Race and Work (eBook)

Karyn Loscocco (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
243 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-9644-7 (ISBN)

Infos

This book provides a reasoned, unflinching description of how race and paid work are linked in U.S. society. It offers readers the rich conceptual and empirical foundation needed to understand key issues surrounding both race and work.

Loscocco trace current patterns to their historical roots, showing that the work lives of women and men from different race and ethnic groups have always been interrelated. The chapters document the U.S.'s multicultural labor history, discuss how labor markets and jobs became segregated, and analyze key racial-ethnic patterns in work opportunities. The book also addresses common misconceptions about why women and men from some racial-ethnic groups end up with better jobs than others. It closes with a look at contemporary developments and suggests steps toward a future in which race-ethnicity will no longer affect work opportunities and experiences.

Race and Work deepens understanding and elevates the discussion of race, racism, and work in an engaging, accessible style. It will be an essential resource for anyone interested in work, race-ethnicity, social inequality, or intersections among race, gender, and class.

Karyn Loscocco is Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany.

Inhalt

* Introduction

* 1. Race and Work: Laying the Conceptual Groundwork

* 2. The Roots of Race-Based Work Inequalities

* 3 Activism and Entrepreneurship

* 4. The Past is in the Present: Persistent Work Inequalities

* 5. Explaining Race Differences in Work Outcomes

* 6. Trending Race and Work Issues

* 7. Reducing Racial Inequities at Work

Rezensionen

"Race and Work offers an engaging and thought-provoking analysis of the connections between race, ethnicity, and work opportunities and experiences. The book counteracts color-blind myths by situating persistent work-related race inequities in structures as well as interactions, invisible as well as visible racist practices. Loscocco invites readers to the discussion by skilfully creating a narrative based in logic and evidence. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in how and why race inequality persists." Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University and 2018 President of the American Sociological Association

"Loscocco brings much-needed attention to the complex relationship between race and work. Not only does she bring historical evidence to bear on current-day workplace racial inequalities, but she goes beyond the usual conversation about black-white differences, discussing the work experiences of Native American tribe members and emphasizing differences among Asian and Hispanic subgroups." Julie Kmec, Washington State University

Textauszug

2
The Roots of Race-Based Work Inequalities

It may seem that what happened over three hundred years ago (or even fifty) has nothing to do with work patterns today. Yet the construction of race hierarchy that drove early economic development in the United States was never dismantled. Thus historical developments, such as the industrial revolution, Reconstruction after the Civil War, or post-World-War II prosperity had an uneven impact on people of different racial-ethnic groups. There are many superb books that detail the history of race-based inequities in the world of work. What follows is a quick sketch done with broad brush strokes.

Race in the “New World”

Modern racism was born of western European attempts to colonize the rest of the world (Mills 1997). Developments in what would become the United States of America were part of this larger process. Before the eighteenth century there was no notion of sorting people by physical traits. Religion and nation or ethnicity mattered; these were the supposed sources of “inherited traits.” The idea that there was a white racial category developed slowly (Frederickson 2002: 53–4). The earliest European colonizers’ belief in the superiority of their culture – and their divine right to pursue economic gain – set the stage for the construction of race hierarchy in the United States.

To achieve their goal of advancing civilization and their own fortunes, the earliest arrivals to what are now U.S. shores first had to overpower the indigenous people – dubbed Indians – who were thriving on the land the newcomers wanted to own. The colonizers used their power, including that provided by their guns, to advance their interests. They took the land and its resources through slaughter, trickery, and theft. In 1623, for example, some Virginians negotiated a treaty with a group led by Chiskiack Indians. The British proposed a toast to their “eternal friendship” with the Chiskiacks, but they had poisoned the Chiskiacks’ drinks; the Chiskiack chief’s entire family, his advisors, and 200 others were killed (Wright 1981: 78; Loewen 1995). The British interlopers used harsh tactics even when faced with little resistance from the people who had already settled the land. Powhatan, who headed a large consortium of indigenous people, asked of Captain John Smith,

Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? . . . You see us unarmed, and willing to supply your wants, if you will come in a friendly manner and not with swords and guns, as to invade any enemy.

(Blasdell 2000: 4)

Indigenous civilizations were decimated not because they didn’t fight back or were “backward,” as many history books would have us believe (Loewen 1995). American Indians were outfought and outfoxed (and ultimately outnumbered) by the British who used weapons and tactics unknown even among indigenous nations at war with one another. The British brought with them a pattern of depraved violence, originally directed toward the Irish (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014). When Narragansetts fought alongside the newly arrived Puritans against the Pequots, they were surprised by the level of brutality they witnessed. At the end of the war, the small fraction of Pequots still alive were starving, defenseless, and no longer fighting; the British burned them alive or slashed them to pieces according to Puritan William Bradford’s account (Grenier 2005; Dunbar-Ortiz 2014).

The people of the many Indian nations who made treaties with the British, and then Americans, expected the treaties to be honored rather than brazenly broken. They did not know at first that the colonizers and their descendants aimed to eliminate American Indians and their culture. There would be dire consequences for American Indian well- being for generations to come (Deloria 1988; Blauner 2001; Fixico 2006; Austin 2013; Dunbar-Ortiz 2014).

Historians have established that American Indians “thrived for millennia” before their lands and economic livelihood were wrested from them (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014: 27). According to Weatherford (1988) American Indians had spent those millennia becoming the world’s greatest farmers and pharmacists; but Europeans were amassing the world’s greatest arsenal of weapons. “The strongest, but not necessarily the most creative or the most intelligent, won the day” (p. 252).

Having seized prime land from indigenous people, the English elite set about trying to develop commerce. They did so largely through the indentured servant system, drawing mostly from Europe, though also from the African slave trade. Before race was institutionalized, there were men and women from Ireland, England, and Africa working side by side clearing land, building infrastructure, harvesting tobacco and providing personal service to white elites (Bennett 1975). Their labor power was sold (by themselves or others) as part and parcel of their bodies rather than in return for wages and they did not retain ownership of it until their contract was up and they paid “freedom dues.”

On the basis of his research of original documents and early accounts, Lerone Bennett Jr. concluded that the first Americans of African descent were free men and women bound to service, mostly sharing the same plight as their co-workers from Europe. The greatest divide was between those who had control or ownership of land and other resources and those who did not, irrespective of country of origin. For instance, there were people of African descent who had indentured servants or slaves of their own, and some of those servants were of European origin (Bennett 1975; Walker 1998).

The Invention of the Race Hierarchy and Racist Ideology

Thus unfree white labor preceded unfree black labor. The colonial belief in European superiority surely meant there were biases against Africans, but “there is world of difference” between biased individuals and “a social system institutionally committed” to racial bias (Bennett 1975: 18). Moreover there is evidence of harmony, friendship, and marriage among Africans, American Indians, and European servants. Unlike the English, American Indians had a long practice of adopting into their midst any person captured through war – on equal terms. This is shown clearly in reports of whites and blacks who had been captured by or fled to American Indian communities and became chiefs (Nash 1974: 284).

Though they were pitted against one another by elite whites, American Indians and African Americans often supported one another. In 1676 white servants and laborers and black slaves joined together in what has been called Bacon’s Rebellion. It was quashed but raised fears among white elites, helping to propel the move to use “color” as the basis of hierarchy; even white servants were given advantages denied to their black counterparts (Allen 1976).

It is in the shift to a two-tiered system of unfree labor at the end of the 17th century that race is built into the U.S. economic as well as political and social systems. For those of European ancestry, bonded labor continued. However the Africans kidnapped from their home country or ships at sea were assigned servitude for life. The colonizers discovered that it was easier to enslave people by uprooting them, stamping out the material and cultural resources for resistance that might be available on one’s home turf (DuBois [1924] 2009; Blauner 2001). The physical severing of ties to Africa was accompanied by vigorous attempts to eradicate African culture. One major tactic was to break up families; another was to force slaves to adopt the language, religion, and habits of their owners.

It was also easier to make the system work if slaves could be easily distinguished from free laborers. With physical markers of their social position such as skin color and facial features, runaways could be spotted easily, slaves and servants could be kept separate from one another, and enforcing race boundaries was simpler.

Though children born to indentured servants were free (Morgan 1975), legislation that decreed that the offspring of slaves were also slaves ensured the permanence of the social and economic status of blacks; there was no way up or out. Along with the rule that any African ancestry at all made one black, the legislation ensured a ready supply of slave labor. As African nationality became synonymous with slave, and slave was defined as the antithesis of northern European intellect and virtue, the race hierarchy began its influential role in American labor and social history.

The Puritan belief that wealth was a symbol of worth in God’s eyes fueled interest in slavery. In a letter he wrote in 1645, Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop noted that importing African slaves would create more profit than British servants because it would be cheaper to “maintain” the slaves. He went on to express his view that “prosperity from the slave trade and slave-produced commodities affirmed one’s godliness as a Christian” (Walker 1998: 22).

Though slavery waned a little after its introduction, and was outlawed in the north, the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 promised an opportunity for tremendous profit if a ready supply of cheap labor could be secured. The African slave trade presented just such an opportunity. Thus it was that slavery became essential to the southern economy, solidifying the oppression of people of African descent as a core feature of the entire...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.11.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Work & Society
• Reihe/Serie: Work & Society
• Reihe/Serie: Work & Society
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Mikrosoziologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Planung / Organisation
• Schlagworte: Civil Rights • Ethnicity, sociology, employment, racism, labor studies, sociology of work, labor, labor policy, social policy, immigration, structural inequality, working conditions • Inequality • Ökonomische Soziologie • Population & Demography • Populationsforschung u. Demographie • Rasse • Sociology • Sociology of Economics • Sociology of Organizations & Work • Soziologie • Soziologie am Arbeitsplatz • USA • work and migration • Work and Society
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-9644-9 / 0745696449
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-9644-7 / 9780745696447