CHAPTER 6

INDUSTRIALIZATION AND DOMINANT-MINORITY RELATIONS

 

Overview

 

This chapter examines the development of dominant‑minority relations from the beginning of the industrial revolution to World War II. The emphasis is on the impact of industrialization, the consequences for immigration and the creation of new minority groups, and the shift from paternalistic to rigid competitive group relations for African Americans. It also addresses the origins of the Black Protest movement.  The chapter ends with a consideration of late industrialization and the shift from rigid to fluid competitive forms of group relations.

 

 

Learning Goals

 

1.      Students will understand that group relations change as the subsistence technology and the level of development of the larger society change.  As nations industrialize and urbanize, dominant-minority relations change from paternalistic to rigid competitive forms.

2.      Students will understand that in the South, slavery was replaced by de jure segregation, a system that combined racial separation with great inequality.    Coercion, racism, and prejudice reinforced the Jim Crow system that was motivated by a need to control labor.

3.      Students will understand that many black southerners moved north in response to segregation.  Although the northern black population had greater freedom and developed some economic and political resources, many African Americans experienced powerlessness and were concentrated in ghettos.

4.      Students will understand that in response to segregation African American communities developed a separate institutional life centered on family, church and community.

5.      Students will understand that a black middle class as well as a black protest movement developed out of continued segregation.

6.      Students will understand that African American women remain an exploited group.

7.      Students will understand that trends in urbanization, specialization, bureaucratization--along with the growing importance of education and a changing occupational structure--have shaped dominant-minority relations.

8.      Students will understand key concepts related to industrialization and dominant-minority relations including but not limited to:  industrial revolution, capital intensive, labor intensive, deindustrialization, rigid competitive group relations, reconstruction, de jure segregation, sharecropping, populism, grandfather clauses, Plessy v Ferguson, extractive (or primary) occupations, manufacturing (or secondary) occupations, service (or tertiary) occupations, primary and secondary labor market, modern institutional discrimination, past-in-present institutional discrimination, and affirmative action.

9.      Students will examine the issue of gender inequality in a globalizing, postindustrial world.

10.  Students will explore current debates about affirmative action from three different perspectives.

 

 

Outline

 

I.                    Chapter Overview

II.                 Industrialization and the Shift from Paternalistic to Rigid Competitive Group Relations

A.     As the industrial economy grew, the close, paternalistic control of minority groups became irrelevant.  As industrialism progressed, paternalism gave way to rigid competitive group relations under which minority group members are freer to compete for jobs and other commodities.

B.     As competition increases within the rigid competitive system, threatened members of the dominant group become more hostile and attacks on minority groups tend to increase.

C.     In the rigid competitive system, the dominant group seeks to preserve its advantage by handicapping the minority group's ability to compete effectively. 

III.               The Impact of Industrialization on African Americans:  From Slavery to Segregation

A.     Reconstruction.

1.      The period of Reconstruction from 1865-the 1880s was a respite in the history of oppression and exploitation of African Americans.  African Americans registered to vote in large numbers, were elected to political offices, attended schools, purchased houses, and founded businesses.

2.      Reconstruction began to end when the federal government demobilized its armies of occupation and turned attention to other matters.  Once reconstruction ended, black southerners fell into a new system of exploitation and inequality.

3.      Reconstruction did not overturn two legacies of slavery.

a.       Slavery left black southerners impoverished, illiterate and uneducated, and with few resources.

b.      Slavery left a strong tradition of racism in the white community.

B.     De Jure Segregation.

1.      The Origins of De Jure segregation exists within the basic class structure and agrarian economy of the South that remained in tact after the Civil War.  Landowners still needed labor to farm their land.

2.      To solve their labor supply problems, plantation elite instituted sharecropping or tenant farming.  In this system, sharecroppers worked the land in return for payment from sales once the crop was sold at market.  The landowner supplied the sharecroppers with housing, food, and clothing on credit.  These debts were deducted from the tenant's share in the profit.    Under this system, sharecroppers had few opportunities to improve their situations and were often bound to the land until they could pay their debts.

3.      In some sectors of the economy, the status of African Americans fell lower than it had been under slavery.  At the height of Jim Crow, African Americans were denied the opportunity for a decent education and excluded from politics.  Laws and customs further restricted the choices of African Americans.

4.      Populism spread around the country as the 19th century drew to a close.  This anti-elitist movement was a reaction to changes in agriculture caused by industrialization.  It attempted to unite poor whites and blacks in the rural South against the elite classes. 

5.      Literacy tests, poll taxes, and property requirements further disenfranchised members of the black community.  These tactics were effective and by the early 20th century, the political power of the southern black community was virtually nonexistent.

C.     Reinforcing the System.

1.      The subordination of the African American community was reinforced and supplemented by an elaborate system of racial etiquette.  Blacks were expected to be humble and deferential in all interactions with whites.

2.      Anyone who ignored these rules of "good manners" risked reprisal, physical attaches, or death. 

D.     Increases in Prejudice and Racism.

1.      As the system of racial advantage formed and solidified, levels of prejudice and racism increased. 

2.      As under slavery, the new system needed justification and rationalization and antiblack sentiment, stereotypes, and ideologies of racial inferiority grew stronger to provide this justification.

IV.              The "Great Migration"

A.     Life in the North.

1.      Although African Americans still lacked resources, they had freedom of movement not afforded to them under slavery.  Many "voted with their feet" by moving north. 

2.      Life in the North was better for the vast majority of black migrants and many aspects of African American culture--literature, poetry, and music--flourished.

3.      Northern black communities still faced discrimination in housing, education, and jobs.

B.     Competition with White Ethnic Groups

1.      Competition with white ethnic groups led to hostile relations between black southern migrants and white ethnic groups, especially the lower- and working-class segments of those groups.

2.      Being the last migrants to arrive in major cities, African Americans had no newly arriving immigrants to help improve their status (as had been the case for Irish, Germans, Italians, and Poles).

3.      American cities developed concentrations of low-income blacks who were economically vulnerable and politically weak.

V.                 The Origins of Black Protest

A.     Booker T. Washington was the most prominent African American leader prior to World War I.  His nonconfrontational advice to African Americans in the South was to be patient, accommodate to the Jim Crow system, and improve their education and skill level.  He worked behind the scenes to end discrimination and implement racial integration.

B.     W.E.B. Du Bois was Washington's most vocal critic.  He advocated the immediate pursuit of racial equality and an attack on de jure segregation.  He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

C.     Marcus Garvey argued that white-dominated U.S. society was hopelessly racist and would never support racial equality and integration.  He advocated separatist goals, including a return to Africa.    He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

VI.              Applying Concepts

A.     Acculturation and Integration.

1.      During the era of southern segregation and migration to the North, assimilation was not a major factor in the African American experience.  Rather, it could be described best as a system of pluralism and inequality.

2.      During segregation, a small black middle class emerged.  A network of black colleges and universities emerged to education the children of this middle class.

B.     Gender and Race

1.      As sharecropping and segregation began to shape race relations in the South, women often had to return to the fields or domestic work for families to survive.

2.      In cities of the North, African American women's experience paralleled that of immigrant women from Europe.  The men often moved north first and sent for the women after they had some measure of economic stability.

3.      Discrimination in the North created problems of unemployment for African American men.  Women found work in low-paying, less desirable areas such as domestic work.

4.      Although African American men earned the right to vote, women did not until the 19th Amendment passed in 1920. 

VII.            Industrialization, the Shift to Postindustrial Society, and Dominant-Minority Group Relations:  General Trends

A.     Urbanization made close, paternalistic controls of minority groups irrelevant.

B.     Occupational Specialization.

1.      One of the first results of industrialization was an increase in occupational specialization and the variety of jobs in the workforce. 

2.      The complexity of the industrial job structure made it difficult to maintain rigid, caste-like divisions of labor between dominant and minority groups.

3.      As the more repressive systems of control weakened, job opportunities for minority group members sometimes increased.  However, conflict between groups increased as well.

C.     Bureaucracy and Rationality.

1.      As Industrialization continued, privately owned corporations and businesses had workforces numbering in the hundreds of thousands.  To coordinate these workforces, bureaucracy became the dominant form of organization in the economy.

2.      The stress on rationality and objectivity can counteract the more blatant forms of racism and increase the opportunities for minority group members.

D.     Growth of White-Collar Jobs and the Service Sector

1.      Extractive or primary occupations are those that produce raw materials such as food and agricultural products.  These jobs require little education, are unskilled, and offer little pay.

2.      Manufacturing or secondary occupations transform raw materials into finished products ready for sale in the marketplace.  These jobs require high skill levels and are paid better than primary occupations.

3.      Service or tertiary occupations provide services.  Work in this sector grew as urbanization increased.

E.      The Growing Importance of Education.

1.      Education became an increasing important prerequisite for employability as America moved into the postindustrial era. 

2.      Opportunities for high-quality education are not distributed equally across the population.  Access to education remains a key issue for minority groups.

F.      A Dual Labor Market.

1.      The changing composition of the labor force and increasing importance of educational credentials has split the U.S. labor market into two segments or types.

a.       Primary labor market includes jobs in large, bureaucratic organizations.  These jobs offer higher pay, more security, opportunities for advancement, and benefits.

b.      Secondary labor market jobs are low-paid, low-skill, insecure jobs.

G.     Globalization.

1.      Over the past century, the U.S. has become an economic, political, and military world power with interest around the glows.

2.      Our worldwide ties have created new minority groups through population movement and have changed the status of others.

3.      Dominant-minority relations in the U.S. have been increasingly played out on an international state as the world has essentially "shrunk" in size and become more interconnected by international organizations.

4.      Part of the pressure for the U.S. to end blatant systems of discrimination such as de jure segregation came from the desire to maintain a leading position in the world.

VIII.         The Shift from Rigid to Fluid Competitive Relationships

A.     Modern Institutional Discrimination.

1.      Virtually all American minority groups lag behind national averages in income, employment, and other measures of equality despite the greater fluidity of group relations, greater openness in the U.S. stratification system, and declines in overt prejudice.

2.      The forms of institutional discrimination that persist are more subtle than those defined in the Jim Crow System.  They are often unintentional or unconscious. Modern institutional discrimination is not necessarily linked to prejudice, and the decision makers who implement it may sincerely think of themselves as behaving rationally and in the best interest of their organizations.

3.      It is more difficult to identify, measure, and eliminate institutional discrimination.  One highly debated method is through affirmative action.

IX.              Current Debates on Affirmative Action

X.                 Main Points of the Chapter

XI.              Further Reading and Internet Research

 

 

Classroom Activities and Suggestions for Discussion

 

1.      Watch Goin' to Chicago (California Newsreel) about the Great Migration of African Americans to the North. How does this film illustrate ideas from the text, including "voting with their feet," sharecropping, continued discrimination, and competition with other ethnic groups?

 

2.      Watch Oh Freedom After While:  The Missouri Sharecroppers Strike of 1939  (California Newsreel) about a "strike" by more than 1,000 Missouri sharecroppers in 1939. Discuss how the film illustrates the obstacles black farmers faced in the struggle for independence and economic survival.  What types of resistance did they face and from whom?  What concepts are useful for understanding this situation?  How are the organizing tactics of Rev. Owen Whitfield similar to and different from others that students have read about (e.g.,  Dubois, Washington) and will read about (e.g., Chavez).  What was the role of the media, of whites, and of students in this struggle?

 

3.      Use value lines to generate discussion about affirmative action. Sort students into discussion groups by according to their answers.  Strive to create groups with at least one student choosing different answers (e.g., for affirmative action, against affirmative action, for affirmative action based on class, not race).  Ask students to listen to differing viewpoints in their groups and to paraphrase opposing positions fairly.  Sometimes it is helpful to have students reflect others' thoughts before they are allowed to add to the discussion.  This makes students listen to each other, helps find areas of common ground, and also prevents misunderstandings between students' viewpoints.  On what areas can students agree?  Can they also agree to disagree?  How do students differing opinions affect their ideas about policy regarding Affirmative Action, for example?

 

4.      Have students role play as if they were Richard Kahlenberg, Orlando Patterson, and Thomas Sowell.  What would a conversation between them sound like in regards to Affirmative Action? What are their key ideas and what's their evidence? (NOTE:  If you are going to assign role playing activities, it's best to give your students some advance warning so they can prepare key ideas.)

 

5.      Have students role play as if they were Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, and Marcus Garvey.  What would a conversation between them sound like?  What are their key ideas and what's their evidence?  (NOTE:  If you are going to assign role playing activities, it's best to give your students some advance warning so they can prepare key ideas.)

 

6.      Investigate examples of Jim Crow legislation in different states.  What different areas did these laws cover (e.g., using different bibles in courtrooms, not playing checkers together, not being buried in the same cemeteries).  Discuss them.

 

7.      Listen to audiotapes of Martin Luther King Jr's famous speeches (e.g., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," "I Have a Dream," "I've Been to the Mountaintop"--available from the King Center in Atlanta, Georgia).  Ask your students to analyze them in terms of concepts from the text and in relation to present day social movement activism.  Discuss.

 

8.      Have students investigate key legal cases dealing with affirmative action.  What key themes do they see?  Does the attitude toward affirmative action appear to be changing and if so, how?  One good site to reference is resource page of the American Association for Affirmative Action at http://www.affirmativeaction.org/resources/index.html.  How do students evaluate what they find here and at other web sites?

 

9.      Recently several social movement organizations seeking justice for maquiladora workers have emerged.  Ask students to examine the ideas and practices of these organizations. Two groups raising concerns include Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (http://www.coalitionforjustice.net/) and Global Trade Watch http://www.citizen.org/trade/). How are the ideas and practices of these groups similar to those used by other organizations and movements  (e.g., Red Power, Chicanismo, NAACP) Do students expect these groups to be successful in reaching their goals?  Why or why not?