Structured Racial Inequality: Divergent Viewpoints, Essay Example

Introduction

Despite all of the advances made since the days of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the turbulent era of the 1960’s, the issue of structured racial inequality continues to play a major role in American society. Of all the racial/ethnical groups that have been affected by structured or intentional racial inequality, African-Americans appear to have progressed the most, followed closely by Hispanic and Asian-Americans. However, one particular racial/ethnic group continues to be the brunt of structured racial inequality, namely, indigenous Native American Indians, many of whom still live within federal reservations on lands that once belong to them.

According to Stanley R. Bailey, Aliya Saperstein, and Andrew M. Penner, Native American Indians, regardless of tribal affiliations, occupy the bottom of the racial hierarchy in many nations and in the United States, due in part to many Native American Indians identifying themselves as “monoracial” or of a race group separate from Asians, African-Americans, white Caucasians with solid European ancestry, and Hispanic Americans. Thus, indigenous American Indians remain highly segregated from the American racial mainstream and on average have median incomes that are upwards of 66% less than their white, Asian, and Hispanic counterparts (2014).

Therefore, the main goal of this paper was to determine why indigenous Native American Indians continue to occupy the lowest stratum of American society and if such a position is due to structured racial inequality which can be defined as a system of inequality and injustice designed on purpose so as to keep a specific racial/ethnic group from achieving their potential as human beings. As to the organization of this paper, it will include narratives on inequality, personal inequality, inequality from the viewpoint of an interviewee from a different racial group, a brief summary of the paper contents, and a well thought-out, logical conclusion.

Racial Inequality Narratives

Personal Racial Inequality Narrative

Without a doubt, it is clear as a Caucasian male living in the great state of California that racial inequality has long been deeply ingrained in American society. By definition, racial inequality refers to policies, systems, and social structures that favor one group of individuals at the expense of another group, in this case, indigenous Native American Indians who at on time in the 19th century were the majority population. Thus, Native American Indians have been “largely and effectively. . . locked into economically diminished lives” and continue to be marginalized from the best that American society has to offer. This lockout also includes diminished opportunities that overall negatively affect life choices and the ability to become socially mobile and self-sustaining (Cunningham, Avner, &Justilien, 2014, p. 54).

Indeed, as a male Caucasian, I have never faced racial inequality and do not feel that I have ever been “locked out” simply because of my skin color. In other words, I have always fit well into the American social arena as a “privileged” white man and have received an excellent education at one of the best higher educational institutions in the United States. In addition, I have never experienced what some refer to as physiological stress or anxiety; however, there have been times when I experienced psychological stress, such as when dealing with my peers and co-workers or attempting to fit into some type of social clique or group.

I guess it would be proper to admit that as a Caucasian male, I live and work in what Joe Feagin and Ella C. McFadden call systemic racism which was created by whites before the existence of the United States and the American colonial system. This system is composed of a “white racial frame” that includes familiar non-white stereotypes, white prejudices against other races and ethnic groups, narratives (i.e., stories of slavery and the Old South), a vast amount of images, and numerous ideologies, all of which were created in order to maintain the continuity of white power and dominance in the United States which incidentally was created by white Europeans (2010, p. 21).

Of course, one of the centerpieces of this paradigm of systemic racism is the indigenous Native American Indian whose history is rampant with discrimination, inequality, injustice, hatred, bigotry, and attempts by white government officials, some dating back to the 1700’s, to exterminate the American Indian from the American landscape. But fortunately, some of today’s Native American Indians have managed to escape the confines of federally-operated reservations to discover their own identities as human beings and have managed to fit into the world of the white man. Thus, for these few fortunate individuals, the future does indeed look bright and promising.

Interviewee Racial Inequality Narrative

As an indigenous Native American Indian, I  belong to the Navajo Nation in the state of Arizona. I speak my native Navajo language and English and consider myself as a Christian despite being raised by my maternal grandmother (a Navajo holistic medicine woman) on a federal reservation in Arizona. Historically, Native American Indians have been brutally discriminated against by the white race and appear to be the foundation for structured racism in the United States dating back as far as the American Revolution.

In my opinion, structured inequality is wholly based upon the various differences between poverty and income, wealth and assets, patterns of consumption, health needs, and other measures of well-being (Mather & Jarosz, 2014).  Although I do belong to what some call the American middle class and live as a member of a lower income family, I have never owned my own home which Mather and Jarosz call the “basic source of economic security” that helps to protect families against stressors like the sudden loss of income. Owning a home also contributes to a person’s psychological well-being and helps children to achieve success at school (2014).

As you might suspect, I am constantly plagued by a number of stress-related situations and problems because of my Native American Indian ancestry. For example, as compared to African-Americans and Chinese Americans, Native American Indians tend to experience a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders, such as clinical depression, anti-personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and bi-polar disorders (Spalter-Roth, Lowenthal, & Rubio, 2005).

These types of psychiatric disorders, along with physiological stressors like alcohol dependence, causes many Native American Indian males (like myself and some of the still living relatives on my father’s side of the family) to “take part in risk-taking behaviors that result in death by accident and homicide” (Spalter-Roth, Lowenthal, & Rubio, 2005, p. 5).

In addition, a study conducted in 1996 revealed that Native American Indians, when provided with the same educational opportunities and incomes as their white counterparts, had a much lower chance of dying from homicide and from alcohol and substance abuse (Spalter-Roth, Lowenthal, & Rubio, 2005). Therefore, in my opinion, Native American Indians like myself are under much more stress and anxiety than other races and ethnic groups in this country and will continue to experience various types of stressors until the U.S. federal government launches an all-out war against structured racial inequality which in essence is destroying my people, my culture, and the nation itself.

Perhaps Manning Marable sums up the entire problem by declaring that I belong to an “inferior race” which has been taken advantage of since the earliest days of the American Republic when the so-called “privileged majority” or white race claimed its superiority to all other races and ethnic groups (2001, p. 7). In other words, the term “manifest destiny” was only designed for the white race at the exclusion of all other races and ethnic groups that helped to make America what it is today in 2015. In effect then, Native American Indians have not simply coped; they have endured through centuries of injustice and efforts by the white race to entirely eliminate our culture, traditions, and religion from the face of the earth.

Lastly, Marable points out that Native American Indians have for far too long found the road to equal socioeconomic mobility full of potholes and chasms that could not be breached because of “unequal boundaries of color” that have acted as physical and mental barriers related to economic prosperity and educational opportunities for advancement in American society. Marable calls this scenario a “very powerful stressor” (Marable, 2001, p. 7) that has managed to destroy the lives of tens of millions of indigenous Native American Indians over the last two hundred and fifty years. To put it bluntly, this stressor and many others has created a deeply flawed America, one in which the system itself has been designed and manipulated for the advancement of one race over another, being the white race (Marable, 2001).

Summary of Contents and Conclusion

As previously noted, the main goals of this paper was 1), to determine why Native American Indians continue to occupy the lowest stratum of American society and 2), if such a position is due to structured racial inequality, a system that was intentionally designed to keep the Caucasian race dominant over all other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Although the answer to the first part of this question remains somewhat ambiguous, the unidentified interviewee did provide some insight with the assistance of Mather and Jarosz (2014) via their observation that structured racial inequality is based upon the differences between poverty and income, wealth and assets, patterns of consumption, health needs, and other measures of well-being.

As to coping mechanisms, the unidentified interviewee, a Native American Indian from Arizona, did not provide any kind of measures that he employs on a daily basis to keep himself above the mire of injustice and racial inequality found within his Navajo culture. However, it appears that he maintains high hopes that someday during his lifetime that the U.S. federal government will commence a full scale campaign against structured racial inequality which the interviewee feels is destroying his people, his culture, and America itself. The interviewee also noted that he faces numerous stressors, such as psychiatric disorders and substance abuse issues which unfortunately are common among America’s Native Indian tribes and Nations. Exactly why this is so remains elusive, but some researchers have suggested that “risk-taking behaviors” are remnants of the survival instinct which can be traced back to the earliest indications of indigenous Indians on the North American continent.

However, I feel that Native American Indians will never be fully integrated into the American social system as equals in every respect, mainly because of their insistence on keeping to their ancient cultures and practices and their genetic makeup as America’s true nomads. For some strange reason, research studies on Native American Indians and their predicaments related to structured racial inequality are scarce, especially those written during the 20th century. What this means is that the majority of studies conducted during the 19th century are rampant with bias, discrimination, and fabrication, thus making them practically useless for serious scholarship on structured racial inequality. Overall then, I feel that Native American Indians have suffered enough at the hands of the white race (i.e., of European backgrounds) and that they fully deserve to be treated with respect and admiration as a culture that has survived numerous efforts to eradicate them as Marable’s “inferior race” of human beings.

References

Bailey, S.R., Saperstein, A., and Penner, A.M. (2014). Race, color, and income inequality across the Americas. Demographic Research (31)24, 735-756. Retrieved 7 January 2015 http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol31/24/31-24.pdf

Cunningham, G.I., Avner, M.I., and Justilien, R. (2014). The urgency of now: Foundation’s role in ending racial inequality. The Foundation Review(6)1, 51-65. Retrieved 7 January 2015. http://www.nwaf.org/content/uploads/2014/04/FdnRUrgencyofNowPublished-3.pdf

Feagin, J., and McFadden, E.C. (2010). “Where and why whites still do blatant racism: White racists actions and framing in the backstage and frontstage.” Race in America: Restructuring Inequality. Center on Race and Social Problems. Retrieved 7 January 2015 from http://www.crsp.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/RaceRelationsReport001.pdf

Marable, M. (2001). Structural racism and American democracy: Historical and theoretical perspectives. Souls 10, 6-24. Retrieved 8 January 2015 from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/souls/vol3no1/vol3num1art1.pdf

Mather, M., and Jarosz, B. (2014). The demography of inequality in the United States. Population Bulletin (69)2, 1-16. Retrieved 8 January 2015. http://www.prb.org/pdf14/united-states-inequality.pdf

Spalter-Roth, R., Lowenthal, T.A., and Rubio, M. (2005). Race, ethnicity, and the health of Americans. Sydney S. Spivak Program in Applied Social Research and Social Policy. Retrieved 7 January 2015. http://www2.asanet.org/centennial/race_ethnicity_health.pdf