We're in the course, revisiting the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, who declared 1903 that the problem with the 20th century, was that of the color line, was he right? It's now over 100 years since he said that, and Iceland says, we still have not solved this problem. The problem with the colour line, much has changed with race relations, racial divisions, and racial inequality in the United States. But you should note, that there have been alternating periods of progress, regression and stagnation. This indicates the progress has been slow and uneven. By the early 2010, there was a growing pessimism in our country about black, white relations. This largely stemmed from the very public mistreatment or mishandling of black citizens by law enforcement. The rise of social media played a very large role in bringing this to light, Iceland provides the names of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. But we can also add George Floyd and many others to this list today. These events caused a tidal wave of posts on social media and led to what we now recognize as, the Black Lives Matter movement, that emerged in reaction to continuous examples of Blacks being devalued in this country. But there has been some progress and there have been some narrowing of differences across many indicators that social scientists used to show us, that there has been some improvement over the last 60 years. Okay, like what has gotten better? Iceland tells us that, people's beliefs about inherent differences between races have gradually changed, and people have generally become more accepting of others. One example of this increasing acceptance of others, is the increasing levels of interracial dating and intermarriage we see today. Another sign of improvement is in the political realm, today we see more minorities in positions of political and economic power than we did in the past. In fact, some groups, for example, Asians have reached socioeconomic purity with whites. Even with these improvements, there is still a considerable amount of racial and ethnic inequality, especially black, white inequality. As far as black, white inequality, blacks have improved their relative position in terms of educational achievement, occupational status, residential circumstances and life expectancy. But still lag behind whites as far as income and wealth. When we compare Hispanics with whites, we find that inequality has declined in many respects, but that significant gaps in these two groups still remain. When thinking about Hispanic, white comparisons, we have to take into account the immigrant adaptation process. When we do this, what do we find? Overall, a review of the evidence suggests Hispanics are achieving upward mobility, though not yet parity, with whites when we take into account many factors. Going forward, Iceland tells us that darker skinned Hispanics, in particular may face many of the same discriminatory obstacles that blacks do. As for Asians, well they have been called the model minority, because on the whole, Asians in the United States have high average levels of educational achievement and income. Their success is attributed to the positive selection of Asian immigrants, but you should know that not all Asian groups fare well, the Hmong for example, fare far less well. It may not have surprised you to learn in the chapter, that American Indians are among the most disadvantaged groups in our country, especially compared to whites. On indicators of income and educational attainment, they fare poorly compared to whites. One might think that gaming and casinos have helped with this disparity, but Iceland says that it hasn't helped all of them. The multiracial population in the United States has increased in recent years due to the growth in intermarriage and also to changing patterns of self-identification. Changing patterns of self-identification changed in 2000 with the US census, when it started to allow people to self identify with more than one race. Finally, the growth in international migration means that many countries are experiencing a growth in racial and ethnic diversity, and they have adopted a variety of approaches incorporating these new groups. For example, some implement assimilationist policies while others favor multicultural ones, but in truth, most favor a mix of these two. Apart from immigration incorporation policies, some countries have adopted affirmative action for disadvantaged groups. These policies are controversial, in the United States for example, some argue that decisions to employ people and admit people to schools, should be based solely on particular criteria that can be judged objectively. But others believe that social justice is better achieved by advancing minority group representation, to overcome the historical or current discriminatory practices. We are a country divided over the issue of affirmative action. The bottom line for the United States is that in recent decades the country has become remarkably more racially and ethnically diverse. There's good news and bad news, the good news is that the United States has made considerable progress reducing racial and ethnic inequality over time. The bad news is that significant racial and ethnic divisions remain, that's it. Those are just a few highlights from Iceland's closing chapter, and that's a wrap for the course. [MUSIC]
