Chapter 8: African Americans Today

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Chapter 8African Americans Today
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Education

• Disparity in both the quality and quantity of
  education of African Americans suggests
  structural racism
• Educational gap between between Blacks and Whites
• Always been present
• although the gap is narrowing in recent years

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Education

• There are also a number of qualitative
  differences identified as deficiencies in the
  schooling of African American children
• insensitive teachers and unresponsive
  administrators
• poor counseling
• overcrowded classes
• irrelevant curricula
• poor school facilities

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School Segregation

• De jure (by law) patterns of segregation -
  according to policy or law children were assigned
  to schools on the basis of race
• U.S Supreme Court decision in 1954 - Brown v.
  Board of Education Topeka, Kansas.
• De facto (in fact) educational segregation
• Income and residential segregation

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School Segregation

• Tracking results in school isolation and
  internal segregation
• Tracking and lower academic standards and
  achievement
• Lower tracks results in lack of college
  preparedness

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Higher Education

• Over the years there has been an increase in
  African - American students going to college and
  graduating
• Upward trend to higher education has declined and
  in part is a function of
• decline in educational financial aid
• push for higher standards w/ no remedial courses
• employment opportunities may lure young blacks
  away
• negative publicity and a decline in enforcement
  of affirmative action
• racial incidents on college campuses discourage
  many

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The Economic Picture

• Income and Poverty
• In 2003 the median income of Black households was
  29,681 and White non-Hispanic households had a
  median income of 45,631
• Twenty-four percent of Black families live in
  poverty in comparison to 8 of White non-Hispanic
  families
• The disparity in wealth between Blacks and Whites
  is greater than for income

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Employment

• National unemployment rate is higher for Blacks
  than Whites
• Impact is more severe during economic downturns
  or recessions
• Worse for African-Americans between the ages of
  16-24
• Underemployment - working in a job in which one
  is over qualified, working part-time, or
  intermittently

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Employment

• Factors related to the rate of unemployment among
  African-Americans
• High concentration of African-Americans in
  depressed central city economies
• Increased job competition from other immigrant
  groups and white middle-class women
• Illegal job opportunities (informal job market)

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Family Life

• Challenges to Family Stability
• Female-headed household (single income)
• Economic status of African-American male has been
  deteriorating
• however, the tradition of the extended family
  has provided a means of emotional, social and
  physical support

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Figure 8-3 Childrens Living Arrangements
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Strengths of African American Families

• Robert Hill (1999) - strengths of African
  American Families
• 1. Strong kinship bonds
• 2. Strong work orientation
• 3. Adaptability of family roles (egalitarian)
• 4. High achievement orientation (college
  emphasis)
• 5. Strong religious orientation

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The African American Middle Class

• Approximately 29 of African-Americans are middle
  class or higher
• The interaction between race and class (class
  becoming more significant)
• African-American middle class and the
  African-American community
• Prejudice continues

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Housing

• Factors that contribute to housing segregation
• 1. Personal prejudices
• 2. Steering by real estate companies
• 3. Lack of vigorous enforcement of anti-bias
  legislation
• 4. Public housing policies and patterns of
  construction reinforce housing for the poor in
  inner-city neighborhoods
• 5. Bank financial and loan bias
• 6. Persistence of redlining
• 7. Zoning laws and residential segregation curb
  low income construction in suburbs

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Criminal Justice

• Victimization surveys African-Americans are more
  likely to be victims of violent crime and
  property crime
• Differential justice Whites treated more
  leniently than Blacks
• police protection
• racial profiling
• sentencing
• victim discounting victim defined as less
  worthy gt crime less serious

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Health Care

• High rates of disease due to
• In part a function of class and less access to
  health care resources
• Fewer Black health care professionals
• Environmental racism more likely to live in
  toxic environments

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Politics

• The number of Black elected officials between
  1970 and 2001 has increased by more than
  five-fold
• Population concentration and election patterns
  Black politicians seen as no more than
  spokespeople for other Blacks
• Race-based districts Gerrymandering the courts
  leads to minority controlled political districts
  that are based on the common interests of the
  people.

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