CIVIL RIGHTS: An “American Dilemma”

1. CIVIL RIGHTS:An “American Dilemma” July 7th, 2003

2. Race as the ‘American Dilemma’ • the dilemma • political practice does not meet constitutional principles (e.g. equality) • remedies require sacrificing other constitutional principles • on issues of race, both historical and contemporary, both sides have claimed constitutional legitimacy • has greatly complicated the process of solving issues relating to race

3. Roots of the Segregated System • societal support for segregation • southern landed aristocracy • poor southern whites • segregation and social status • segregation and the segregated labour market • segregation was not simply the culmination of individuals’ beliefs • was a central element of the economic and social system • was designed to shape and reinforce individual beliefs of both whites and blacks • challenges to segregation were seen to tear at the very fabric of white southern society

4. Challenges to Segregation • external factors generating black resistance to segregation • World War II • increased exposure of southern blacks to the rest of the world • increased sense of confidence, leadership ability • the Great Migration, 1940-1970

5. The Great Migration • northward migration of southern blacks • 1940-1960 • estimated 20 million blacks migrate northward • resulted from the mechanization of agriculture • decline of sharecropper economy • effects • North – created the issue of how to integrate large numbers of displaced black migrants • South • created new links among southern and northern blacks • increased southern blacks knowledge of states where segregation was not explicit and legally sanctioned

6. Challenges to Segregation • external factors generating black resistance to segregation • World War II • the Great Migration, 1940-1970 • primary challenges to segregation were not a result of whites (or the courts) changing their mind about segregation!!

7. The Supreme Court and Civil Rights • the Supreme Court prior to 1954 • how did such blatant discrimination exist under the Bill of Rights and in full view of the Supreme Court? • with the support of the Court!! • Why did the civil rights movement turn to the courts in the 1950s? • they had nowhere else to go! • recognition that Supreme Court could be made to respond to forces of change...

8. Affirmative Action • illustrating the ‘American dilemma’ • arguments in favour of affirmative action • required to redress past discrimination • time alone not sufficient to overcome effects of historical discrimination • arguments against affirmative action • requires disadvantaging individuals in historically advantaged groups • dilemma – pitting one constitutional principle against another

9. Affirmative Action • implementing affirmative action • Civil Rights Act, 1964 • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

10. Affirmative Action after the Civil Rights Era • the backlash • Bakke, 1978 • Hopwood vs. Texas, 1996 • California, Proposition 209 • explanations of the backlash • white perceptions of individual rights violations (the dilemma) • affirmative action programs (and others) failing to deliver on the promised benefits including social integration

11. Social Policy and the Social Construction of Race • race as a social construction • social conception of “whiteness” has varied • historical expansion of social conception of whiteness • Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White • tools in the social construction of whiteness • social policy • school lunch programs • Gwendolyn Mink, Wages of Motherhood • welfare • affirmative action

12. Social Policy and the Social Construction of Race • race as a social construction • tools in the social construction of whiteness • social integration was not emerging as quickly as expected • result – a backlash against programs that were linked to race and designed, in part, to promote social integration

13. Social Policy and the Social Construction of Race • e.g. welfare • intended to promote family formation based on white, middle-class conceptions of family • perception of perverse effects • perceived as contributing to teen pregnancy • perceived as discouraging responsible fatherhood • William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor • backlash against welfare • Reagan’s references to “welfare queens”

14. Affirmative Action after the “Civil Rights Era” • the backlash • Bakke, 1978 • Hopwood vs. Texas, 1996 • California, Proposition 209 • affirmative action reaffirmed • University of Michigan decision, 2003 • implied 25 year limit

15. Main Point! • the politics of race poses a dilemma for the American political system • political practice that does not meet with constitutional principles (e.g. equality) • remedies require sacrificing certain constitutional principles

16. Main Point! • the politics of race poses a dilemma for the American political system • race is still one of the defining characteristics of American politics • American politics is shot through with deep racially-coded meanings • “...race is the ghost with a permanent seat at the table of American life, the spirit whose existence gives definition to all others.” Richard Iton, Solidarity Blues (2000: 236)