Question I:
The use of social categories to rationalizing or justifying the treatment of one group over another
In America before the 1880, social categories were the norm. They found use in rationalizing and justifying the treatment of one group over another. An excellent example of this is evident in slavery, as well as, the slave trade that thrived during this period. Social categories were used to justify the need for Africans drawn from Africa into the new world. It is estimated that about 10 to 11 million African slaves were drawn from Africa and brought to the new world in order to provide slave labor in American commercial farms cultivating sugar cane, tobacco and cotton just to mention a few. This involved the movement of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
The idea that Africans were inferior as compared to the Europeans was used to justify the treatment of African slaves. This was also used to justify the means through which slaves from Africa were obtained. European traders who conducted violent raids in African villages and captured Africans from their homes justified their actions since Africans were inferior. Once captured the slaves were dehumanized, marched in coffles to the coast, separated from the families, branded, and received poor treatment (Lecture Slides). During transport, they were crammed into ships with poor food, sanitation, and sleeping conditions. This in turn led to the death of many slaves because of the poor conditions they experienced.
Social categories were used in rationalizing and justifying the forced civilization of Native Americans. European settlers in America considered the natives highly uncivilized due to their social and cultural practices. This in turn led to the forceful civilization of Native American children. This was done from 1879 where Native American children were forcefully taken from their home in the reservations in order to attend schools that re-socialized them (Crow and Richard, 573). The children received severe beatings while in school, as well as, being overworked. It is important to note that government policies at the time actually supported the practice and saw the advantages that it brought to the American society as a whole. This treatment only served to confuse the children end even led to several cases of suicide resulting from the fact that some of the children could not handle the situation that forceful civilization presented to them.
Similar to the African slaves, the Europeans considered the Native Indians to be inferior within set social categories. They also considered them a problem to the settler occupation in America. Hence, they justified the need to educate and socialize the children. Furthermore, according to Crow and Richard (575), the main purpose of educating the Native American children was to convert them into useful laborers who would provide cheap labor to the settlers. This also led to the enculturation of Native Americas with the introduction of Christianity, formal schools, white man clothing, and language just to mention a few.
The last example of rationalizing or justifying the treatment of one group over another through social categories was the forced removal of Native Americans from their land. As European settlers continued to expand their American colony, the need for land continued to grow. This led to the formation of government policies that were aimed at dispossessing the Native American’s off their land. Congress achieved this through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Similar to the African slaves and the Native American children, the claim of the Indians to their land was considered inferior as compared to the settler’s claims. This led to the forceful eviction of Indian tribes such as the Cherokee who were moved 800 miles at gunpoint between 1838 and 1839 (Lecture Slides).
American institutions or entities that provide obstacles to equality and help in perpetuating stereotypes
According to Tracy Ore(1), the state is one of the major institutions that have a significant role in creating categories of difference and social constructs as it has legal power to control the members of its society and its relationships to other societies. Through the National Census Bureau, the state has in the past provided obstacles to equality and helped in perpetuating stereotypes by denying multiracial people recognition as multiracial residents of the state as there was no option of selecting more than one racial category. Therefore, the state plays a role in constructing the differences of race and ethnicity, through political and economic changes.
The media is another vital institution that has helped perpetuate inequality and stereotypes. With its immense responsibility of providing the members of society with accurate, correct and unbiased information, while disseminating and reinforcing the states policies, the media is able to pre-determine the socialization of the members of its society. Therefore, the media has great power in determining acceptable and appropriate cultural values such as sexuality, and society behavior. The media has a great impact on how an individual observes one’s own culture, social class, sexuality, and ability through the perspectives presented of similar or different cultures.
Another institution that has enabled inequality is the economy, which largely plays a role in determining the social class of different members of society. The economy creates the material resources in which it controls and distributes (Ore, 8). The economy constructs the categories of differences in social class. The economy structure alongside state policies governs the accessibility of some resources to certain members of the society. This, therefore, brings about social classes, where the each class has access or lack of access to opportunities of human development, and basic needs. The benefits that those who oppress get from holding others down, according to Tracy Ore include domination, which comes in the form of oppression, abuse, exploitation, and discrimination. The transformation of these differences into inequalities gives advantage the “superior “at the expense of others (Ore, 15).
The enculturation concept defines how each person views his or her own culture, practices, and societal standards as a normal way or life. The level of enculturation directly defines ones manifestation of ethnocentrism. Through the societal construct, all humans possess an innate level of ethnocentrism, which defines the judgment of other cultures relative to one’s own culture. Ethnocentrism may be problematic when stereotypes of different cultures result in inequality and discrimination (Ore, 3). Therefore, those who oppress may believe that their culture, ethnicity, or race is superior, thereby being overly ethnocentric. In the end, the “white settlers”, which comprised of wealthy planters and other farmers, by 1880, were considered more “American,” from which all others had to follow or emulate. For example, the highly ethnocentric white settlers displaced the Native Americans from their lands.
Work Cited
Crow Dog, Mary, and Richard Erdoes. "Civilize them with a stick." Common ground: Reading and writing about America's cultures (1994): 263-273.
Ore, Tracy E. The Social Construction of Difference & Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2014. Print.
