Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Chapter 4: Racial and Ethnic Families: Strengths and Stresses

Summary:

In this chapter of the book, racial and ethnic families are discussed, with a focus on their strengths and weaknesses. The book begins with a discussion of the increasing diversity that is seen in the US. Some important terms that are discussed here are assimilation, which is “conformity of ethnic group members to the culture of the dominant group,” cultural pluralism, which entails keeping/maintaining many features of one’s culture (original culture), and acculturation, which is the process by which one adopts the language, the beliefs, and the roles of the main (host) culture. The first topic discussed under the increasing diversity section is changes in our immigration mosaic. Some factors the book mentions here are undocumented immigrants, who despite popular beliefs contribute to society and are do not follow many of the commonly held stereotypes that citizens have about them, attitudes about immigration, which the book discusses vary upon the social context in which they are presented, and the costs/benefits of immigration, which is a complicated issue consisting of costs and benefits for both the immigrants and the US citizens. At the end of this section, however, it is important to note that many scholars believe that overall, immigrants provide more benefits than costs to society.

The next section focused on how race and ethnicity still matter in modern day society. Some important terms to know from this section are:

· Minority Group è “A group of people who may be treated differently from the dominant group because of their physical or cultural characteristics, such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, or skin color.”

· Dominant Group è “Any physically or culturally distinctive group that has the most economic and political power, the greatest privileges, and the highest social status.”

· Race è “A category of people who share physical characteristics, such as skin color, that members of society consider socially important.”

o The book remarks that this clearly social factor plays a prominent role in determining whether one is treated unequally in society.

· Ethnic Group è “A set of people who identify with a particular national origin or cultural heritage.”

o Like race, the ethnic group of people can lead to unequal treatment in society.

· Racial-Ethnic Group è “A set of people who have distinctive physical and cultural characteristics.”

· Racism/Prejudice/Discrimination:

o Racism è “A set of beliefs that one’s own racial group is inherently superior to others.”

o Prejudice è “An attitude that prejudices people, usually in a negative way, who are different from ‘us’ in race, ethnicity, religion, or some other characteristic.”

o Discrimination è “Behavior that treats people unequally or unfairly.”

The book then delves deeper into specific groups in society, starting with African American families. The family structure of these families varies considerably, but up until 1980, married-couple families were the norm and common in this community. Since 1980, it has been more and more common for these families to grow up as a single parent household. Though these families are “stereotyped as matriarchal, […] the egalitarian family pattern, in which both men and women share equal authority, is a more common arrangement.” This does not mean that the division of work is necessarily equal, but it is divided in general. Additionally, as African American children experience racism and discrimination more than any other group, their families tend to engage in racial socialization, which is a process in which parents teach their children ways to overcome racism/prejudice/discrimination, and to take pride in their ancestry rather than be ashamed of it.

The book then focuses on the American Indian family. As to their family structure, they are more likely to live with both their parents than many other groups (excluding the Latino family). Additionally, elders and grandparents play a key role in the upbringing of the children. Respect for one’s elders is stressed in this culture. Unfortunately, suicide and alcohol abuse is more common in this group of people than in most other groups, potentially due to the “erosion of American Indian culture.”

The book also discusses Latino families. The structure of a Latino family makes this group by far the most likely to have a two parent household (approximately 70% of the families have this structure). Family relationships are stressed in this culture, even over ones personal needs and desires (familism). Extended family members play an important role in family life as well, in terms of support, childcare, etc.

In conclusion, the book states that the configuration of American families is changing, both ethically and racially. This is do to the increase in immigrant families in the US, as these families have more choices as to what traditions to follow instead of the “traditional, white, middle-class family model” (though many of the constraints still remain on these families).

New/Interesting/Unusual Items Learned:

Honestly, I really had very little knowledge of the differences among the different ethnic groups and their families. There seem to be drastic differences between many of these families, in both their relationships between themselves and even their relationships with their extended families.

Discussion:

The book (at the beginning of the chapter) discusses many of the constraints on families that were not of the dominant group, and how they were basically “forced” into conforming to fit in. In the end of the chapter, however, the book discusses how many of these constraints are not as prevalent due to there simply being more minority families. I think it would be interesting to look into essentially how much freedom do many of these families have now as compared to, say, thirty years ago, and even beyond this is the question of will these constraints continue to diminish (hopefully they will)?

Karl Wahlen

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