Chapter 4: Racial & Ethnic Families
Summary:
This chapter discusses diversity of US families, mainly concentrating on immigration for the first portion. The chapter discussed assimilation or the conformity of ethnic group members to the culture of the dominant group as on part of a continuum. The other end would cultural pluralism also known as maintaining aspects of one’s original culture. The median of this continuum would be acculturation also known as the process of adopting the language, values and beliefs of the host culture but not actually fully assimilating into it.
As immigration came in, Americans throughout the years felt various ways about immigration but illegal and legal. The chapter went on to discuss the difference between the minority and dominant group and how power, privilege and discrimination play a part. The reader learns that race is first and foremost a social construct, but also that it’s a group of people who share common characteristics such as skin color while ethnicity is the cultural background of a group of people. Racial ethnic groups are the combination of the two which are seen in many cases. Racism is known as a set of beliefs that one’s own racial group is better. The difference between discrimination and prejudice is that one is an attitude and the other is that attitude in action. Prejudice is the basic attitude that prejudges people while discrimination is when that attitude is put into action and somehow treats people unequally. This has most definitely happened to many African American families which the chapter begins to center on. The chapter focuses on the structure of the family; one that is usually known as a matriarchal structure but can and has known to have father share the burden of caring for the kids. This is sometimes not seen in many fathers as of late but is still a responsibility none the less. The kinship, notion of extended family and idea of sticking together seems to be the glue that holds a lot of families together. The socio-economic status paired along with residential segregation is always variable when observing African American families and how their economic status plays apart in their environment which plays apart on their family. This theory transcends black families and touches a lot of minority families which the chapter continues to touch on. American Indian, Latino and even Asian American families share similar obstacles and struggles as African American families do.
New interesting facts:
In the early1900’s, the majority of immigration came from Europe, but now the majority is heavily Latin America. I found this interesting because I observe my own environment and see how this statistic shows itself in real life.
Question: How has the instance of absent fathers in many Black community impacted the lives of the children in terms of crime rate?
Jay,
ReplyDeleteI think that is a very interesting question you asked. I would be very curious if there have been any studies on this topic. I would have to say that if fathers were less absent in their child's adolescent years (specifically for boys) then the crime rate would not be as high. I think every boy needs a father figure in their life. Someone they can go to just to talk about sports..ect. I think the fact that some fathers were absent made young children act out, and the presence of their fathers maybe wouldn't have stopped them, but it might have made them think twice before acting out. I think there is a correlation with absent fathers and crime rates in black communities. I would be very interested in seeing if there is any research about this topic.
Maria Nicholas
Jay,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maria, however I think it depends on the circumstances. I feel as though if a father is absent it is up to the mother to step and play the role of both. There should be no difference in a father telling a child not to commit a crime, than their mother telling them the same thing. We also need to think about why these fathers are absent. Are they in jail? If so, the child could visit them, and the father could keep them out of the system that way. Or the child may want nothing to do with the father because he is in jail, and vows to not be like him. Is the father a criminal himself? If so, the mother could have taken the child out of the father's life so that the child would not be exposed to crime. Those are just a few examples, but I feel like there could be some instances where an absent father has made a child want to do the right thing, or they could have not been effected negatively. My family is made up of many strong single mothers, and the ones who had boys were able to keep their sons on the right path. Ironically, the single fathers in my family who had boys, have sons in their 40s that are fighting ongoing battles with drugs and the law. So I would pose the question: What are the factor that could contribute to a child staying away from crime?
-Jade
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/11/08/72-percent-of-african-american-children-born-to-unwed-mothers/
ReplyDeleteThis article is really interesting and gives a lot of good statistics about what the lack of a father does to children. One of the most shocking statistics is 85% of youth in prison come from unwedmothers. This article only gives statistics for the African American community, I wonder what the statistics are like in other minority communities and also in the white community.