Subordination of Minorities in America

SUBORDINATION AND LIBERATION OF MINORITIES IN AMERICA

This research paper assesses the contribution of various factors to the subordination/subjugation of various minorities and to their relative success or failure in achieving greater status and power in American society.

1. Destruction of the Indian way of life

Noel identifies three factors behind the origins of ethnic stratification, the subordination of the American indian to the dominant social structure of the white settlers. Ethnocentrism, the tendency of the two groups to view reality through the prism of their own values and to consider outsiders as fair game, helped frustrate efforts to reach peaceful solutions. The indians at first underestimated the power of the whites. They had little interest in learning white ways. Efforts to forge tribal unity were impeded by disparate cultural identities. Because of their faith in their Manifest Destiny to conquer the continent and their attitudes of racial superiority, settlers would brook only temporary compromises.

Their competition was over the control of scarce resources, land and its mineral wealth. The alternative to violence was adaptation/assimilation. Noel points out that "efficient adaptation may require the members of a group to modify or disregard a great deal of their heritage" (1991, p. 120). Most indians were attached to their traditions and lacked the skills necessary to compete successfully in the white man's world.

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fs or biases by an individual or a social group on any subject which is not based on fact. With respect to ethnic and race relations, prejudice translates into deprecatory stereotypes of other ethnic groups or races and deep feelings by dominant groups concerning the moral, intellectual and social inferiority of such minorities. Ransford provides a modern example: "Whites believe that blacks have a higher poverty rate and lower socioeconomic status because they have not extended the necessary effort" (1994, p. 35). (b) Discrimination is action directed at limiting the rights and opportunities of minorities to participate on an equal basis in the dominant society. Yetman defines it as "differential treatment of individuals because of their membership in a minority group" ("Introduction", 1991, pp. 24, 22). (c) Attitudinal discrimination "refers to discriminatory practices that stem from prejudiced attitudes" (Yetman, "Introduction," 1991, p. 23). Overt or direct attitudinal discrimination includes attempts to deny equal access, such as to housing, by cross-burning on the lawns of new black neighbors or the jostling of middle class blacks by police when they enter white neighborhoods as tradesmen (Maher, 1995, p. A22). Subtle

Category: Psychology - S