|
History demonstrates that we can expect significant debate about the perceived and real value of mainstreaming all ethnic groups into a single national identity, the dominant Anglo-American way of life. Challenging this melting pot model, many people feel that the maintenance of a multicultural society--where groups maintain not only their ethnic identity, but also their own language, art, music, food, literature, and religion--enriches American culture. Racial and ethnic diversity has an impact on what it means to be American, and it will unquestionably shape our relations with one another. Personal racism is the expression of negative sentiments toward certain racial or ethnic groups by individual people. This is the most obvious form of racism; it includes the use of derogatory names, biased treatment during face-to-face contact, avoidance, and threats or acts of violence. Personal racism is easy to locate and receives the most media attention when it is violent and brutal. However, subtle forms of racism, like academic advisors who steer ethnic minority students toward the social sciences and away from the "hard" sciences, are more common. It is the quiet forms of racism that are most pervasive and destructive. Whether blatant or subtle, racism rests on important social psychological footings -- stereotypes and prejudice. From the point of view of those discriminated against, the subtle forms of racism are harder to fight than the overt bigotry of the past. If you are excluded from a job because you are Asian, or denied membership in a club because you are Jewish, you can fight to open those doors. And your indignation would be widely supported; routinely found in surveys and reported in the national press, Americans approve of the principle of racial equality and rebuke segregation in schools or housing. But the nature of public attitudes toward ethnic and racial minorities has begun to change in a climate euphemistically called "political correctness." Many scholars have begun to rethink their ideas of what constitutes racism. More than personal attacks and bigotry, or even the rancor of institutional racism, efforts to change the racial status quo are met with resistance. Symbolic racism is one form
of resistance. It is linked to the traditional forms of racism by
common negative feelings toward certain groups. This newer version
of racism is not expressed directly but indirectly -- e.g., through opposition
to programs that seek to improve the status of minorities in society, through
discussions of ethnic/racial groups inferiority, through explicit use of
inflammatory symbols other than speech. The symbolic racist would
disagree strongly with a statement like "Arabs are clan-like in their activities"
but at the same time agree with a statement like "Arabs are getting too
demanding in their push for equal rights in this country." Symbolic
racists oppose government programs designed to erase racial inequality
on the grounds that they violate the so-called principle that one’s achievements
in America should be based on merit. Often the feelings expressed
are not hate or raw hostility but discomfort, uneasiness, and fear.
Often the racism is thought to be self-protective (as anti-affirmative
action rhetoric), when it is no more than an effort to retain privilege
and discriminate against others’ opportunity to acquire privilege and power.
From elementary and high schools to colleges and the pros, many schools athletic departments are facing charges of racism for their teams' choice of mascots. The central argument centers on the fulcrum of honor v. dishonor. Are Native Americans mascots or people? It's not just the mascots that debated. The names of the teams, such as the Cleveland Indians and Washington Redskins, are an issue. The Redskins recently had the federal trademark protection of their name and team logo revoked because it was disparaging to American Indians. The project you undertake can examine any ethnic or racial group – Jews, Native Americans, Asians as well as Asian Americans, so-called Rednecks, African Americans. The medium of the symbolic racism can be language (as a symbol system), rhetoric, logos, the implication of institutional discrimination which yields a disproportional representation of a group, advertisements, and music. The issue could be the perceived credibility of a minority’s point of view – e.g., Native Americans’ request that sport teams modify their logos, the debate on ebonics, the routine presentation of an ethic group as a stereotype. The issue could be the debates surrounding California’s Proposition 187 or the effort to override California’s Proposition 209; such debates are your data, and the question is, what evidence do you see within the debate of symbolic racism? The issue could be the debate around welfare reform and how racial and ethnic minorities are defined as the chief problem. The issue could be corporate welfare queens v. the stereotypical single mother. The issue could be affirmative action and white racism.
 Selected
References
Bobo, L. (1983). Whites' opposition to busing: Symbolic racism or realistic group conflict? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(6), 1196-1210. 
 Internet
Resources
Recommended is the search engine, AltaVista http://www.uky.edu/~dsvoss/docs/pspapers/mwpsa00.pdf The affirmative action debate:
Campaign advertisements (from the past):
For discussion of the confederate flag:
For discussion of schools and sport teams with “team names”
|
||
|
1 Much of text for this project was taken directly from the writing of David Newman in Sociology: Exploring the architecture of daily life, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, pp. 372-385. |
What evidence do we have of the ordinariness of symbolic racism in everyday
conversations, in political campaigns, or the programming on television?
This research project is designed to have you search for evidence of this
subtle form of racism. You might observe the rhetoric within national
politics (such as the "pro-family" rhetoric) or prime time television shows
that feature minority families. How does the issue of race come up?
What are the implicit messages communicated or portrayed? What are
the images of racial/ethnic minorities? By comparison, what evidence
affirms the images and rhetoric? Does the racism found in language
and cultural ideologies uphold social conventions that prescribe differential
treatment of certain groups? Is there any social or legal pressure which
could help alleviate symbolic racism?