Race Together: Learnings about and Race and Racism in America
Arturo Pierre Lewis
Seminar 8: “Antiracism in America: Necessary Conditions for Social Movements”
Minority Group Movements and Their Impact on Society – Topic/Chapter 7
Chapter Objectives—after reading Chapter Seven you should be able to:
- Describe adaptive strategies to deal with being in a subordinate position in society.
- Define change oriented responses to subordinate status in society
- Describe the social movements of African Americans, Mexican Americans and Native Americans
- Summarize the necessary conditions for social movements to take place
- Discuss changes in the US after WWII that made social movements more likely in the United States
Adaptive Responses: Four ways of responding to subordinate, unequal or minority status.
Acceptance
. Minorities who choose to accept their lower status in society.
Displaced Aggression
. Targeting ethnic minorities as the cause of the majority group’s frustration.
. Minority groups targeting each other.
Avoidance
. An attempt to avoid the majority group altogether.
. Alcoholism and drug abuse in ethnic communities are results, among others.
Seeking Assimilation
. Accepting the system but denying one’s role within it.
. Passing
Necessary Conditions for Social Movements:
Collective Dissatisfaction
. Deprivation of the oppressed and disenfranchised
Communication Networks
. Internal Interconnectedness
. Use of Multiple Media Sources
Resources
. Monetary Capital
Social and Political Capital Influence
. Personal Network Field
Efficacy/Personal and Group Gains
. Equal Access to the Political Process
Leadership
. Conception
. Inspiration
. Strategist
. Implementation
Discussion Questions
1. Choose one or more of the following, and explain how it contributed to social movements
against racial or ethnic inequality during the period from around 1955 to 1970:
urbanization, economic expansion, mass communications, rising educational levels.
2. Why did increased numbers of whites join in with or express support for the civil rights
movement during the late 1950s and early 1960s?
3. What is meant by a sense of efficacy, and how did it contribute to the rise of the Black
Civil Rights Movement and of other minority-group social movements?
4. In your opinion, what role did the Black Civil Rights Movement play in the emergence in
the 1960s of similar social movements among Mexican Americans, American Indians, or
other groups?
Web Links
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/civilrights/ A website of historic sites for the civil rights movement.
http://www.voicesofcivilrights.org/ Website from AARP to record the words of people from the civil rights movement.
http://www.sitins.com/ Website about the Greensboro sit ins at Walgreens (first in the Civil Rights Movement)
http://www.civilrights.org/ Website for the Leadership Council on Civil Rights.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/oh_freedom/ This site documents the events of the 1964 “Freedom Summer” voter registration drive in Mississippi. Read or listen to transcripts from the series and interviews with Freedom Summer alumni, or click through the slideshow.
http://www.aimovement.org/ Website for the American Indian Movement
http://www.chavezfoundation.org/ Website based on Cesar Chavez’s life.
http://www.farmworkers.org/immigrat.html Website about the history of Mexicans who worked in the bracer program in the United States.
Key Words and Terms
Relative deprivation: is the lack of resources to sustain the diet, lifestyle, activities and amenities that an individual or group are accustomed to or that are widely encouraged or approved in the society to which they belong.
