Transcript BEYOND THE UNITED STATES: THE COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

BEYOND THE UNITED
STATES: THE
COMPARATIVE
PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER 16
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The Comparative Perspective

Phenomenon of subordination based on race,
nationality, or religion not unique to US; occurs
throughout the world
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Mexico
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Canada
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Recognizing long history of racial inequality
Israel
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Faces racial, linguistic, and tribal issues
Brazil
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Women and Mayans given second-class status
Struggle of territory and autonomy between Jews and Palestinians
Republic of South Africa
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Legacy of apartheid dominates present and future
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
World Systems Theory
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Ethnonational Conflict
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Considers the global economic system as divided between nations
that control wealth and those that provide natural resources and
labor
Refers to conflicts between ethnic, racial, religious, and linguistic
groups within nations
Sociological perspective on relations between
dominant and subordinate groups treats race and
ethnicity as social categories

Can be understood only in the context of shared
meanings attached by societies and their members
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Mexico: Diversity South of the
Border
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A nation of 108 million people
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The Mexican Indian people and the Color
Gradient
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Color Gradient
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The placement of people on a continuum from light to dark skin
color rather than in distinct racial groupings by skin color

Another example of the social construction of race in which
social class in linked to the social reality (or at least the
appearance) of social purity
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
The Status of Women
Gender stratification is an issue US shares with almost all
other countries
 1975, Mexico City site of first UN conference on the
status of women
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Focused on the situation of women in developing countries
Mexican women
Often viewed as the “ideal workers”
 Have begun to address economic, political, and health issues
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Mexico beginning to realize issues social inequity extends
beyond poverty
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Canada: Multiculturalism Up North

Multiculturalism adopted as a state policy for
more than two decades
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The First Nation
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Aboriginal minorities largely consists of four groups
1. Status Indians members of 604 tribes officially
recognized by the government
 2. Inuit living in Northern Canada
 3. Métis of mixed ancestry
 4. Non-status Indians
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
1982 Canadian Federal Constitution
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Defeat of the Charlottetown Agreement of
1992
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Recognized and affirmed existing aboriginal and treaty rights
of Canadian Native American, Inuit, and Métis people
Embraced number of issues including greater
recognition of Aboriginal people
Social and economical fate of Aboriginal People
Only 40% graduate from high school compared to
70% of nation as a whole
 Unemployment twice as high and average income
one-third lower
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
The Québécois
French speaking people of the province of Quebec
 Quebec accounts for 1/4th of nation’s population
and wealth
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Meech Lake Accords (1987)
Failed constitutional amendments that would recognize Quebec as a
distinct society
 50.5% prefer to remain with Canada rather than become a
separate nation
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Inter ethnic and linguistic conflict between the
Anglophones and Francophones.
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Immigration and Race
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Proportionate to its population, Canada receives
consistently the most immigrants of any nation
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Over 20% of population foreign born
Visible Minorities
Persons other than Aboriginal or First Nation people who are non-White
in racial background
 Accounts for 16% of the population in 2006
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Canadian immigration policy has alternated between
being open and restrictive
 Growth in Asian, Black, and West Indian immigrants
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Brazil: Not A Racial Paradise
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Brazil and the U.S. are familiar in a number of ways:
Colonized by Europeans who overwhelmed natives
 Imported Black Africans as slaves
 Treatment of indigenous people
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Legacy of Slavery
Depended on slave trade more than US
 Easier to recognize African culture among Brazil Blacks
than African Americans
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Contributions of African people kept alive in schools
 Surviving African culture overwhelmed by dominant European
traditions, like US
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Quilombo

Slave hideaways in Brazil
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Manumission
Freeing of slaves
 For every 1,000 slaves, 100 freed annually compared to 4
per year in the U.S.
 Most significant difference between slavery in southern
U.S. and Brazil
 Needed as crafts workers, shopkeepers, and boatmen,
not just agricultural workers like in the U.S.
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In Brazil, race not seen as measure of inferiority
like U.S.
In Brazil, you were inferior if you were a slave
 In U.S., you were inferior if you were Black
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
The “Racial Democracy” Illusion
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Historian Carl Degler (1971)
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Mulatto Escape Hatch
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Mulatto or Moreno (brown) recognized as group separate
from either brancos (Whites) or pretos (Blacks)
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In US, mulattos classed with Blacks
Escape hatch is an illusion
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The key to differences in Brazilian and American race relations
Economically, fare marginally better than Black Brazilians or
Afro-Brazilians
Blacks with highest level of education and occupation
experience most discrimination in terms of jobs,
mobility, and income
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1/4th of all marriages between people of different
color groupings
 Marriage between opposite ends of color gradient
are uncommon
 Absence of direct racial confrontation and mixed
marriages led to conclusion of Brazil as “racial
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paradise”
Lack of racial tension does not mean prejudice does not
exist
 Light skin color enhances status but impact is exaggerated
 People of mixed ancestry earn 12% more than Blacks but
Whites earn another 26% more than Moreno
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
Brazilian Dilemma
Gradual recognition racial prejudice and
discrimination exist
 20th century, changed from nation prided on
freedom from racial intolerance to country legally
attacking discrimination
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Alfonso Arinos Law (1951)
Prohibiting racial discrimination in public place
 No use overturning subtle forms of discrimination
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Women of color fare poorly in Brazil
 Challenge in organizing is that Afro-Brazilians fail to
recognize discrimination
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Israel and the Palestinians
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Diaspora
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Exile of Jews from Palestine over 2,000 years ago
British colonialism during World War I and the
Middle East
British endorsement of a Jewish national homeland
in Palestine
Spirit of Zionism
Yearning to establish a Jewish state in the biblical homeland
 To Arabs, meant subjugation and elimination of
Palestinians
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
Arab-Israeli Conflicts
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No sooner had Israel recognized, Arab nations
announced intention to restore control to Palestine
Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon
 By force if necessary
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Six-Day War (1967)
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Syria’s response to Israel’s military actions to take surrounding territory
Yom Kippur War (October 1973)
Launched against Israel by Egypt and Syria
 Lead to huge oil price increases as retaliation
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President Carter’s mediation and Egypt’s recognition of
Israel’s right to exist
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
The Intifada
Began in December 1987
 Uprising against Israel by Palestinians in occupied
territories through attacks, boycott, strikes,
resistance, and noncooperation
 Grassroots movement of students, workers, unions,
professionals, and business leaders
 Used television to transform world opinion,
especially US
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Palestinians came to be viewed as people struggling for
self-determination rather than terrorists
Diaspora of Jews led to displacement of Palestinian
Arabs
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
The Search for Solutions Amid Violence
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Oslo Accords (1993)
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Agreements between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO
Chairman Yasser Arafat for creation of first self-governing Palestinian
territory in Gaza Strip and West Bank
Issues of lasting peace
Future of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories
 Future of Arabs with Israeli citizenship
 Creation of independent Palestinian national state
 Israel-Palestinian Authority relations with government under
control of Hamas, sworn to Israel’s destruction
 Future of Palestinian refugees elsewhere
 The status of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital
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Republic of South Africa
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Different from rest of Africa because original
African people of area no longer present
Largest group are Black Africans
Coloured (Cape Coloureds) and Asians make up
remaining non-Whites
Small White community
English
 Afrikaners
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Descended from Dutch and other European settlers
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
The Legacy of Colonialism
Settlement of South Africa by Europeans began in 1652
 Dutch East Indian Company colony in Cape Town
 Dutch slave owners and trek inwards
 Acquisition of parts of South Africa by Britain in 1814
 British and Indian immigration
 British and Boer wars
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British freed Blacks and gave them almost all political and
civil rights
Pass Laws
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Curfews placed on Bantus (Blacks) limiting geographic movement and
enforced through 1986
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
Apartheid
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Means separation or apartness in Afrikans
British colonial rule ended with independence in 1948
 Afrikaners assumed control of government
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White supremacy became formalized into law
Apartheid was 20th century effort to reestablish masterslave relationship
Blacks could not vote
 Could not move through country freely
 Unable to hold jobs without government approval
 To work at approved jobs, forced to live in temporary quarters
far from real homes
 Access to health care, education, and social services severely
limited
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
1990, South African Prime Minister F. W. De Klerk
Legalized 60 banned Black organizations
 Freed Nelson Mandela, Leader of African National Congress
after 27 years of imprisonment
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National Peace Accord
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1992 referendum allowing Whites to vote on ending
apartheid
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Signed by DeKlerk and Black leaders pledging establishment of
multiparity democracy to end violence
68.6% in favor of continued dismantling of legal apartheid
and creation of new constitution
De Klerk and Mandela jointly awarded Nobel Peace
Prize in 1993
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
The Era of Reconciliation and Moving On
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April 1994, Mandela’s ANC received 62% of vote giving
him 5 year term as president
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Truth and Reconciliation Commission
People allowed to come forward and confess horrors committed under apartheid
 If judged remorseful (most were), not subject to prosecution; if
failed to confess, were prosecuted
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Controversial issues facing ANC led government are
familiar to US citizens
Desperate poverty
 Affirmative Action and reverse apartheid
 Medical care (AIDS, 10% of population; less than 3% receiving
medication
 Crime
 School
Copyright integration
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
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Most difficult is land reform
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Black South Africans forced from their land between 1960
and 1990
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1994
Government took steps to transfer 30% of agriculture land
to Black South Africans
 Plans to restore original inhabitants to their land where
feasible (“just and equitable compensation”)
 Issue more critical in view of South Africa hosting 2010
Football (Soccer) World Cup
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QUESTIONS
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
Identify who the native people are and what
their role has been in each of the societies
discussed in this chapter.
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
On what levels can one speak of an identity
issue facing Canada as a nation?
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
What role has secession played in Canada and
Israel?
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
How have civil uprisings affected intergroup
tensions in Mexico and Israel?
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
To what extent are the problems facing South
Africa today a part of apartheid’s legacy?
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
In what ways are South Africa’s policy of
apartheid similar to the Jim Crow laws of the
American South?
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
Social construction of race emphasizes how we
create arbitrary definitions of skin color that
then have social consequences. Drawing on the
societies discussed, select one nation and
identify how social definitions work in other
ways to define group boundaries.
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
The conflicts summarized are examples of
ethnonational conflicts, but how have the actions or
inactions of the United States contributed to these
problems?
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