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2. Number each page in the top right-hand corner beginning with page 2 of the text (the first page is counted in the page count, the title page is not)

3. Type paper using 1 inch margins all around and double spacing. Do not justify the right margin. Do not use extra spacing between paragraphs. Use the standard double-space.

4. Staple all pages of your paper together or put them in a folder. Paper clipped paper or papers whose corners are just folded over will not be accepted.

c. Was there any bias exhibited in the article? In what ways was this bias expressed?

e. Was the research questionable in any way? What makes you think it was questionable?

f. What in the article has made me think about people, life-styles, attitudes, etc. that I have not considered before?

h. Items a-f are guidelines to your paper. They are not questions to be listed and answered.

6. All anecdotes or personal experiences included in the paper are ok as long as you explain how they relate to the content of the material you read.

7. Your paper will be graded not only on the content but also on the use of the English language (grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc) as well as the correct format as listed above.

8. You do not necessarily need a summary; however, there should be ample evidence that the views in the reading were taken into consideration.

All family members are hurt by their mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts who lose income, get fired, face hiring discrimination, are refused pensions, don’t have equal Social Security benefits, lose out on promotions or have limited access to higher education.

TEST I ENDS HERE

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV

ISSUE #4: Are The Poor To Blame For Their Own Poverty?

In the 1700s and 1800s many viewed the poor as having flawed or even depraved characters

Many considered poverty a result of or punishment for sinfulness, laziness, or lack of a work ethic

The poor were ostracized, avoided, stigmatized and thrown in jail

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (2)

By the early 1900s, some realized that poverty was also caused by social and economic forces beyond anyone’s control.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (3)

As a result of the Great Depression in the 1930s, large numbers of people had to struggle to live.

It became clear that they were not to blame for their joblessness and poverty.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (5)

Many now feel that there are links between culture and poverty.

The “Culture of Poverty” thesis is that certain types of cultures restrict people and prevent them from achieving their potential

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (5)

This thesis also asserts that people who are poor learn to act in ways that are adaptations to their poverty—these adaptations keep whole societies in poverty

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (6)

Definitions of poverty vary from one location to another, depending on what people do in their daily lives and where they live geographically

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (7)

A poverty line is calculated so that is represents a minimal standard of living, generally higher in cities and lower in rural areas, reflecting the cost of living

In the United States in 2002, 34.6 milllion people lived below the official poverty line

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (8)

Usually, women, racial minorities, rural people and people with less education are more likely to be poor in any given society

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (9)

Those who believe in a culture of poverty assert that some people are perpetually disadvantaged because they assimilated poor values that handicap their ability to improve their lives

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (10)

The strong “Protestant Work Ethic” leads some to believe that the poor themselves are to blame for their situation due to their individual failures and flaws

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (11)

Lewis, who studied peasant farmers, found that the farmers valued family over the individual.

He also found that they were unwilling to place trust in people outside the family

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (12)

Lewis also found that these farmers viewed anybody who did get ahead as unfairly taking other people’s shares of the village economic pie.

Lewis saw these traits as cultural. People learned them as children when they were socialized into the culture.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (13)

Some groups feel that the chronically impoverished members of society are lazy or lack innovation and enterprise.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (14)

Some segments of society feel that the chronically impoverished are neither necessarily born lazy nor inherently lacking in innovation and enterprise.

Instead, the culture in which the culture were raised—a culture that promotes learned helplessness, pessimism and a lack of faith in the system—prevents them from amassing the tools and skills necessary to escape their situations.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (15)

Poor people are judged by others and their cultures are found lacking.

Judgment occurs without regard to either the processes that made people poor or what the poor think about the condition.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (16)

Most of the research on poverty is done by white, upper or middle class individuals who will inevitably have an “us” versus “them” perspective on poverty since the researchers have never experienced poverty first hand.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (17)

Social conditions which contribute to poverty are:

Legal as well as covert racism

The earning gap between genders

The moving of jobs outside of the US.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (18)

Barriers make it difficult for poor people not to be poor:

Poor quality of schooling in low income neighborhoods

Racism and discrimination in the job market

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (19)

Other barriers include lack of money for job training when the job market changes and the inability to move to another area when the job market moves.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (20)

Being poor means:

not having enough money to pay the rent or power bills on a regular basis

going into debt in order to feed and house one’s family

that any money earned is already spoken for and the indebtedness increases rapidly

not being able to afford medical care or medication

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (21)

Poverty-line calculations include only money for basic housing, some food and minimal clothing

Most people require more to actually survive in our current economy.

ISSUES IN SOCIOLOGY IV (22)

Are we really blaming the victim when we tell the poor that they are the ones responsible for their being poor?

TEST II ENDS HERE

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II

The stratification systems of class, race ethnicity, and gender constitute a major feature of the macro level of social organization of American society.

They exist beyond the control of any individual and are so pervasive that they sometimes become invisible.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (2)

Upper-Class Families: Gatekeepers

Life in an upper-class family is not often open to scrutiny by the public or by researchers.

Rich people, however, know a lot about each other.

Their preoccupation with maintaining boundaries between themselves and others has been noted by a number of scholars.

Families are a key way in which “membership” is identified

Being from a “good family” is essential and sometimes even overrides financial status.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (3)

Simmel wrote that “Aristocrats would get to know each other better in an evening than the middle class would in a month.”

Wealthy people identify themselves by membership and background. Middle-class people identify themselves by individual achievement.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (4)

A person who knows the meaning of various memberships and connections among the upper class can draw a complete picture of a person.

An essential piece of information in determining membership is family lineage.

Women in elite families play a special role in maintaining boundaries.

The women are the “gatekeepers” in that they launch the children, serve as board members at private schools, run clubs and facilitate the marriage pools through events like debuts and charity balls.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (5)

Families also help maintain an individual’s social standing among the wealthy class by teaching family members how to maintain their class position.

First lesson is not to “spend down capital.”

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (6)

Volunteer work is an especially important activity in the production and maintenance of social status (to uphold the power and privilege of their class in the social order of things) (Ostrander, 1984).

Marriage must be within one’s class. Debuts are critical events to ensure that children meet the proper prospective mates as well as be part of the “right” social clubs.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (7)

Athletic games and activities are important for children to “stay in their class.” The lessons of “discipline, confidence, competition and a sense of control” are learned there.

A good education in a prestigious upper-class school was another goal because of both the academic training and the social networks it afforded their children. The women spent much time planning and orchestrating all of these activities

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (8)

Upper-class families are largely responsible for maintaining their own position within the stratification system.

They pass down wealth, teach their children how to maintain their position and bring their children into the social network

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (9)

Four factors characterize middle-class families:

Geographical mobility resulting in residence away from kin

Replacement of kin with other institutions for economic support

Reliance on friendship rather than kinship for affective support and exchange

Investment of resources lineally

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (10)

In order to maintain their income, middle-class families may have to move around.

People in middle-class occupations are frequently asked to move when their company needs them to work at another site.

Middle-class professionals may find that to get a raise or further their career they must take a job with another company in another state

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (11)

The geographic moves remove the middle-class family from their extended family ties. When economic help is needed, they will probably rely on non-family sources.

A middle-class family that needs money for a house would go to a bank for a loan. While both upper-class and working-class families might be more likely to seek assistance from their kin.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER II (12)

Middle class families may also replace kin with friends in seeking emotional and social support.

Middle-class families tend not to share their material goods with extended kin and maintain friendships that do not include sharing resources. In this way they are better able to accumulate material wealth rather than dispersing it.

Middle class families stress upward mobility based on not sharing what they have accumulated

Their wealth is invested lineally—between parents and children—rather than laterally among extended family and close friends.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER (13)

One of the sources of the independence and isolation of contemporary middle-class families is the geographic mobility that accompanies their occupations.

Every year about 45 million Americans move.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER (14)

Most research has been done as it exists in families where the husband needs to move because men are much more likely than women, especially married women, to move for work.

Moves are experienced differently for women and men in families. The move enhances the career of the husband for whom the move is being made and most men feel that moving is not a problem

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER (15)

When a man must move because his wife has found another job, his response is different. Research shows that a man will follow his wife only if she earns 25%-40% more than he does.

FAMILY, CLASS, RACE AND GENDER II (16)

Moving tends to be very difficult for children between the ages of 3-5 and for children between the ages of 14-16.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III
Black Middle-Class Families:
are similar to white middle-class families in the focus of their lives on home and family
Willie’s research (1983) shows the black middle-class families to be achievement oriented, upwardly mobile, immersed in work, and with little time for leisure.
Education, hard work, and thrift are perceived to be the means to achievement.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (2)
Middle-class black parents insist that their children get a good education not only to escape possible deprivations but to serve as symbols of achievement for the family as well as for the race.
Each generation is expected to stand on the shoulders of the past generation and to do more.
All achievement by members in black middle-class families is for the purpose of group advancement as well as individual enhancement.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (3)
In contrast, white families emphasize freedom, autonomy and individualism.
Individualism can shatter family solidarity and can lead individuals to display narcissistic and hedonistic behavior.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (4)
In the black middle-class family, individual fulfillment is sometimes seen as self-centered activity and therefore may be less valued. What really counts is how the family is doing.
This also has its problems in that it discourages experimentation, risk-taking and creative activities.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (5)

A number of studies have found a greater level of equality between husbands and wives in black families than in white families.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (6)
Egalitarian ideologies are stronger among blacks than white (Hunter and Sellers, 1998).
Black men are more likely to share in housework and child care than white men.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (7)

WORKING CLASS FAMILIES:
Have the ideological commitment to marry for love, not money
The importance of extended kin and other networks to economic and emotional survival
The appearance of separation of work and family

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (8)

Working-class couples marry for love and love provided a way to escape from the difficulties of their parents’ homes.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (9)
Upper –class couples recognize their marriages as a way to preserve their class identity.
Middle-class couples may also marry for love but their overriding task was to enhance the earning power of the breadwinner.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (10)
The second characteristic of working-class families is the reliance on the extended family and others to bridge the gap between what a household’s resources really are and what a family’s position is supposed to be.
Rapp(1982) observed that the extended family helps in the sharing of baby-sitting, meals and small amounts of money.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (11)
In working-class families the extended kin relationships can become problematic when the struggle is over who comes first, the wife or the husband’s mother?
Blue-collar jobs do not include bringing work home, and one’s occupation does not carry over into one’s identity in the way a middle-class professional’s might.
Work does, however, affect the family and the family affects the workplace.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (12)

In most working-class homes, it requires both parents to have incomes to supply the minimal needs of the family.

FAMILIES: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER III (13)

Benefits such as sick days, vacation time, hospitalization and retirement are not part of the employment.
Child care becomes a major issue.

FAMILIES: CLASS, RACE AND GENDER III (14)
In many working class families parents must choose between losing income and not having enough money for food and housing or leaving their children alone for periods of time.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U. S.
Historically, the European explorers did not simply discover America.
They arrived with political models to conquer and subjugate the land and the people.
The treaties between the Indian nations and the government were designed to colonize and dislocate them from their lands.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U. S. (2)
Within the first two centuries of the first European settlement (colony), the European settlers held title to almost every acre of the land.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (3)

White society became more equal as Indian nations became more unequal.
When the framers of the Constitution decided to define the rights and liberties of the people, inequality had become the norm of racial and ethnic relations.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (4)
Society allocates access to valued resources and opportunities according to one’s placement in social hierarchy. Those at the top have access to a larger share of opportunities and resources

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (5)

The dominant group in any society maintain its social position by controlling the production of valued resources.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (6)
Inequality in the U.S. can be seen in education, criminal justice, the family, economics, health and medicine, and in the community.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (7)
For most Americans, education is a vehicle for personal achievement and socioeconomic advance—a fundamental premise of the “American Dream.”

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (8)
Most Americans feel that the postponement of personal gratification in the pursuit of educational goals will result in social rewards that go with a prestigious occupational position.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (9)

U.S. public education has legitimized the unequal treatment of students of color by schooling them differently than white students.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (10)
Gross disparities in school funding have ensured that white students have superior teachers, facilities and more educational programs than what one finds in schools where nonwhite students are in the majority

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (11)
Nationally, about 68% of students who entered 9th grade graduate on time in the 12th grade:
Asian students 77% graduation rate
White students 75% graduation rate
African American 50% graduation rate
Latino 53% graduation rate
Native American 51% graduation rate

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (12)
Graduation rates are worse for high schools located in central city neighborhoods with high concentrations of minority populations, poverty, high percentages of disabled students and English-language learners.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (13)
Unemployment rates, prison incarceration rates, and poverty rates are directly related to high school dropout rates.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (14)

White students are about 68% of college enrollments and college students of color are slightly more than 28% of college enrollments.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (15)

Of minority college students:
Blacks represent 11%
Latinos represent 9%
Pacific Islanders represent 6%
Native Americans represent 1%

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (16)
As of 2003, white students attended schools where they were 79% of the student population
Blacks and Latino students, 54% of the student population
Asian students, 22% of the student population
Native American students, 33% of the student population

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (17)
New York, Illinois, Michigan and California have more pronounced segregation of black students in public schools than other states.
New York, California, Texas and New Mexico have more pronounced segregation of Latinos in public schools than other states.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (18)
Whites make up 85% of instructional faculty in higher education, Blacks make up 5%, Asian and Pacific Islanders make up 6%, Latinos make up 3% and Native Americans make up 1%

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (19)
White faculty members generally have higher salaries, are more likely to be tenured and are more likely to be full professors than faculty of color.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (20)
Laws and public policies in the U.S. reflect the contradiction of a society attempting to act within an egalitarian ideological posture while treating minorities with direct inequality.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (21)
A prominent example of the inequity of the justice system in the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (22)
Latinos tend to receive harsher prison sentences from courts and serve more time in prison than whites convicted of similar crimes.
Latinos are less able to make bail and they are more likely to have court-appointed counsel

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (23)
Even in states that do not have significant Latino populations, Latinos are subjected to inequitable treatment by the criminal justice system.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (24)
The incarceration rate of Native Americans is almost 38% higher than the national average.
The Native American population is 1% of the total population; however, 2% of all federal cases are against Native Americans.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (25)
The correctional system subjects Native Americans to more abuse than any other minority group particularly when they try to identify with their culture by language, dress, etc.
Native Americans serve more of their sentences than any other prisoners.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (26)
Black defendants constitute a disproportionate segment of the executed prison population. The race of the defendant and the race of the victim predict how state prosecutors decide to seek the death penalty.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. (27)
There are clear patterns of racial discrimination in capital sentencing; however, there are clear patterns of inequities for all minorities in the criminal justice system

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II
In many incidents of domestic violence, police may refuse to take reports; prosecutors may encourage defendants to plead to minor offenses; judges may rule against the victim on evidentiary matters.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (2)
The response to domestic violence commonly stems from the misperception of the victim’s situation and the belief that the woman should simply leave her abuser.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (3)

Police arrest whites and Asian Americans for offenses against family and children proportionate to the representation of the population; however, Blacks and Native Americans over represent the percentage of population.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (4)
An intimate kills about 33% of all female murder victims and 4% of all male murder victims.
Black females are 35% more likely than white females to suffer intimate partner violence.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (5)
State child welfare agencies have failed to safeguard children placed in foster care.
In many states, child protection services fail to investigate adequately the complaints of child abuse and neglect.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (6)
In some cases, state agencies continue to send foster care children to private child placement agencies despite learning that the agencies had hired managers suspected of endangering children in the past.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (7)
Child welfare systems remove poor children from their families more often than non poor children.
Because abuse is more prevalent among poor families, there is a disparate impact of removing children from families of color since minorities are overrepresented among the poor.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (8)
The percentage of African American and Native American children in the child welfare system is greater than the percentage of each group in the general population.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (9)
The highest rates of child victimization occur as follows:
Native American 21.7%
African American 20.2%
White 10.7%
per 1000 children
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (10)
The U.S. occupational structure is segmented into a primary labor market and a secondary labor market which is often called dual labor markets.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (11)
The primary labor market provides extensive benefits to workers such as high income, prestige and job security.
These occupations are personally challenging and intrinsically rewarding, they require higher levels of educational attainment, they offer considerable opportunity for advancement and workers in these positions have significant autonomy and independence.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (12)
Primary labor market jobs are traditional white-collar professions, such as physicians, lawyers, college and university professors, and corporate and government upper level management positions
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (13)
Secondary labor market jobs provide minimal benefits to workers.
Secondary labor jobs have lower incomes, longer workweeks, less job security, less opportunity for advancement and are vulnerable to economic fluctuations adversely affecting employment
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (14)
Secondary jobs are usually hourly, in the service industry, manual labor, housekeeping, etc.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (15)
Occupational Segregation:
In 1963 the Equal Pay Act made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to women who do the same work as men.
In 1964 the Civil Rights Act made it unlawful for public or private employers to discriminate against persons of color and women.
Persons of color and women continue to suffer workplace discrimination.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (16)
White men occupy approximately 97% of the senior management positions in most industrial firms in the United States.
Although Asians have twice the educational attainment of the general population, they are less likely than whites to occupy executive positions.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (17)
Disproportionate concentrations of Asian American workers are in low-and mid-level jobs. Blacks, Native Americans and Latinos are more likely to be operators, fabricators and day laborers.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (18)
Women are concentrated in categories such and teachers, nurses, librarians, cashiers, administrative support staff, domestic workers and hair dressers.
Women of color do not do as well as white women. The majority of women of color remain relegated to low-wage labor positions.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (19)

White persons earn higher yearly incomes than do Blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans with the same education levels.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (20)

The wage gap between men and women results from the continued occupational segregation of women into traditional low-wage female-dominated jobs.
AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (21)

Some states (CA) pay female workers less than they pay male workers in the same position ($12,000).
Women lose more than $130 billion annually to pay inequity.

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (22)
At the end of 2003, nearly 36 million people in the U.S. (12.5% of the population) lived in poverty:
Asian Americans 11.8%
Blacks 24.4%
Latinos 22.5%
Whites 8.2%
Numbers represent percentages of that particular population

AN OVERVIEW OF INEQUALITY IN THE U.S. II (23)
The poor continue to live in mostly female-headed households.
About 1/3 of all white families and nearly ½ of all families of color are female-headed families living in poverty.