Chapter 16 Beyond the United States: The Comparative Perspective.

Chapter 16

Beyond the United States: The Comparative Perspective

The Comparative Perspective

• Phenomenon of subordination based on:– Race, nationality, or religion not unique to US;

occurs throughout the world– Mexico

• Women and Mayans given second-class status

– Canada• Faces racial, linguistic, and tribal issues

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– Brazil• Recognizing long history of racial inequality

– Israel• Struggle of territory and autonomy between Jews

and Palestinians

– Republic of South Africa• Legacy of apartheid dominates present and future



• World Systems Theory– Considers the global economic system as

divided between nations that control wealth • And those that provide natural resources and labor

• Ethnonational Conflict– 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– Understood in the context of shared meanings

attached by societies and their members


Mexico: Diversity South of the Border

• A nation of 111 million people

• The Mexican Indian people and the Color Gradient– Color Gradient

• The placement of people on a continuum from light to dark skin color

– Rather than in distinct racial groupings by skin color



• 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• 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

– Mexico beginning to realize issues social inequity extends beyond poverty


Canada: Multiculturalism Up North

• Multiculturalism adopted as a state policy for more than two decades

• The First Nation– Status Indians members of more than 600

tribes officially recognized by the government– Inuit living in Northern Canada; Métis of mixed

ancestry; Non-status Indians



• 1982 Canadian Federal Constitution– Recognized and affirmed existing aboriginal

and treaty rights of:• Canadian Native American, Inuit, and Métis people

• Defeat of Charlottetown Agreement 1992– 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



• The Québécois– French speaking people of Quebec– Quebec accounts for 1/4th of nation’s

population and wealth– Meech Lake Accords (1987)– Inter ethnic and linguistic conflict between the

Anglophones and Francophones.



• Immigration and Race– Visible Minorities– Canadian immigration policy has alternated

between being open and restrictive– Growth in Asian, Black, and West Indian

immigrants


Brazil: Not A Racial Paradise

• 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



• Legacy of Slavery– Easier to recognize African culture among

Brazil Blacks than African Americans• Contributions of African people kept alive in

schools• Surviving African culture overwhelmed by

dominant European traditions, like US



• 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

• 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



• The “Racial Democracy” Illusion– Historian Carl Degler (1971)

• Mulatto Escape Hatch

– Escape hatch is an illusion• Economically, fare marginally better than Black

Brazilians or Afro-Brazilians



– Mulatto or Moreno recognized as group separate from either brancos or pretos

– Blacks with highest level of education and occupation experience most discrimination

• In terms of jobs, mobility, and income

– Marriages between people of different color groupings



– Marriage between opposite ends of color gradient are uncommon

– Absence of direct racial confrontation & mixed marriages

• Lack of racial tension does not mean prejudice does not exist



• Light skin color enhances status but impact is exaggerated

• Mixed ancestry earn 12% more than Blacks; Whites earn another 26% more than Moreno

• 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

– Alfonso Arinos Law (1951)– Women of color fare poorly in Brazil– Challenge in organizing is that Afro-Brazilians

fail to recognize discrimination


Israel and the Palestinians

• Diaspora– 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

• Arab-Israeli Conflicts



– Arab nations announced intention to restore control to Palestine

• Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon• By force if necessary

– Six-Day War (1967)• 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

– President Carter’s mediation and Egypt’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist

• The Intifada– Began in December 1987



– Grassroots movement of students, workers, unions, professionals, and business leaders

– Used television to transform world opinion, especially US

• Palestinians came to be viewed as people struggling for self-determination



– Diaspora of Jews led to displacement of Palestinian Arabs

• The Search for Solutions Amid Violence– Oslo Accords (1993)– 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


Republic of South Africa

• Different from rest of Africa; 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



• The Legacy of Colonialism– Settlement of South Africa by Europeans – Dutch East Indian Company – Dutch slave owners and trek inwards– British and Indian immigration– British and Boer wars– Pass Laws



• Apartheid– Means separation or apartness in Afrikans– British colonial rule ended with independence

in 1948– Afrikaners assumed control of government– Apartheid was 20th century effort to

reestablish master-slave relationship



– 1990, South African Prime Minister F. W. De Klerk

– National Peace Accord– 1992 referendum allowing Whites to vote on

ending apartheid– De Klerk and Mandela jointly awarded Nobel

Peace Prize in 1993



• The Era of Reconciliation and Moving On– April 1994, Mandela’s ANC received 62% of

vote giving him 5 year term as president– Truth and Reconciliation Commission– Controversial issues facing ANC led

government are familiar to US citizens• Desperate poverty



– Most difficult is land reform• Black South Africans forced from their land

between 1960 and 1990• 1994

– Government took steps to transfer 30% of agriculture land to Black South Africans


Chapter 16 Beyond the United States: The Comparative Perspective.

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