Sociology Now, Census Update

rich Whites, continue to live in same-race neighborhoods and attend same-race

schools. Segregation continues to separate poor people of color from education and

job opportunities and isolate them from successful role models, helping to create a

permanent minority underclass (Massey and Denton, 1993).

Affirmative Action or “Reverse Discrimination”?

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson asked employers to “take affirmative action to

ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated... without

regard to their race, color, creed, or national origin.” He established the Equal Oppor-

tunity Commission, which administers many affirmative actionprograms to ensure

that minorities get fair treatment in employment applications.

Affirmative action programs are controversial. Opponents complain that minor-

ity applicants are “stealing jobs” from more qualified White applicants, a sort of

“reverse discrimination.” Recently I appeared on a television talk show opposite three

“angry White males” who felt they had been the victims of workplace discrimina-

tion. The show’s title, no doubt created to entice a large potential audience, was

“A Black Woman Stole My Job.” In my comments to these men, I invited them to

consider what the word “my” meant in that title. Why did they believe the job was

“theirs” to begin with? Why did they feel entitled to it? When a Black female appli-

cant was hired instead, was she really stealing it from them? Why wasn’t the title of

the show “A Black Woman Got theJob” or “A Black Woman Got aJob”?

One might even say that White males have been the beneficiaries of a 2,000-year

“affirmative action” policy that favored them. In an article in The Nationa few years

256 CHAPTER 8RACE AND ETHNICITY

Neighborhood Segregation?

As illustrated by the Jim Crow laws in the South in the mid twentieth century, the United States

has a history of “separate but equal” policies. Everything from lunch counters to schools to

neighborhoods was segregated. The Civil Rights movement made great strides toward integration,

with advocates claiming that separate was not equal and that all Americans deserved the same

services and treatment. Current fair housing laws try to safeguard against people being shut out

of neighborhoods due to race, but race-based neighborhood segregation still occurs regularly due

to both institutionalized and individual racism. So, what do you think?

See the back of the chapter to compare your answers to national survey data.

8.1

What

do

you

think

❍Agree Strongly

❍Agree Slightly

❍Disagree Slightly

❍Disagree Strongly

White people have the right to keep Black people out of their neighborhoods if they want to, and Black

people should respect that right.

?