Structural inequality and diversity

STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY & DIVERSITY

ROOT CAUSE of STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY, SOCIAL STRATIFICATIONS and DISASTER THAT SOCIAL DARWINISM BROUGHT to HUMANITY WITH a FOCUS on the RACIAL OPPRESSION of ABORIGINAL and BLACK PEOPLE in the UNITED STATES

The work of Jeffrey R. Dafler (2005) entitled: "Social Darwinism and the Language of Racial Oppression: Australia's Stolen Generations" stats that "Alfred Korzybski often encapsulated the main idea of abstracting as formulated in the discipline of general semantics by stating that 'the map is not the territory, and the map does not represent all of the territory.' Dafler explains that 'territory' was defined by Samuel Bois as 'what is going on' (WIGO), the realm of external phenomena experienced by an individual." (2005) Therefore, to the individual "the map is the individual's abstraction of that experience." (Dafler, 2005) it was posited in the work of Korzybski that "human status as 'time-binders' sets them apart from other life forms and that it forms the basis for the structure of culture. By accumulating abstractions over time and drawing further abstractions from that collective body, individuals actually create their own realities or 'worlds'." (Dafler, 2005)

II. HIGHER-ORDER ABSTRACTIONS of EXPERIENCE & TIME-BINDING

According to Bois "the nature of abstracting is such that the worlds of two individuals will never perfectly overlap, although it is possible for individuals to share some meaning: 'In human affairs, it is the sharing values and common adherence to their requirements that make understanding and cooperation possible.'" (Dafler, 2005) it is this value-sharing among individuals that produce the symbols of interaction used in this exchange of "their higher-order abstractions of experience." (Dafler, 2005) Dafler goes on to explain "In this sense, the discipline of general semantics envisions culture as a framework of shared meaning arrived at through symbolic social interaction, a perspective that shares certain elements with a group of theories that conceptualize meaning as socially created, such as Mead' symbolic interactionism and Bormann's theory of symbolic convergence." (2005)

The concept of rhetorical vision which has been defined by Bormann as "a unified putting-together of the various scripts that gives the participants a broader view of things" is especially helpful in understanding this 'shared understanding' that occurs during interaction. Bormann refers to this as a 'rhetorical community' according to Dafler in the same manner "that the general semantics notion of shared abstractions can become the basis of culture through time-binding." (2005) Time-binding can be understood to be the same as 'traditions' or 'customs' within society. Traditions and customs are given specialized authoritative meaning in a society therefore time-binding is defined much the same way.

Dafler states: "Culture, then, in a general semantics sense, can be viewed as the collective abstractions of a group time-binders based on the symbolic sharing of individual and sub-group abstractions over the course of generations." (2005) Re-stated: Customs and traditions in culture, in terms of semantics "...can be viewed as the collective abstractions of a group time-binders based on the symbolic sharing of individual and sub-group abstractions over the course of generations." (Dafler, 2005) These customs, traditions, time-binders are a "worldview or perspective on WIGO and influences both the collective and individual behavior." (Dafler, 2005) Dafler notes that abstractions in culture shift across time in a "generational pace of time-binding" as well.

III. TIME-BINDING PROGRESS of the WESTERN WORLD

It is explained in the work of Dafler (2005) that Bois reviews "three conceptual revolutions that took place over the course of Western cultural development." First stated was the "Greek conceptual revolution" which took place during 650 to 350 BC. This revolution was "driven by the work of the great Greek philosophers, including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle." (Dafler, 2005) Secondly identified by Bois and related by Dafler (2005) was the "revolution of classical science" which occurred between 1500 and 1700 AD. The third and final cultural-revolution identified by Bois and related by Dafler (2005) was the "birth of modern science as the second conceptual revolution." The "giants of the second conceptual revolution" are named in Dafler (2005) as: "Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, and Bacon." It was the belief of Bois that "a third conceptual revolution was underway when he wrote the first edition of 'The Art of Awareness" during the middle of the 20th century. This revolution was driven by Einstein, Russell, von Bertalanffy, and others, which "consisted of the radical restructuring of the scientific framework that emerged during the preceding centuries." (Dafler, 2005)

IV. FOUR ELEMENTS SHARED in the CONCEPTUAL REVOLUTIONS of BOIS

Dafler (2005) relates that Bois posited that there were four basic elements shared by these 'conceptual revolutions' and states those four to be:

1) "A 'radical change in the methods of thinking and valuing';

2) a 'concentration of great thinkers';

3) the emergence of a 'codifier, or system builder who made explicit the methods of thinking that were characteristic of this age; and 4) the appearance of 'new terms in the general vocabulary'." (Dafler, 2005)

Dafler writes that a 'fifth element' could be introduced that would integrate the "emergence and application of a new worldview in the sphere of economic, political and social relations through the interaction of individuals and groups using the new symbols of the conceptual revolution." (Dafler, 2005) Dafler believes that "The Roman Empire could be viewed as fulfilling the need for the Greek conceptual revolution, because the Roman system in so many ways grew out of the intellectual framework established by earlier Greek philosophers." (2005) Dafler states that the second conceptual revolution "only took root outside the realms of science and philosophy in the rapid political, social and economic change of the early and middle portions of the 19th century." (2005) This is stated to be due to the advances of technology and the industrial revolution having "...swept away existing social structures, enabling emerging empires and Europe and around the world to acquire and control the resources now vital to the growth of wealth. Gone were the values and symbols of the feudalistic worldview based on patronage, protection, and divine right, replaced by the new concepts of free will, competition, and resource-based power." (Dafler, 2005) Simultaneously "Charles Darwin was extending the new science to the realm of biology with his theory of evolution and natural selection, first presented comprehensively in his 1859 work "On the Origin of Species." (2005)

The phrases 'survival of the fittest' and 'struggle for existence' were adopted in the public discourse along with "the social theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Herbert Spencer, and Ernst Haeckel..." all of who ranked the human races by a hierarchy of evolution. (Dafler, 2005; paraphrased) in this hierarchical arrangement of the human race "European and American social theorists placed fair-skinned people at the top of the evolutionary ladder. Those whose culture differed most from their own were identified as the least evolved and destined for extinction." (Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p. 17; as cited in Dafler, 2005) Hawkins is stated to analyze the 'rhetorical instrument' of Social Darwinism insofar as the method of cultural abstraction by stating: "Hawkins, Social Darwinism; Shibutani, Tamotsu and Kwan, Kian M. Ethnic Stratification: A Comparative Approach. New York: The Macmillan Company (1965)." (Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p. 17; as cited in Dafler, 2005)

Hawkins discusses how European colonizers, and this must be true of those who colonized the Americas as well that they felt they were "merely fulfilling their destiny as members of a superior race, obligated by fate to rule over the inferior black races of the uncivilized world." (Dafler, 2005) Dafler relates that Hawkins cited the work of Frederick Courtney Selous, a British colonialist instrumental in the establishment of Rhodesia "to illustrate this point." The following is that cited by Hawkins:

Therefore Matabeleland [a part of the future colony of Rhodesia] is doomed by what seems a law of nature to be ruled by the white man, and the black man must go, or conform to the white man's laws, or die in resisting them. It seems a hard and cruel fate for the black man, but it is a destiny which the broadest philanthropy cannot avert, whilst the British colonist is but the irresponsible atom employed in carrying out a preordained law -- the law which has ruled upon this planet ever since, in the far-off misty depths of time, organic life was first evolved upon the earth -- the inexorable law which Darwin has aptly termed the Survival of the Fittest." (Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p.205; as cited in Dafler, 2005)

What was viewed as an 'aboriginal problem was dealt with in Australia as well as to a great extent in America by taking children who were 'half-caste' or partially white and integrating them into society calling upon them to turn from their savagery and "embrace white society." (Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p. 205; as cited in Dafler, 2005) From this view the aboriginal were inferior genetically in adherence to Social Darwinism and Eugenics the white 'superior' race would serve to dominate those of 'inferior' races and particularly in the mixed races viewed as greatly inferior genetic beings. This conception is more formally stated in official government documents "from the early 20th century in Australia." (Dafler, 2005) Dafler relates that for more than thirty years children who were 'half-caste' "were forcibly removed from their families, often grabbed straight from their mother's arms, and transported directly to government and church missions." (Dafler, 2005) This process was termed to be one of assimilation' or 'absorption' towards the end of breeding out of Aboriginal blood in the population. At the time all of this was occurring Dafler relates that: "Many white Australians were convinced that any such hardship was better than the alternative of growing up as a member of an 'inferior' race and culture." (2005) it is plainly stated in a government document thus:

The destiny of the natives of Aboriginal origin, but not of the full blood, lies in their ultimate absorption by the people of the Commonwealth, and [the commission] therefore recommends that all efforts be directed towards this end." (Beresford and Omaji, Our State of Mind; as cited in Dafler, 2005)

This example has been provided to demonstrate the "gross injustices that have been committed within the framework of the Social Darwinist worldview. Collective abstractions of racial 'superiority' and their behavioral manifestations have led to numerous great tragedies of similar dimension during the 19th and 20th centuries, resulting in the displacement and death of millions of people." (Dafler, 2005) in conclusion Dafler relates: "The Australian government today embraces "multiculturalism" as its collective abstraction related to race relations. (35) What white Australians intend to convey through the symbolism of multiculturalism is a society where "diversity" is valued, even celebrated. The reality of Australian culture, however, seems much different." (2005) the Social Darwinist manner of dealing with the native inhabitants of North America and the subsequent enslaving and importation of black men have much mirrored the progression of the treatment of the aboriginals of Australia.

The work of Katz, Stern, and Fader (2005) entitled: "Women and the Paradox of Economic Inequality in the Twentieth-Century" state: "Throughout American history, male/female has defined an enduring binary embodied in access to jobs, income, and wealth. Women's economic history shows how for centuries sex has inscribed a durable inequality into the structure of American labor markets that civil and political rights have moderated but no removed. This economic experience of women reflects the paradox of inequality in America; the coexistence of structural inequality with individual and group mobility." It is noted by Katz, Stern and Fader (2005) that T.H. Marshall related that "Women, like African-Americans, have gained 'civil and political citizenship' [as they] "are no longer disenfranchised, and discrimination on account of race and gender is against the law." (Katz, Stern and Fader, 2005) in spite of this women in American society "earn less than men, end up in occupational ghettos, bump up against glass ceilings, and find themselves, in relation to men, as poor as ever." (Katz, Stern, and Fader, 2005) Various contexts in society in terms of inequality such as in the "domestic, social, and political spheres" have served to shape women's experiences." (Katz, Stern, and Fader, 2005) Katz, Stern and Fader (2005) state that they examine inequality in relation to sex, race, ethnicity or age from four different points-of-view:

1) Participation - the share of women who work;

2) Distribution - the kinds of jobs women held;

3) Rewards - the relative income they received; and 4) Differentiation - the distance among women on scales of occupation and earnings."

Katz, Stern and Fader state that: "The intersection of history and experience becomes even more vivid with women's labor force participation considered by age cohorts." (2005) Prior to the 20th century only a very few married women were employed however "among women born in 1915 and 1925 - mothers of the baby boom - the situation changed markedly. Many more of them worked, and their labor force participation increased until their late 40s of early 50s. At age 25, 20% of married women born in 1925 had entered market work - a fraction that swelled to 42% when they were 35 years old and 60% at age 34, when for the most part their children had left school." (Katz, Stern, Fader, 2005) Among the women born in 1955 and 1965, 59% and 70% worked respectively and "these were the first cohorts to combine motherhood of young children with paid employment." (Katz, Stern and Fader, 2005)

Stated to play a "key role in the surge of married women into the workforce" was education and this because of: "...the increased number of jobs that demanded advanced education - health care..." is given as one example. These inequalities can be viewed in the financial arena clearly and for example in the banking function. Katz, Stern and Fader state: "Banking had been a traditional man's domain for two reasons, sex stereotypes about women's interests and mental capacities and the physical demands of the job:

Men handled financial matters because it was assumed that women were not interested in such activities and furthermore women's minds were incapable of and unaccustomed to what was referred to as, 'doing figuring' and making financial transactions. Since [the] early medium of exchanges included heavy gold and silver commodities as well as currency, women were presumably unable to handle such heavy items. Moreover, large posting and accounting books used in banking were presumed difficult for women to lift." (Jane E. Prather, 1971; as cited in Katz, Stern and Fader, 2005)

Katz, Stern and Fader (2005) state: "The historical record is clearer about how exploitation and opportunity hoarding shaped women's inequality in the twentieth-century than it is about the role of emulation and adaptation. Exploitation took various forms: rules that prohibited the employment of married women, actions by labor unions concerned with preserving male family wages, hegemonic cultural ideas that assigned married women to domestic labor while devaluing the kinds of market work they performed..." (Katz, Stern and Fader, 2005) Katz, Stern and Fader conclude by stating that powerful lessons may be found within this "history of the paradox of inequality." (2005) the most obvious is stated to be "access --political and civil citizenship -- is not enough. Access promotes individual and group interests but does little to diminish the structures of inequality.

Waters and Eschbach (1995) in the work entitled: "Immigration and Ethnic and Racial Inequality in the United States" relates that "The half century since the close of World War II has seen numerous changes to the face of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States, while the problem of inequality has endured. When Myrdal published an American (1944) the segregationism tolerated by Plessy v. Ferguson was the law of the land, and caste-like barriers separated black from whites." (Waters and Eschbach, 1995) it is additionally related by Waters and Eschbach (1995) that Scholars who study ethnicity are in general agreement that racial and ethnic categories are social constructions rather than natural entities that are simply 'out there' in the world." The most disadvantaged of major American ethnic categories on census measures of poverty and educational attainment is stated by Waters and Eschbach to be American Indians and they state that "...the persistence of the social significance of Native American ethnic category 500 years after Columbus' voyage is evidence that ethnic distinctions may in some cases be durable." (2005) the following chart is adapted from the work of Waters and Eschbach which lists the socioeconomic indicators by race in the United States.

Selected socioeconomic indicators for groups in the United

States, 1990

Median

Percentage

Labor family persons in force

Ethnic racial groups income 1989 poverty participation (a) (%)

White not Hispanic

Black

American Indian (b)

Hispanic

Mexican

Puerto Rican

Cuban

Asian

Japanese

Chinese

Filipino

Korean

Asian Indian

Vietnamese

Cambodian

Hmong

Laotian

Persons 16 years and over in labor force.

Includes Eskimos and Aleuts.

Source: U.S. Census of Population, 1990, Social and Economic

Characteristics CP-2-1, Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing

Office. 1993; as cited in Waters and Eschbach (1995)

The pattern of inequality has emerged in different ways for different ethnic categories and this due to the various histories of the group. (Waters and Eschbach, 2005; paraphrased) Waters and Eschbach state that economic growth "was a primary engine for improving the economic status of both blacks and whites from the depression through the early 1970s. Decompositions of changes in black-white differences show that the lion's share for the explanation for the narrowing of the wage gap for males is attributable to the narrowing in the education gap between blacks and whites, and to declines in the racial disparity in earnings as returns to schooling." (1995) Further, "the economic gap between blacks and whites seems unlikely to close soon because the American economy seems to have stalled well short of the mark that would allow full equality." (Water and Eschbach, 1995) the story about transformations concerning women is different from the story concerning the races even with black women who had "higher rates of labor force participation and employment than did white women." (Waters and Eschbach, 1995) the economic gap between black and whites is stated by Waters and Eschbach (1995) "...to be unlikely to close soon the American economy seems to have stalled well short of the mark that would allow full equality." (Waters and Eschbach, 1995)

STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY & DIVERSITY

CHAPTER TWO

ROLE of CORPORATE INFLUENCE in DECIDING the FATE of CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

I. INTRODUCTION

Joel H. Spring writes in the work entitled: "Education and the Rise of the Corporate State" the fact that the school "...is and has been an instrument of social, economic and political control. It is an institution, which consciously plans to turn people into something. Within this framework the school must be viewed as an instrument of power." (1972) According to Spring the school may be credited for the creation of an "institutional relationship which gives power to a social group to consciously shape the personality and goals of an entire generation." (1972) Spring notes that since 1900 that it has been businessmen, political leaders and professional educators who have held the "power of schooling" in their hands and "who have been instrumental in the development of the modern corporate state..." As well.

II. SCHOOL'S ROLE in SOCIALIZATION

If one intends to grasp the "power of the school one must not confuse the learning of traditional academic subjects with the process of schooling." (Spring, 1972) for indeed the role that the school plays in being the: "...major institution for socialization" is the importance assigned to the school. This process of socialization is stated to include "the individual's relationship with the institution of the school. The quality of his relationships with his peers, and his place in the social structure of the school." p.149 (Spring, 2002) Spring points out that the "major changes in education during this century were the result of a concern for the type and direction of socialization." (1972) He also notes that inclusive in the discussions focused upon refinement of the school in its nature and relating to its power "of the school as a controlling institution were the factors of: (1) Grades; (2) assemblies; (3) differentiation of courses of study; (4) extracurricular activities; and (5) the school as a community.(Spring, 1972)

III. TWO DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS of CONTROL

There are two distinguishing facts concerning the control held by education: (1) Who controls the educational process? Spring notes that the shift was to: "...centralization of urban school boards and the concentration of power in the bands of the business and professional community..." during the latter part of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries." (p.149) the latter part of the twentieth century was defined by a shift toward community control of schools only to find that this was difficult if not impossible because "of the conscious effort by groups at the beginning of the century to concentrate control of the schools in the hands of the business and social elite." p.150 (Spring, 1972); and (2) the type or nature of power that the process of schooling prepares the individual to accept - Spring (1972) gives for example "radicals during the early part of the century claimed that schooling prepares the individual to accept the control of business and industry. It was claimed that habits of obedience and industriousness learned in the school resulted in the unquestioning acceptance and obedience to capitalist leaders. On the other hand, progressive leaders saw themselves creating an educational system which would prepare the individual to accept a system of cooperation and control by a meritocracy." 150 (Spring, 1972) This type of process of preparation for control acceptance was also examples in the Southern U.S. states in "segregated schools...the socialization that was to result from segregated schools was designed to perpetuate a caste system and assure the domination of one racial group over another." (Spring, 1972) it was not the subject matter of the lessons in these schools that was important in this role of socialization built instead it was the segregationist 'rule-of-thumb' that made educational provisions for Black students that was inferior due to their being held to be of "inferior quality" p.151 themselves. (Spring, 1972)

Spring relates that one of the first studies of importance in this area of study "...was conducted by a team of sociologists in a small town in Indiana in the 1940's. The study, titled Elmstown's Youth, explored the relationship between the social classes and adolescent life. One of the focuses of the study, of course, was the local high school." (1972) Findings of the sociologists include that "the process of differentiation in the comprehensive high school reflected the social classes within the community. The community was divided into five social classes, with those established wealth in the first group, important business and professional leaders in the second group, small businessmen and minor professionals in the third group, millworkers and white collar clerks in the fourth group, and the lowest social class included unskilled and semiskilled workers and the unemployed." (Spring, 1972) the sociologists further stated findings that the differentiation of courses the high school offered mirrored the divisions in the social classes of society in this small town. "Adolescents from social classes one, two and three dominated the college preparatory track, the general track drew the majority of its students from social classes three and four, and the commercial track received students primarily from the two lowest social classes." (Spring, 1972)

IV. PROGRESSIVE REFORMERS

Progressive reformers wanted differentiation in studies for "meeting individual needs" but this had in reality perpetuated the "...social class lines and schooling people into their social places." (Spring, 1972) School was found to "not only prepare for the acceptance of control by dominate elites and social structures" but to further "create a dependence on institutions and expertise." (Spring, 1972; p.153) Learned in school is "that thinking, acting, dressing, playing, and creating can be placed on a linear scale and ranked and graded according to value. The school teaches sex, driving, problems in leisure time, and a whole host of related subjects. The concept of school preparing one for 'worthy use of leisure time' is an example of this situation." (Spring, 1972) it is a cognitive jolt to realize that education has been pointedly this intrusive into the individual process of choice in its attempt to exert all control in terms of socialization of individuals into the proper level of society to which they are assigned. As stated by Spring "The expert establishes the standard of 'proper' leisure, then trains the individual to enjoy life." (1972) it is certain that as noted by Spring (1972) that such a greatly institutional dependence has the potential to: "...freeze and deaden all human activity." (1972)

Spring further relates of this type of institutional and expertise dependence: "...represents a form of alienation which goes far beyond anything suggested by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. The triumph of the school in the twentieth century has resulted in the expansion of this concept of alienation. Technology and state capitalism still make work meaningless to the individual and crate a condition of alienation from the product of labor. The themes of control, social stratification, and institutional dependency are all finely interwoven." (1972) Spring notes of 'progressive education' that the emphasis was on social adjustment to the extent that the "other goals of liberation and individualized instruction" are rendered meaningless. Because the school has taken over the entire responsibility for the complete and total development of the student, it has also assumed responsibility "for assuring that the child was shaped to fit into society." (1972) Personality problems came to be defined: "in terms of social relationships" (1972; p.156) and Spring states that the work of Ellul writes:

Opposition to society, the lack of social adaptation, produces serious personality difficulties which lead to the loss of psychic equilibrium." (Ellul, 1967; p.348) the most important factor in education therefore became social adjustment to restore the psychic balance. Ellul points out that this social adaptation was to a society that was neither perfect nor ideal. In fact as society becomes more technological and totalitarian, the problems of adaptation become more and more difficult. This leads to the further development of more refined techniques of adjustment and, makes socialization even more necessary. Therefore as technology advances, the burden of making people "happy" becomes more and more the responsibility of education. Paradoxically this creates the impression that education is becoming more humanistic. What looks like the apex of humanism is in fact the pinnacle of human submission: children are educated to become precisely what society expects of them. They must have social consciences that allow them to strive for the same ends as society sets for itself." (Ellul, 1967; p.348)