Race Ethnicity And Nationality In The United States

This book is intended for use in advanced undergraduate and graduate-level courses on race and ethnicity and on diversity in America. It was first con- ceived as a collective project of the Research and Resident Scholar Program in Comparative Race Relations at Washington State University, which was established in 1994 with support from the Rockefeller Foundation. A number of the participating authors are established scholars in racial/ethnic studies, and several have published award-winning bestsellers. Others are relative newcomers to the field who were invited to join the project because they were doing important work on less well covered topics, such as relations between African Americans and Chicano/Latino Americans.

The American dream of equal opportunity and social mobility still holds a powerful appeal for the many immigrants who arrive in this country each year. but if immigrant success stories symbolize the fulfillment of the American dream, the persistent inequality suffered by native-born African Americans demonstrates the dream's limits. Although the experience of blacks and immigrants in the United States are not directly comparable, their fates are connected in ways that are seldom recognized. Immigration and Opportunity brings together leading sociologists and demographers to present a systematic account of the many ways in which immigration affects the labor market experiences of native-born African Americans. With the arrival of large numbers of nonwhite immigrants in recent decades, blacks now represent less than 50 percent of the U.S. minority population. Immigration and Opportunity reveals how immigration has transformed relations between minority populations in the United States, creating new forms of labor market competition between native and immigrant minorities. Recent immigrants have concentrated in a handful of port-of-entry cities, breaking up established patterns of residential segregation,and, in some cases, contributing to the migration of native blacks out of these cities. Immigrants have secured many of the occupational niches once dominated by blacks and now pass these jobs on through ethnic hiring networks that exclude natives. At the same time, many native-born blacks find jobs in the public sector, which is closed to those immigrants who lack U.S. citizenship. While recent immigrants have unquestionably brought economic and cultural benefits to U.S. society, this volume makes it clear that the costs of increased immigration falls particularly heavily upon those native-born groups who are already disadvantaged. Even as large-scale immigration transforms the racial and ethnic make-up of U.S. society—forcing us to think about race and ethnicity in new ways—it demands that we pay renewed attention to the entrenched problems of racial disadvantage that still beset native-born African Americans.

In their later years, Americans of different racial and ethnic backgrounds are not in equally good-or equally poor-health. There is wide variation, but on average older Whites are healthier than older Blacks and tend to outlive them. But Whites tend to be in poorer health than Hispanics and Asian Americans. This volume documents the differentials and considers possible explanations. Selection processes play a role: selective migration, for instance, or selective survival to advanced ages. Health differentials originate early in life, possibly even before birth, and are affected by events and experiences throughout the life course. Differences in socioeconomic status, risk behavior, social relations, and health care all play a role. Separate chapters consider the contribution of such factors and the biopsychosocial mechanisms that link them to health. This volume provides the empirical evidence for the research agenda provided in the separate report of the Panel on Race, Ethnicity, and Health in Later Life.

This study guide is designed to help students read and understand the text, African Americans in the U.S. Economy. Each Study Guide chapter contains the following pedagogical features: 1. Key Terms and Institutions 2. Key Names 3. True/False Questions 4. Multiple-Choice Questions 5. Essay Questions

This volume explores contemporary issues of ethnic, cultural, and national identities and their influence on the social construction of identity. These issues are analyzed from the perspective of seven nations: China, Israel, Japan, South Africa, Ukraine, Wales, and the United States. While different, these perspectives are not mutually exclusive lenses through which to review the discourse between ethnic and educational dynamics. The chapters in this book illustrate how these seven perspectives differ, as well as overlap. *Part I explores ethnicity and race as important variables in explaining minority students' academic performance and schooling in the United States and China. *Part II focuses on ethnic and racial identity issues in Israel, Japan, and South Africa. *Part III addresses ethnic and racial identity as it affects racial integration at different levels of education in post-apartheid South Africa, and the effects on schooling of a rapidly changing ethnic map in the United States. *Part IV focuses on issues of language and national identity in three countries: Ukraine and Wales, where a national language is central to nation-building, and China, where 61 languages are in use and bilingual education is essential in enhancing national literacy and communication. The questions this book addresses are highly significant in today's global economy and culture. Scholars and professionals in the fields of comparative, international, and multicultural education and educational policy will find the volume particularly pertinent.

This book provides a rich, multi-disciplinary approach to the study of race, ethnicity, and nationality. Taken as a whole, the contributors—consisting of both established and relatively newer scholars—have written a collection of essays which are invaluable for understanding the changing structure and dynamics of race, ethnicity, as well as nationality in the United States as we head toward the twenty-first century.Designed for both the general reader and the growing proliferation of racial/ethnic undergraduate courses, the book provides thematic integration and synthesis of knowledge about race and ethnicity from many diverse fields. Taking the racial formation perspective in the study of race, ethnicity, and nationality as its starting point, the book extends this theory in a number of ways. Several essays apply the perspective to the analysis of changes in race relations in the transition from the twentieth to the twenty-first century. Several contributors examine the intersections of ethnicity, class, race and gender. Others deal with the deep structure and dynamics of identity formation and the neglect of nation and nationality in racial and ethnic studies. National oppression in U.S. history vis-à-vis African Americans, Chicanos, Indians, and Puerto Ricans, as well as the impact of imperialism on immigration to the United States is also explored.Throughout, the book is concerned with the changing patterns of inter-minority group relations which has tended to be neglected for a focus on white/black relations in scholarly and public discourse.

Liberalism has traditionally been equated with protecting the rights of the individual. But how does this protection affect the cultural identity of these individuals? In The Boundaries of Citizenship Jeff Spinner addresses this question by examining distinctive racial, ethnic, and national groups whose identities may be transformed in liberal society. Focusing on the Amish, Hasidic Jews, and African Americans in the United States and on the Quebecois in Canada, Spinner explores the paradox of how liberal values such as equality and individual autonomy -- which members of cultural groups often fight to attain -- can lead to the unexpected transformation of the group's identity. Spinner shows how liberalism fosters this transformation by encouraging the dispersal of the group's cultural practices throughout society. He examines why groups that reject the liberal values of equality and autonomy are the most successful at retaining their distinctive cultural identity. He finds, however, that these groups also fit -- albeit uneasily -- in the liberal state. Spinner concludes that citizens are benefitted more than harmed by liberalism's tendency to alter cultural boundaries. The Boundaries of Citizenship is a timely look at how cultural identities are formed and transformed -- and why the political implications of this process are so important. The book will be of interest to readers in a broad range of academic disciplines, including political science, law, history, sociology, and cultural studies.

Disparities in health and health care across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States are well documented. The reasons for these disparities are, however, not well understood. Current data available on race, ethnicity, SEP, and accumulation and language use are severely limited. The report examines data collection and reporting systems relating to the collection of data on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic position and offers recommendations.