Earnings inequality is compounded by unemployment rates. The earnings data is only based on employed people. Unemployed people may not be bringing home any income. In July 2013, 13.4 percent of blacks were unemployed, as compared to 6.8 percent of whites. The Asian unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. It was 9.5 percent for Hispanics. Since 1970, the unemployment rate for blacks has been about twice the unemployment rate for whites.

Inequality, race, and gender

When we also take gender into account, the largest income difference is between Asian men – who earned an average of $1092 per week in 2013, and Hispanic women – who earned an average of $525 per week. Notably, the gender ratio between Asian men and women is also the largest, with Asian men earning 40 percent more than Asian women.

Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf 

Black, white, and Latina women have different labor market outcomes, and these vary further by level of education. Among high-school graduates aged 18 to 24, 61 percent of white women are employed, as compared to 52 percent of blacks and 55 percent of Hispanics. The trends are distinct for college graduates: 86 percent of black female college graduates are employed, as compared to 82 percent of white female college graduates and 77 percent of Hispanic female college graduates. Overall, black female college graduates are less disadvantaged relative to their white counterparts than are low-skilled black women.

These disparities continue over time. For example, when unskilled women first enter the labor market, the average hourly rate (in 1995 dollars) is $6.28 for black women, $6.67 for Hispanic women, and $6.42 for white women. However, by the 14th year on the labor market, white and Hispanic women are doing, on average, a lot better, with an average pay of $10.04 and $9.34 per hour. In contrast, even after 14 years out of school, unskilled black women earn on average $7.48 per hour. These data show that the human capital advantage of work experience is less for black women than it is for white and Hispanic women, even though black women with college degrees experience other labor market advantages (Alon and Haberfield 2007).

Given the tremendous diversity within the Latino and Asian populations, it can be helpful to break these groups down by national origin. In a study using 2000 Census data, Emily Greenman and Yu Xie (2008) looked at full-time, full-year workers between the ages of 25 and 55. They found that, when you look at men, four groups had higher earnings than white men: Chinese, Asian Indians, Koreans, and Japanese. However, when you look just at women, in addition to those four groups, Cuban women and Filipina women also out-earn their white counterparts. Overall, they found that white women earn 71 cents for each dollar that white men earn – and that white women had the largest gender disadvantage of all of the other racial and ethnic groups. Korean women, for example, earned 86 cents for each dollar that Korean men earned and Black and Filipina women earned 84 cents for each dollar that their male counterparts earned. Their results show that it is not the case that race and gender are additive factors in the labor market. Instead, racism and sexism operate in distinct ways for different ethnic and racial groups.

No matter how you slice it, there is a lot of inequality in the United States. With rising overall inequality, it is becoming increasingly clear that racial and gender justice will require also tackling overall inequality. Even if the 1 percent were racially diverse, we would still have too many poor people of color in this country, simply because of how severe income inequality is.

Draft Table of Contents: Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach

Race and Racisms is officially in production. It will be out in August 2014 - in time for Fall semester or quarter teaching! Here is the Table of Contents:

Table of Contents

Preface

PART I: The History of the Idea of Race

1: The Origin of the Idea of Race

Defining Race and Racism

Race: The Evolution of an Ideology

            Historical Precedents to the Idea of Race

                        Slavery before the Idea of Race

            Encounters with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

            Voices: The Conquest of America

            The Enslavement of Africans

            The Need for Labor in the Thirteen Colonies

            The Legal Codification of Racial Differences

            Voices: Bullwhip Days

The Rise of Science and the Question of Human Difference

            European Taxonomies

            Scientific Racism in the Nineteenth Century

The Indian Removal Act: The Continuation of Manifest Destiny

Freedom and Slavery in the United States          

            Global View: The Idea of Race in Latin America

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

2: Race and Citizenship from the 1840s to the 1920s 

           

            The Continuation of Scientific Racism

Measuring Race: From Taxonomy to Measurement

Intelligence Testing

Voices: Carrie Buck

Eugenics

Exclusionary Immigration Policies

            The Chinese Exclusion Act

            The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924

            Birthright Citizenship for Whites Only

            Naturalization for “Free White People”

            Voices: Takao Ozawa v. U S

How the Irish, Italians, and Jews Became White

            The Irish

            The Italians

            The Jews

Native Americans and African Americans: The Long, Troubled Road to Citizenship

            African Americans and the Long Road to Freedom

                        Native Americans: Appropriating Lands, Assimilating Tribes

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

PART II: Racial Ideologies

3: Racial Ideologies from the 1920s to the Present

Voices: Trayvon Martin

The 1920s to 1965: Egregious Acts in the Era of Overt Racism

            Internment of Japanese Americans

Voices: Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu

            Mass Deportation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans

            Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

The Civil Rights Movement and the Commitment to Change

                        Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

                        Sit-Ins

                        Freedom Rides

Old versus New Racism: The Evolution of an Ideology

Biological Racism

Cultural Racism

Global View: Cultural Racism in Peru          

Color-Blind Universalism

The Maintenance of Racial Hierarchy: Color-Blind Racism

The New Politics of Race: Racism in the Age of Obama

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

4: The Spread of Ideology: “Controlling Images” and Racism in the Media

How Are People of Color Portrayed on Television and in Film?

                        Portrayals of Blacks

                        Portrayals of Latino/as

                        Research Box: The Hot-Latina Stereotype

                        Portrayals of Arabs and Arab Americans                  

                        Portrayals of Asians and Asian Americans

                        Portrayals of Native Americans

                        Racial Stereotypes in Films   

New Media Representations

                        Voices: I Am Not Trayvon Martin

                        Video Games

                        Social Media

How Do Media Images Work to Justify Racial Inequality?

How are Images Raced, Classed, and Gendered?

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

5: Skin-Tone Stratification and Colorism

                        Research Focus: Latino Immigrants and the U.S. Racial Order

                  The History of Colorism

            The Origins of Colorism in the Americas

            Does Colorism Predate Colonialism? The Origins of Colorism in Asia and Africa

                  The Global Color Hierarchy

            Asia and Asian Americans

Voices: The Fair-Skin Battle

            Latin America and Latinos/as

            Africa and the African Diaspora

                        Voices: Colorism and Creole Identity

                  Skin Color, Gender, and Beauty

                        Voices: This is Carlene, 35 Years Old, from Jamaica

                  Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

6: White Privilege and the Changing U.S. Racial Hierarchy

White Privilege

Research Focus: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Whiteness, Class, Gender, and Sexuality

Whiteness and Racial Categories in 21st-Century America

                        Latino/as and the Multiracial Hierarchy

The Other Whites: Arab Americans, North Africans, Middle Easterners, and Their Place in the U.S. Racial Hierarchy

            Multiracial Identification and the U.S. Racial Hierarchy

                        Voices: Brandon Stanford: “My complexion is not black but I am black”

Will the United States Continue to Be a White-Majority Society?  

Global View: Social, Cultural, and Intergenerational Whitening in Latin America

Changes in Racial and Ethnic Classifications

Revisiting the Definition of Race and Ethnicity

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

PART III: Policy and Institutions

7: Understanding Racial Inequality Today: Sociological Theories of Racism

Racial Discrimination, Prejudice, and Institutional Racism

Individual racism

Voices: Microaggressions

Global View: Microaggressions in Peru

Institutional racism

Systemic and Structural Racism

                        Systemic racism

Research Focus: Systemic Racism and Hurricane Katrina

                        Structural racism

Racial Formation: Its Contributions and Its Critics

Research Focus: Applying Settler Colonialism Theory

White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism

Intersectional Theories of Race and Racism

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

8: Educational Inequality

The History of Educational Inequality

Indian Schools

Segregation and Landmark Court Cases

The Persistence of Racial Segregation in the Educational System

Educational Inequality Today

Research Focus: American Indian/Alaska Native College Student Retention

Global View: Affirmative Action in Brazil

The Achievement Gap: Sociological Explanations

Parental Socioeconomic Status

Cultural Explanations: “Acting White” and Other Theories

Tracking

Voices: Moesha

Social and Cultural Capital and Schooling

Hidden Curriculum

Research Focus: Rosa Parks Elementary and the Hidden Curriculum

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

9: Income and Labor Market Inequality

Income Inequality by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

Dimensions of Racial Disparities in the Labor Market

                        Disparities among Women

                        Disparities among Latinos and Asian Americans

Underemployment, Unemployment, and Joblessness

Voices: Jarred

Sociological Explanations for Income and Labor Market Inequality

Voices: Francisco Pinto’s Experiences in 3-D Jobs  

Individual-Level Explanations

Global View: Racial Discrimination in Australia

Research Focus: Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market

Structural Explanations

Affirmative Action

Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

10: Inequality in Housing and Wealth

Land Ownership after Slavery

Residential Segregation

The Creation of Residential Segregation

                        Research Focus: The Role of Real Estate in Creating Segregated Cities

Discriminatory and Predatory Lending Practices

                        Voices: A Tale of Two Families

Neighborhood Segregation Today

Wealth Inequality

Inequality in Home Ownership and Home Values

Wealth Inequality Beyond Home Ownership

Explaining the Wealth Gap in the Twenty-First Century

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

11: Racism and the Criminal Justice System

Mass Incarceration in the United States

                        The Rise of Mass Incarceration

Mass Incarceration in a Global Context

Race and Mass Incarceration

                        Voices: Kemba Smith

The Inefficacy of Mass Incarceration

Mass Incarceration and the War on Drugs

Race, Class, Gender, and Mass Incarceration

Institutional Racism in the Criminal Justice System

                        Racial Profiling

Sentencing Disparities

            Voices: Troy Davis

The Economics of Mass Incarceration

                        Private Prisons

The Prison Industrial Complex

Beyond Incarceration: Collateral Consequences

The Impact of Mass Incarceration on Families and Children

The Lifelong Stigma of a Felony: “The New Jim Crow”

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

12: Health Inequality and Environmental Justice

The History of Health Disparities in the United States

                        Involuntary Experimentation

Free Blacks as Mentally and Physically Unfit

Explaining Health Disparities by Race and Ethnicity Today

                        Socioeconomic Status and Health

Segregation and Health

Research Focus: Health and Social Inequity in Alameda County, CA

The Effects of Individual Racism on the Health of African Americans

Life-Course Perspectives on African American Health

Global View: Structural Violence in Guatemala

Culture and Health

                        Voices: Race, Poverty, and Postpartum Depression

Genetics, Race, and Health

Environmental Racism

Voices: The Holt Family of Dickson, Tennessee

Movements for Environmental Justice

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

13: Racism, Nativism, and Immigration Policy

Voices: Robert Bautista—Denied Due Process

The Racialized History of U.S. Immigration Policy

Race and the Making of U.S. Immigration Policies: 1790 to 1924

Global View: Whitening and Immigration Policy in Brazil

Nativism between 1924 and 1964: Mass Deportation of Mexicans and The McCarran Internal Security Act

            Operation Wetback

            McCarran Internal Security Act

The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and the Changing Face of Immigration

                        Asian Immigration

Latin American and Caribbean Immigration

Illegal Immigration and Policy Response

                        The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and Nativism

Proposition 187 and the Lead-Up to the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA)

The 1996 Laws and the Detention and Deportation of Black and Latino Immigrants

Voices: Story of a Guatemalan Deportee

Nativism in the Twenty-First Century

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

PART IV: Contesting and Comparing Racial Injustices

14: Racial Justice in the United States Today

Perspectives on Racial Justice

                        Recognition, Responsibility, Reconstruction, and Reparations

                        Civil Rights

                        Human Rights

Moving Beyond Race

Intersectional Analyses: Race, Class, Gender

Racism and Capitalism

Struggles for Racial Justice

                        Foreclosures and Racial Justice

Voices: Fighting Against Foreclosures: A Racial Justice Story

DREAMers and the Fight for Justice

Racial Justice and Empathy

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

15: Thinking Globally: Race and Racisms in France, South Africa, and Brazil

How Do Other Countries Differ from the United States in Racial Dynamics?

Race and Racism in France

French Colonies in Africa

The French Antilles

                        African Immigration to France

Discrimination and Racial and Ethnic Inequality in France Today

Voices: The Fall 2005 Uprisings in the French Banlieues

Race and Racism in South Africa

Colonialism in South Africa: The British and the Dutch

The Apartheid Era (1948–1994)

The Persistence of Inequality in the Post-Apartheid Era

Research Focus: The Politics of White Youth Identity in South Africa

Race and Racism in Brazil

Portuguese Colonization and the Slave Trade in Brazil

Whitening through Immigration and Intermarriage

Research Focus: Racial Ideology and Black-White Interracial Marriages in Rio de Janeiro

Racial Categories in Brazil Today

Conclusion and Discussion

Chapter Summary · Key Terms · Review Questions · Critical Thinking · Suggestions for Further Reading

Glossary

References

Index