SOCI370/Wilson

Golbal Economic Changes and the Limits of the Race Relations Vision

Paragraphs 1-4: Carmel Laniado

In the beginning of William Julius Wilson's (1999) piece, he emphasizes a need to view poverty and unemployment amongst African Americans, as an issue greater than racism. Wilson suggests a 'race-neutral' approach to economic disparities, in order to unite impoverished communities with a non-racial force that is contributing to their lower wages/unemployment. He additionally states less educated/skilled communities (i.e. African American communities), often live in areas without access to higher education and employment growth. Moreover, Wilson claims new technologies and international competition are basic institutions of eroded mass production - this reminded me of Marx's take on capitalism. Wilson argues only highly educated and sophisticated workers are in constant demand, whereas the recent addition of unskilled and uneducated individuals to the workforce, no matter their race, are declining in demand. The growth of technology created a phenomenon of unskilled workers as replaceable and irrelevant commodities. If statistics show African Americans are the last to be hired, and first to be let go, as Wilson states, then I see a dangerous flaw to Wilson's 'race-neutral' approach. Considering social phenomenons of #BlackLivesMatter vs #AllLivesMatter, how can you speak about the poverty of all communities through a lens of racial neutrality, when one has specifically been targeted by slavery and systemic oppression?

[Comment by Noor Riaz]: I agree with the comment that Wilson’s race neutral approach is flawed. A race neutral approach is necessary and even desirable to reduce high levels of unemployment and poverty that result from a change in the demand for labour. However, in order to combat the economic inequalities that African Americans face, we need to take into account their historical experiences and the systematic and structural oppression that they faced. They can not be treated as the same as other low-skilled workers facing high unemployment rates. They have to be looked at separately. They were first discriminated in society based on their race (fewer opportunities of employment) and this was further exacerbated by the shift in labour demand and the fact that they lack access to areas of employment, thus producing high numbers of unskilled workers.

Paragraphs 5-11: Casey Ahn

Willian Julius Wilson (1990) argues that the economic problems in the African American communities cannot be discussed only in terms of race. He points out following nonracial economic forces that create changes in the economy and thus affects all American communities. Wilson focused on the impacts of these race-neutral forces on black communities which is marginalized in the mainstream economy as many fugues shows. One example of the marginalization is the uneven unemployment rate - the unemployment rate of blacks has been double that of whites for the past few decades.

structural shifts

In 1970's, around half of the less-educated blacks lost their job due to structural shift - cities lost manufacturing jobs and demand for jobs in other sector increased - especially in the northern cities of America such as New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit.

patterns in occupational staffing

The considerable number of new professional, technical and managerial positions requires workers with higher and formal education which disadvantages young dropouts or high school from finding a job.

computer revolution

As computer technology is more widely and intensively used, demand for educated and experienced workers rose. This tendency contributed to the job loss of less educated black workers living in technologically underdeveloped areas. Wilson backs up with a study that showed positive relations between computer ownership and income and education.

globalization

With advances in technology, costs for transportation and communication decreased and thus corporations moved their work to other low-wage areas or to even other countries. For example, Apple's manufacturing supplier is in China, Foxconn which became a giant economic zone with more than 10 million workers. Free trade is also to blame as it "reduced the price of the imports and raised the output of export industries"(p.496).

Paragraphs 12-14: Anja Hedji

William Julius Wilson (1999) writes about the racial inequalities that Black people experience in America due to histories of systematic oppression. He emphasizes the intersectionality of Black people and the oppression they face within the economy, specifically since the majority of unskilled laborers in the United States are Black. A common circumstance is that unskilled labour is frequently exported to be done by people with “low skill and low wages” which would benefit only the skilled workers, thus this issue is largely problematic since it causes Black unemployment rates to rise. Although there have been movements to improve the economic well being of Black people, Wilson theorizes that the Black movement cannot be separate from the fundamental changes in the global economy, rather to be working towards economic reform alongside other groups. Black movements such as Black Lives Matter are inherently separate from other groups because Black people have largely been systematically oppressed through white supremacy.

Comment by Jose Beltran: Wilson points out how the causes of the problems that beset the Black community cannot be reduced to factors of racism. There are other causes that are economic in nature that must be accounted for to adequately understand the plight of the black community. It is through this adequate understanding that the limits of the vision of race relations can be overcome. What is also needed are coalitions that bring people together based on factors that are not racial. Race-based solutions are not enough for Wilson. If African Americans can see and understand the international trends affecting all American families they will be one step closer to joining forces with groups who could be black or not but who are focusing their activism on economic reform. This theme that Wilson is pointing out is probably true for all races and for many different kinds of problems. But I think this is an effective application of the sociological imagination where Wilson is pointing out that there are a variety of social factors that shape our lives and that we can therefore see ourselves as united with people who are not in our racial group because our experiences our similar by virtue of other social factors such as international economics and the rising demand for computer skills in the work force.