The modern society believes racism to be a negative concept in the society both morally and politically. It is a belief that an ethnic group possesses unique attributes that distinguish them from the rest. To have different people from different races introduces a positive effect – diversity. To use race to distinguish a race as either superior or inferior and use this to discriminate against it, introduces a negative aspect – racial discrimination.
William Julius Wilson in his book The Declining Significance of Race argues that the significance of race in determining the political, economic, and social status of an individual is declining. He states that in the recent past, changes in the system of production and government policies have reduced racial antagonisms and increased access to privileges. This has led to the improvement of the black middle class socially and economically. He indicates that the states have increased the patterns of race relations that extend to production. The intervention by the state promotes racial equality and reciprocates this in the political and economic aspects.
The intervention by the state in the years following World War II led to an increased percentage of the African American community in semi-skilled, blue-collar, and white-collar positions. According to Wilson (2012), elimination of job opportunities resulted in the creation of job opportunities. Occupational differences due to economic change led to a closer association between black class affiliation and occupation mobility. The skilled, educated African American has enjoyed increased job opportunities because of expansion of white-collar positions.
The average income of black sales workers was below that of semi-skilled white workers. It was equivalent to the income of unskilled and white service workers. This shows the domination of a race factor over the class factor. The government had achieved a form of racial equality by including the blacks in government jobs. Income discrepancies existed between the black and white workers due to the differences in seniority. The historic effects of racial discrimination have attributed to this difference. Older blacks could not enter into high income blue and white-collar positions. This led to significant amounts of income discrepancies between blacks and whites.
References
Wilson, W. J. (2011). The Declining Significance of Race: Revised & Revisited. Daedalus, 140(2), 55-69.
