A SOURCE OF SOCIAL PROTEST: THE PREDEGAMENT OF THE ' STATUS maemsxsrem nacho Thesis {0! the Dogma of Ph. ll: M1CHSGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Walter Russet Banks 1963 TN E518 l I31: um m m; H mm M mm 1: W I!!! H; It 1293 31 LIBRARY Michigan State University This is to Certify that the thesis entitled A SOURCE OF SOCIAL PROTEST; THE PREDICAMENT OF THE STATUS INCONSISTENT NEGRO presented by WALTER ROSSER BANKS has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D ______°___ degree in m and AnthroPOIOgy M Ma Date May 139 1963 ABSTRACT A SOURCE OF SOCIAL PROTEST: THE PREDICAMENT OF THE STATUS INCONSISTENT NEGRO by Walter Rosser Banks gThe task of relating dimensions of social stratifi- cation to one another has been facilitated in recent years by the introduction of the concept status inconsistency in— to the sociological literature. This concept has focused attention upon problems faced by individuals who must coordinate combinations of high and low statuses. The traditional distinction between achieved and ascribed statuses has proven useful in distinguishing types of status incon— sistency. One general hypothesis that has been presented is that persons with high ascribed status and low achieved status will blame themselves for their lack of status achievements. On the other hand. persons with low ascribed status and high achieved status are expected to engage in collective protest designed to alter their low ascribed status. There are two assumptions that have been made in deriving these hypotheses, one is that status inconsistent people will experience tensions that will be reduced by Walter Rosser Banks achieving consistent combinations of statuses, i.e., all at the same status level. The other assumption is that attempts to achieve status consistency will also be attempts to obtain the best self-image possible, i.e., as high a general status as possible by raising one's lower statuses to levels consistent with one's high statuses.’ This research is concerned with thehypothesis relating low ascribed status to high achieved status. A group with low ascribed status. American Negroes, was selected, and attention was directed toward establishing to what extent Negroes with high achieved statuses were more concerned with altering their status as Negroes than Negroes with low achieved statuses. An attempt was made to shift the focus of the status inconsistency concept from relation- ships between high and low statuses to a concern with the extent to which a person had to overcome barriers to up— ward mobility in order to achieve high status. To this end the hypothesis was made that Negroes with dark skin, who were young and from the south would be most concerned with altering their status as Negroes as they achieved higher statuses. Three areas of status achievements were selected (occupation, income, and education) because they had been used in other studies of status inconsistency, and because Negroes are not expected to achieve high status in them. Walter Rosser Banks The subjects for this study were 150 Negro male heads-of—households randomly selected from a fairly complete list of Negro households in Lansing. Michigan. In general, the hypothesis of this study was confirmed in that status achievement was found to be associated positively with desire to reduce discrimination against Negroes. However, after analyzing this desire in some detail, the conclusion was reached that status achievement among the respondents led to participation in collective action, but this participation was not clearly founded upon an assimilationist ideology. nor upon a militant protest orientation. Perhaps the most significant finding of the study is that education proved to be most predictive of desire to reduce discrimination. Respondents with a high school education were much more desirous of change than those who did not complete high school. This finding, and a few other observations, seemed to indicate desire for assimilation among Negroes might not be associated with status incon- sistency. An alternative hypothesis was proposed that sug- gested Negroes would desire assimilation as a goal most frequently when their achievements did not focus attention upon their being Negro. Desires for assimilation. thus, may be expected to follow, rather than precede, the breakdown Walter Rosser Banks of barriers against Negroes achieving high status. The hypothesis was also proposed that the more Negroes organize to achieve integration. the more likely they will find themselves, in the tradition of American pluralism, accepting and realizing the ideal of separate but equal positions. A SOURCE OF SOCIAL PROTEST: THE PREDICAMENT OF THE STATUS INCONSISTENT NEGRO BY Walter Rosser Banks A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Sociology and Anthropology 1963 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To the Institute for Community Development and Services for financial support of this study I am most grateful. Dr. Donald Olmsted has been a most understanding and helpful thesis advisor, and for this I am most appreciative. In Dr. James MeKee I found a source of intellectual stimulation, and to him thanks must go for reading parts of my thesis prior to its completion. Among my colleagues those I am especially indebted to for their support and criticism are James Geschwender. Kim Rodner. Joseph Spielberg, and Henry Watts. My wife Viola typed early drafts of my thesis and in general provided the kind of companionship necessary for my survival as a graduate student. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. STATUS INCONSISTENCY AND THE VALUE OF SUCCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Status Inconsistency: Theory and Research 7 The Tendency Toward Status Consistency 12 Status Inconsistency Theory 13 Antecedents of Status Inconsistency 15 The Value of Success 16 The Relationship between Ascribed and Achieved Status 20 Significance of the Present Study 22 II. STATUS INCONSISTENCY AND NEGRO PROTEST . . . . 27 The Adoption of a Negro Role 28 Reactions to Being Negro 31 Pluralism and Racial Pride 37 The Assumption of Racial Equality 42 The Function of the Negro in American Society 44 Pluralism and Status Inconsistency ‘ 48 Conclusion 53 III. STATUS INCONSISTENCY AND DESIRE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Research Problem 55 Status Inconsistent Negroes 56 Selection of Independent variables 61 Economic Success 63 Occupational and Educational Success 65 Ascriptive Status and Achievement 67 The Importance of Age 69 The Importance of Region of Origin 70 The Importance of Skin Color 70 Status Inconsistency: Operationalization 71 The Achieved Status Variables 72 Operationalization of Ascribed Statuses 73 Status Inconsistency Score 75 iii iv Chapter Page Desire for Social Change 80 Protest Goals 82 Ideological Commitment 85 Protest Procedures 87 Organization of the Dependent Variable .89 Conclusion ' 92 IV. DESIRES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE OF OVERACHIEVING, ABSOLUTE ACHIEVING AND EDUCATED NEGROES . . 95 Selection of Subjects _ , . ~ wt” "”97 Sample and Universe“ ,99 Sample Limitations .10l. Negroes in Lansing 102 Level of Analysis ”1106“ Achieved Status Dimensions 111 Ascribed Statuses 115 Status Inconsistency and Desire for Social Change 122 Desire for Assimilation 127 Achieved Status and Desire for Change 137 Overachievers with High Absolute Status 142 Single Dimensions of Status and Desire for Social Change 149 Summary Statement of Findings 157 V. STATUS INCONSISTENCY AND SOCIAL CHANGE . . . . 162 Introduction 162 Research Findings 163 Professional Negro or Negro Professional 167 Types of Inconsistency 167 Significant Others and Personal Integrity 169 From Treatment to Response 171 From Status Inconsistency to Desire for Social Change 173 Social Stratification in a Pluralistic Society 179 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 10. ll. 12. l3. 14. LIST OF TABLES Achieved status dimensions and levels . . . All possible assignments of status incon— sistency scores . . . . . . . . . . . . Desire for social change scores . . . . . . . Achieved status dimensions . . . . . . . . . . Ascribed status dimensions . . . . . . . . . . Frequency distribution of achieved status combinations by significant ascribed statuses O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O I O Ascribed status combinations and mean status achievement scores . . . . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and desire for social change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and amount of occupational discrimination perceived . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and ideological pOSition O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Status inconsistency and participation in collective action . . . . . . . . . . . . Achieved status and desire for social change . Patterns of status achievement and ascription held by both sharply status inconsistent and consistent respondents . . . . . . . . Status consistency, sharp status inconsistency, and desire for social change . . . . . . . Page 76 77 91 111 116 117 121 125 129 133 136 140 144 146 Table Page 15. Ascribed statuses and desires for social change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 16. Occupational, economic, and educational status by desire for social change . . . . 152 vi Appendix A. B. LIST OF APPENDICES RESEARCH FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . QtJESTIONNAIRE O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 Appendix Tables 1. 2. 10. ll. 12. Presentation of research findings . . . . . Status inconsistency and desire for social change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and selection of problem area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and participation in collective action . . . . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and action orientation Status inconsistency and ideological position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and amount of occupational discrimination . . . . . . . Status inconsistency and amount of housing discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . Achieved status and desire for social change Achieved status and ideological position . . Achieved status and selection of problem area 0 O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 0 O O Achieved status and amount of occupational discrimination perceived . . . . . . . . vii Page 200 218 201 204 205 206 207 208 209 209 210 211 212 212 Appendix Tables Page 13. Achieved status and action orientation . . . 213 14. Achieved status and collective participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214 15. Achieved status and amount of housing discrimination perceived . . . . . . . . 215 16. Ascribed status and desire for social Change I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 216 17. NOn-white households, 1960, City of Lansing and Lansing Township . . . . . . . . . . 217 viii CHAPTER I STATES—TNCONGISTENGYLANB~THELVALUEaOF—SHCCESS New vigor may have been given to the field of social stratification and to studies of social status in particular, for a concept has been introduced to the social science literature that focuses attention upon the complexity of social stratification in technologically advanced societies. This new concept--status consistency--places emphasis upon the fact that in a society with a complex division of labor individuals find themselves holding numerous positions, each having implications for their general status in the society. Modern man is not simply a worker, he is a responsible citizen, and a conscientious consumer, and each of these activities along with others, become important in the allocation of status to him”) The concept of status consistency points up the complexity of assigning general or over-all status in modern societies, but it also attempts to give some structure to this problem. Attention is directed to difficulties that arise when a person has a number of significant statuses that are not all of equal rank. Such a person is referred to as being status inconsistent, while people with statuses all of the same rank are status consistent. An individual who is status inconsistent has achieved status ranks that are unexpectedly high given the low statuses that he also possesses. With this concept of status inconsistency the problem of characterizing over- achievers is now extended to include questions concerning the consequences of overachievement at both societal and individual levels. One important research finding has been that over- achievers tend to express liberal ideas regarding political and economic issues, and in general desire changes in the existing social order.1 Another significant finding has been that not all status inconsistent individuals are critical of the social order; instead, some of them seem more concerned with personal upward mobility striving than with social change.a 1Irwin‘W. Goffman, FStatus Consistency and Preference for Change in Power Distribution,? American Sociological Review, XXII (1957), 275—281; and Gerhard E. Lenski, FStatus Crystallization: A.NOn-Vertical Dimension of Social Status,? American Sociological Review, XIX, 1954, 405-13. 26. H. Fenchel, J. H. Menderer, and E. L. Hartley, FSubjective Status and the Equilibration Hypothesis,7 The Journal ongpnormal and Social Psychology, XL VI (1951), 476-79. For three studies that may be interpreted as having implications for mobility striving see Stuart N. Adams, ?Status Congruency as a variablein Small Group Performance,? A typology of status inconsistency has been proposed by Jackson to account for these two quite different behavioral characterizations of status inconsistent individuals.3 This typology utilizes the often made distinction between ascribed and achieved statuses. /Status combinations consisting of high achieved statuses and low ascribed statuses are con- sideredtn be associated with critical orientations toward the social order. Status combinations containing low achieved statuses and high ascribed statuses are thought to be associated with upward mobility striving and feelings of self-blame. Consequently, individuals who have over- achieved (high achieved with low ascribed status) tend toward political liberalism, while individuals who have under- achieved are still concerned with achieving higher personal status. The question of imputing overachievement or under— achievement is relative to the level of ascriptive statuses incorporated in a status combination./ One possible answer to the question, why are certain Social Forces, XXXII (1953), 16-22; Ralph V. Exline, and Robert C. Ziller, ?Status Congruency and Interpersonal Conflict in Decision-Mbking Groups.? Human Relations, XII (1959), 147-62; and George C. Hemans, FStatus Among Clerical Workers,? Human Organization, 1953, 5-10. 3Elton F. Jackson, fStatus Consistency and Symptoms of Stress,? American Sociological Review, XXVII (1962), 469-80. individuals overachievers and others not, is that the former are conforming to cultural values. In a society in which great value is attached to being successful, and even greater value to overcoming a disadvantaged background, it is simply a matter of complying with societal values to overachieve. To the extent to which this is the case, an explanation of conformity could also be utilized to explain the existence of overachievers, as well as why underachievers are still concerned with mobility striving. Why overachievers, however, should adopt critical opinions concerning the social order is still not answered by the above line of reasoning. Unless, it so happens the social recognition that is expected for so fully complying with a fundamental social value--to be successful——is, in fact, not forthcoming. Such would be the state of affairs in a society where one ideal is for everyone to achieve success, while, in actuality, there are many who subscribe to a set of values in which successfulness is restricted 4In addition to the importance of value commitment as an explanation, one would also expect that the very process of achieving must to some extent be rewarding for an indivi- dual to extend himself to such a degree that he overachieves. In other words, compliance with the value system must not result in significant increases in what Goode calls ?role strain -- the felt difficulty in fulfilling role obligations.” (William J. Goode, ?A Theory of Role Strain,? American Sociological Review, XXV [1960], 483.) to people with particular social backgrounds. In a society such as this overachievers are likely to suffer a rude awakening when they attempt to mingle with the Flegitimately? successful as equalsq One method of testing the validity of this discussion is through the selection of a group of people, who by achieving status are both complying with certain societal values, and, at the same time, are placing themselves in opposition with other equally significant values. Such a ‘group would be American Negroes who have attained high status on widely recognized status dimensions. By doing so they have indicated acceptance of the value of success, but they have also indicated a rejection of the value of racial or social inequality. Thus, the basic assumption of this study is that American Negroes who have overcome status difficulties to attain high achieved status are not rewarded for their accomplishments in a manner they expected, but instead are rejected in favor of the high value placed upon racial inequality. The general hypothesis of this study is that status inconsistent Negroes, meaning those who have over- achieved, will be concerned with bringing about changes in the existing American caste structure. They will thus differ from other kinds of overachievers who may turn their attention toward additional mobility striving, or toward fully securing achieved statuses, or who may simply become acquiescent as far as status problems are concerned. This study will not be concerned with psychological factors that distinguish Negroes who have overachieved, nor will it be concerned with specifying value systems that pertain to success, nor to what specific modes of success are open to different social classes or groups. It will be assumed that success is widely valued in American society, and that there are also widely accepted notions as to who may, and who may not, legitimately become successful. Should Negroes who have overachieved turn out to be most concerned with altering the American caste system, this will be taken as an indication of the operation of two incompatible value systems, one placing a high value on success regardless of background, and the other placing a high value on racial inequality. If, on the other hand, overachieving Negroes seem less concerned with altering the intricacies of the caste system than those who have not overachieved, this may be viewed as an indication of either the positive acceptance of overachieving Negroes by whites, or the acceptance of the caste system as legitimate by Negroes, who, as a result of their own gains, are mostly concerned with their status w position within the Negro caste. It would be necessary to conduct additional research to ascertain which of these two alternatives would be the most accurate description of conditions producing a negative correlation between status achievement and concern with altering the existing caste structure. Status Inconsistency: Theory and Research To date only a few studies have been published that are explicitly concerned with status inconsistency.5 They have all employed the concept to refer to individuals who have both high and low status. For the most part these studies of status inconsistency pay tribute to Benoit- Smullyan or Hughes as sources of their theoretical inspirations.6 Both of these writers were concerned with what happens to individuals who have both high and low statuses. They differed, however, in their discussions of the consequences of being status inconsistent. Benoit—Smullyan focused his attention on problems the status inconsistent individual faces. Hughes, on the other hand, was mostly concerned with status insistency as a problem having implications for 5See footnotes l, 2, and 3. 6Emile Benoit—Smullyan, FStatus, Status Types and Status Interrelationships,? American Sociological Review, IX (1944), 151-61. E. C. Hughes, fDilemmas and Contradictions of Status,? American Journal of Sociology, L (1944), 353—59. intergroup relations. ”Benoit-Smullyan may be regarded as establishing a frame of reference for research in which status inconsistency is associated with mobility striving.' In such studies the central hypothesisflisflthat status inconsistentgeersons will trydtgflraise their lower statuses.to a level that is in accord with their high statuses. Fenchel, Monderer, and Hummu M»- Hartley have found that status inconsistent persons are concerned with upward mobility striving, and specifically with respect to those status dimensions in which they are low.7: jResearch relating status inconsistency to opinions concerning the social order follow more directly from argu- ments presented by Hughes than from Benoit-Smullyan's concern with a tendency toward status equilibrium. Hughes expressed concern over the possibility that status incon- sistency might become a source of social disintegration, that is a social system problem, and not just an individual problem of adjustment. One of the major difficulties Hughes saw as a consequence of Tnew kinds? of persons entering a social group was the tendency for such groups to 799. cit.. pp. 476-79. divide into fairly diStinct subgroups with these new members interacting mostly among themselves.8 One example Hughes gives as to how this process may take place is that as , Negroes gain in occupational status, instead of being fully accepted in terms of their occupational status, a separate social structure develops to accommodate them.9 As a consequenCe of this emergent social structure the basic pattern of racialsegregation is essentially maintained at :rfi,,hi5~e even higher status levels, i.e., the formation of~Negro . country and~ski clubs, Negro fraternities on northern university campuses, etc.: The studies of status inconsistency that have been concerned with the orientations status inconsistent persons have toward the social order do not follow in full detail Hughes' line of reasoning. Whereas Hughes emphasized the possibility that caste relations might be extended to higher status levels as a result of status gains on the part of low caste members, writers employing the status inconsistency concept have for the most part been concerned with inter- group conflict rather than accommodation. The concern, nevertheless, is still with status inconsistency as a possible 892. Cito‘ p. 357. 9Ibido. pp. 358-590 10 source of social action that may be disfunctional to the existing social structure. The general hypothesis of these studies is that status inconsistent individuals will have a negative opinion of their society. Those who would emphasize the fact that status inconsistent persons have been found to be political liberals and not radicals, might qualify the foregoing to Fmildly negative opinions of their \societ .f At an rate it is h pothesized status inconsistent Y Y Y ’persons want societal changes. 'Jackson has given greater ‘specificity to this particular view of the effects of status inconsistency. i/A.person whose achievement ranks are inferior to his ascribed rank is likely to View his situation as one of personal failure. . . . on the other hand, the inconsistent whose achievement ranks exceed his ascribed rank usually is evaluated, and evaluates himself, as a success, since he has won (or maintained) his position despite the handi- cap of low racial-ethnic status. Advanced education and high status occupation both reflect and reinforce a tendency to cope actively with problems and an ability to see them in their social context. An inconsistent with high achieved and low ascribed rank thus tends to see the social bases for his difficulties; . . .10) It is generally acknowledged that the utility of status consistency as an independent variable depends upon 10Jackson, American Sociological Review, XXVII, 477. 11 'what statuses are selected for study, and how these statuses are then combined into a measure of degree of status incon- sistency. One must also be careful to keep clearly in mind specifically which status variables he has selected in making his hypotheses. For example, Lipset in his Political .flan may be going too far when he suggests that since Negroes vote Democratic more than do whites, this indicates Negroes are further left politically than whites.11 But Lipset does not stop there; he goes on to suggest Negroes who achieve high economic status will tend to be extreme leftists. FHigh-income members of a low-status ethnic or religious group are . . . in a situation comparable to the upper level of the working class in those countries with 'closed' status systems.f'12 What Lipset seems to be overlodking is that as Negroes achieve high economic status they may also become the extreme black bourgeoisie described by E. Franklin Frazier. In this study no hypotheses will be made concerning political orientation. Instead, the concern will be with what connections, if any, there are between status achievement for Negroes and their reactions to being Negro. 11SeymourM. Lipset, Political Man (new Yerk: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1960), p. 242. Lipset does stress the tentativeness of his hypotheses. 12Ibid. '1 12 The Tendency Toward Status Consistency In general there have been two explanations advanced concerning the tendency for status inconsistent persons to alter their status patterns in such a way that they become more status consistent. One explanation is at the societal level and relates this individual tendency to the general process of class formation.13 This explanation is simply that there will be fewer and fewer status inconsistent persons in a society as the society changes from an open-classed one to a rigidly stratified one. The explanation for this societal process might then be sought in the economic or political systems of the society. The other mechanism in- voked to explain the tendency toward status consistency at the individual level is also applicable here. [At the individual level status inconsistency is considered to have a disruptive effect upon the self concept.l4 People who are high in one status area and low in another receive inconsistent treatment from others. In certain situations they are treated with great respect, and in 3werner S. Landecker, FClass Stratification? and FStratification in the Urban Society? in Ronald Freedman, et a1, Principles of Sociology (New York: Henry Holt, 1956), pp. 231-44 and 520-39. l4Jackson, American Sociological Review, XXVII, 469-70. 13 other situations they may consider themselves lucky if they are ignored. A status inconsistent person may be given more respect than he thinks he deserves in one situation because others are aware that although in this situation his status is low, in other significant situations he is known to have high status. Similarly, a person may be given less respect in one situation where his status is high because his sub— ordinates are aware of other important situations in which his status is low. The necessiry of having to cope with these inconsistencies in how he is being treated by others makes it difficult for the status inconsistent person to establish a stable self-identity. Efforts to achieve status consistency, then, may also be viewed as attempts to relieve . . ) tenSions centering around the self-concept; Status Inconsistency Theory The following is a brief summary of What seems to be the basic theory that has developed concerning the concept of status inconsistency. lStatus inconsistent persons have both high and low statuses at the same time. There is a tendency for status inconsistent individuals to try to achieve status consistency. If their high statuses are ascribed and their low statuses achieved, then, they will try to achieve status consistency through upward mobility 14 striving. If their high statuses are achieved and their low statuses ascribed, then, they will try to attain status consistency through social change. The greater the dis- crepancy between the high and low statuses the greater the effort to attain consistency. There may be a sensitivity threshold, a point below which status inconsistency has no measurable effect. These tendencies exist because of a societal transformation from an open-class society toward a closed—class society, and because status inconsistency presents problems for maintaining a stable self—concept”! The techniques a person learns to protect his self-concept may be taken as basic factors underlying the societal transformation, or attention may be turned toward the social system itself, or conditions external to it, to account for the trend toward the formation of classes or castes.15 Thus, at the societal level current theory views a reduction in the number of status inconsistent persons as producing, or coinciding with, the formation of clearly delineated classes. This may be taken as implying a tendency 15For an interesting discussion of the possible importance of psychological factors underlying class and caste formation see Dennis H. Wrong, TThe Functional Theory of Stratification,? American Sociological Review, XXIV (1959). 781. 15 toward class conflict; however, as the theory stands at present the opposite seems to be the expectation, i.e.,fas the number of status inconsistent persons increases there is greater likelihood that conflict between classes will develop because they will provide leadership for the lower classes.fi we have then the interesting idea that relations between classes will be most harmonious when class membership is clearly associated with a number of statuses. The fact that the tendency toward status consistency is also regarded as reducing tensions involving the self-concept fits with this view of class relations. The status inconsistency concept may also be evaluated in this connection as an attempt to handle the dual problem of class conflict--class consciousness based on similarity of experience and class leadership based on contacts outside intraclass relation— ships. Antecedents of Stgtus Inconsistency Even if the foregoing is the most fruitful beginning toward incorporating the concept of status inconsistency into a general theory of society, there is still the problem of how individuals become status inconsistent in the first place. It would be possible to talk of an industrializing 16 society shifting from a castelike society into a class or classless one, and thereby producing status inconsistent persons. At the individual level it would be necessary to postulate conditions under which there will be a tendency to desire unstable or ill—defined self—concepts. The Value of Success The theory as it has thus far been developed could be kept intact and expanded to account for the presence of status inconsistent persons by introducing societal values as significant independent variables. To the extent that members of a society attach high value to being successful there is a pressure toward the formation of status incon- sistent persons. In comparing different societies, differences in cultural values may explain to some extent whyk vertical mobility is more common in one society than in another. A.cu1ture which places a premium in personal striving, the display of initiative, and competitive endeavor, thereby fosters efforts to rise from lower to higher status levels. Such stimulus is not provided by a culture which strongly restricts personal choice, requires that some follow in the foot- steps of their fathers, and encourages the cautious accumulation of property at the expense of taking chances in the pursuit of opportunities.16 l6Freedman, et al., op. cit., p. 531. 17 One of the most difficult problems facing those theorists who ascribe to cultural values the power to deter— mine, or alter, Social conditions is to find some way in which they can adequately test this hypothesis. Gideon Sjoberg in Sociology Today points up some of the problems involved when values are employed as independent variables.17 Sjoberg suggests there is need for an approach that utilizes cultural values, technology, and power together as independent variables. The foregoing quote from Freedman, et_al. probably tends toward an overstatement of the case for the use of cultural values as social determinants. The value of success is being introduced in the present discussion, not simply because it may be capable of giving rise to mobility striving, but because it is likely to influence how people evaluate their present status attributes: The number of status inconsistent people in a society is likely to be determined mainly by such factors as rate of industrialization and urbanization. Still,how concerned these people are about being status inconsistent is likely to be traceable to the emphasis their particular society places upon success. 'I §Since it is unlikely that a person will be able to change all his statuses at the same time in his efforts to 17Gideon Sjoberg, VComparative urban Sociology,? in Robert K. Merton, et al., Sociology Today (New York: Basic Books, 1959), pp. 344—47. 18 be successful,he is bound to be status inconsistent on a number of occasions during his life time. A person with a low ascribed status becomes status inconsistent the moment he begins to realize a certain amount of success, and remains inconsistent as long as he is successful. Similarly persons with high ascribed statuses remain status incon- sistent so long as they fail to achieve high statusq’ //The status inconsistent members of a society in which a high value is placed upon success can be expected to show interest in trying to raise their lower statuses to a level that is compatible with their high statuses, and to even continue from there to try to gain an even higher general status level. Inasmuch as they have already been labeled as being inherently more valuable to their society, members who have high ascribed status can be expected to be even more success oriented than those with low ascribed status. Thus, by introducing the variable of societal values regarding success it is possible to explain some of the tensions status inconsistent persons have in an open classed society. Besides an unstable self—image, the status inconsistent person is now also being plagued by the presence of values pertaining to success. There is an additional reason, then, for the status inconsistent individual with high ascribed status and low achieved status to feel guilty, 19 and to develop tensions concerning his combination of statuses—-he is an runderachiever.? In a society that ascribes statuses and also values status achievement, it is possible, indeed likely, that there will be some members who view themselves and are viewed by others as underachievers, as people who have not lived up to societal values by failing to take advantage of their superior origin. In such a society there are also likely to be individuals who are viewed as overachievers, those people of inferior origin who have achieved status levels expected only of those from superior stock. Over- achievers may also have low and high achieved status, e.g., high occupational status with low educational status. Probably the most obvious focus of conflict in the American (stratification) system is the clash between the principles of achieved status and status gained by birth or group membership. And cleavage in the moral framework of the system is especially marked where the criteria of equal opportunity and personal achievement meet head-on with systems of ascribed status and parental opportunity-~most conspicuously in the case of ethnic, religious, or racial minorities. 18Robin M, Williams, Jr., American Society (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956). pp. 126-28. 20 The Relationship_between Ascribed and Achieved Status In a society in which both ascribed and achieved statuses are recognized and legitimized, expectations also arise concerning relationships between these two kinds of statuses. They may be related in terms of rationalistic considerations, i.e., it is very difficult to overcome a disadvantaged social or biological background so people with such backgrounds are not expected to achieve high status. They may also be related on grounds that have moralistic overtones, i.e., people with the best qualifi— cations (high ascribed status) should be the only ones to fulfill positions requiring skill, leadership, responsibility, etc. (high achieved statuses). It is important which of these two modes of relating achieved and ascribed status predominates in a society, for they each have different implications as regards the treatment of overachievers. According to status inconsistency theory over- achievers will express desires to alter the social order. Such a finding is contrary to what would seem more likely in a society that values success. Overachievers in such a society should be highly rewarded for their unusual success, and should, therefore, constitute one of the most conser— vative elements in their society. The overachiever, it 21 would seem, has definitely acquired a vested interest in the existing social order, after all he has worked unusually hard to rise within it. It would be a rejection of all he has achieved to advocate changing the very social order within which he is at last being designated a position of high status. Usually high statused individuals are not easily persuaded to peacefully relinquish their privileged position, and certainly it is not common for such people to actually desire social change that would result in a general reduction of their status. The foregoing would be the case in a stratification system where overachievers receive additional social prestige, or other recognitions of success, for rising above and beyond their status limitations. In a society where success is evaluated only in terms of implied ability and effort this would be the expected consequence of over- achievement. However, in a society where ascribed statuses also become involved in evaluating a person's achievements, the consequence of overachievement may be entirely different. In other words, the value of ascribed status may override values pertaining to success as well as any value that may be placed upon reason. The result is that only persons with high ascribed status will be given special recognition for unusually difficult achievements that have status implications. 22 Individuals lacking in those high ascribed statuses, who, nevertheless, have achieved high status may be rejected openly, or ignored and allowed to form a separate, and to some extent, independent stratification system of their own. To the extent that low ascribed status groups develop a stratification system of their own in which they are sufficiently rewarded for personal achievements, they can be expected to refrain from taking action against the societal system of stratification. Significance of the Present Study Inasmuch as one of the frequent findings of status inconsistency research is that status inconsistent persons desire changes in the social order, and the theory specifi- cally predicts these will most likely be status inconsistent persons who have low ascribed statuses, the implication is that in the United States particular ascribed statuses are valued above achieved statuses not simply in terms of status levels but as dimensions of status, i.e., race is more important than education in evaluating a personis general status. One of the obvious next steps in status inconsistency research is the analysis of various status dimensions both ascribed and achieved to ascertain which specific combinations result in mobility striving, satisfaction 23 with general status, or desires to change the social order. Such a series of studies should also attempt to pursue the implications of their findings as these relate to the possible effects of societal values just outlined. Research focusing upon a group with low ascribed status, such as the American Negro, should be of significance in developing the status inconsistency concept. American Negroes clearly constitute one of the lowest, if not the lowest, statused groups in the United States. Therefore, any status achievement on the part of a Negro is an instance of overachievement, a surmounting of difficult status barriers. There is also among Negroes a tradition of collective action aimed at changing the social order as it pertains to their caste position. Thus, it is possible to investigate the extent to which there is a positive correlation between being an overachieving or, in other words, status inconsistent Negro, and engaging in collective action to alter the existing structure of race relations. Investigating the relationship between status inconsistency and engaging in collective action must be viewed as only one possible step in the direction of pursuing the implications of the status inconsistency concept. The selection of the American Negro as a subject for study provides a particular vantage point from which to begin. 24 A number of the different facets of the theory that have been discussed can be studied through observations of status inconsistent American Negroes. What are the factors that give rise to status inconsistency? Under what conditions will status inconsistent persons be concerned with altering the social order rather than forming a system of strati- fication of their own that can operate without altering the society's general system of stratification? These are two important questions that can be answered through studies of status inconsistent Negroes. This study is designed to be a basic investigation of the relationship between status inconsistency and engage- ment in collective action, where status inconsistency refers to American Negroes who have achieved success in widely recognized status dimensions, and where engaging in collective action refers to a measure of degree of concern with reducing the amount of discrimination that exists in American society. The general hypothesis of this study follows from status inconsistency research and theory, and asserts that status inconsistent persons withlow ascribed status and high achieved status will be concerned with bringing about widespread social changes that will alter their ascribed status. 25 One of the features of this study that will dis- tinguish it from other status inconsistency studies is that instead of being primarily concerned with classifying status combinations in terms of distance between the highest and lowest status elements, the concern will be an evaluation of status combinations in terms of their difficulty of attainment. This is in accord with the assumption that previous findings in this research area reflect the operation of societal values pertaining to success as well as those factors that are usually inVOked to explain them.19 In— directly, then, this research will also indicate the extent to which it might be more fruitful to give a different perspective to the status inconsistency concept, one that emphasizes the difficulty of status achievement, rather than simply the range of status levels in a combination of statuses. If the price of failure to rise socially-- or even of downward mobility--is not too great, if a definite floor and ceiling are institution— alized to confine inequalities within tolerable 9The complexity of the concept of status inconsistency is greatly increased when seen in the context of success values, Rosen, for example, has found that the achievement values and educational aspirations of Negroes do not differ significantly from those of white Protestants, and yet vo— cational aspirations of Negroes were lower than any of the ethnic groups distinguished in his study (op. cit., p. 60). 26 limits, and if the general standard of living is high, then upward mobility . . . may come to be viewed as Poptional rather than obligatory? and equality of opportunity need not produce a monolithic elite ruling over an inert mass. A diversified value system which recognizes and honors human qualities other than functional intelligence and single-minded ambition will be more likely to flourish.20 2OWrong. 221.2i:-. p- 781- CHAPTER II <;E¥ff?&iiNCONSISTENCY AND’NEGROvPROTEST If one included all the literature concerning the reaction of people to oppression, to poverty, to being the objects of discrimination, to being Vmisfits? or marginal men, then, a good deal has been written that would be of relevance for understanding what it means for a person to be an American Negro. Most discussions of how Negroes react to being Negro have first distinguished their economic status, and have then suggested that either the higher or lower statused Negro reacts most strongly to his caste position. This particular study, for example, is pursuing a line of reasoning that suggests Negroes with high achieved statuses will make the greatest efforts to change the status of all Negroes through collective actionff Other writers‘ F} have dealt with somewhat narrower kinds of responses such as acceptance or rejection of stereotypes, sensitivity or 1W. S. M. Banks, II, FThe Rank Order of Sensitivity to Discrimination of Negroes in Columbus, Ohio,? American Sociological Review, XV (1950), 529-34. Robert Johnson, FNegro Reactions to Minority Group Status,? in Milton L. Barron (ed.), American Minorities (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958), 192-212. 27 28 insensitivity to being the object of discrimination, the development of selfish versus altruistic motivations, etc. The present study is concerned with ideological positions and with forms of collective action or, in other words, beliefs and behavior that may be viewed as bases for the develop- ment of a social movement. Increase in economic, educational, or occupational status are expected to result in problems of status incon- sistency for Negroes. These problems in turn are expected to lead to desires for social change. It is assumed that for Negroes these desires will be for the assimilation of Negroes into American society, the elimination of all forms aw .2 of segregation. *rl /fé‘ ?/ A—n The Adoption of a Negro Role A commonly accepted way of treating the concept of status is to view each status as having a role or set of roles associated with it. This role aspect of status3 is 2James G. Martin and Frank R.‘Westie, ?The Tolerant Personality,? American Sociological Review, XXIV (1959), 521-28. Howard J. Ehrlich, ?Stereotyping and Negro—Jewish Stereotypes,? Social Forces, XLI (1962), 171—76. Robert W. Friedrichs, ?Alter versus Ego,? American Sociological Review, XXV (1960), 496-508. ‘ 3Ralph Linton, The Study of Man (New York: Appleton- Century, 1936); Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (Glencoe: Free Press, 1957), PP- 369 ff. And for 29 ssometimes lost in discussions of economic and educational status where status distinctions are made in terms of quantitative rankings without due consideration as to whether or not the levels are in fact associated with different roles. ALbflVG/ 3:;he—present_SLUdyHis—aISO/Tacking—in*thi3“kind of concesn+—hewever, the variables being used/are intended to refer to more than hierarchical rankings of quantity. That is, it is assumed that there are certain activities that are associated with having a high school education (getting a ?good? job, being more civic minded, etc.), a white collar job (the homes of fellow workers, attending office parties, —etc.), a home in a fairly quiet neighborhood, etc. The expectation is that Negroes will have difficulties engaging in some of the activities that are associated with these status achievements, and because they have put effort into making these gains they will resent not being able to fully enjoy the expected benefits. It is further assumed that in the process of making these advances in status, Negroes will become more aware of the fact that widely held stereotypes a criticism that has some relevance for the concept of status consistency see William J. Goode, ?A.Theory of Role Strain,? American Sociological Review, XXV (1960), 483-96. 30 cannot be changed by individual action, but that they can be changed through collective action directed at eliminating the bases for their existence. Since being a Negro is an ascribed status, any individual who is so categorized cannot avoid situations where he will be defined as a Negro. Inasmuch as there are activities associated with being Negro, a Negro is expected to engage in them. The first question of reaction to being a Negro then must be concerned with whether or not the person plays those roles that are expected of Negroes. A Negroud at any status level can refuse to play roles that are texpected of him because he is a Negro. Since these Negro roles may not be the same at different status levels, or regions of the country, it is difficult to specify a basic role or set of roles expected of Negroes. In one situation the behavior of a Negro may be expected, while in other situations that same behavior will be resented. For instance, Negro professionals are often expected to be sources of unlimited information con- cerning the desires and problems of all Negroes. However, should a Negro laborer relate this same information, his statements may be ignored as exaggerated complaints, or reflections of his own personal hardships. Thus, although 31 all Negroes are expected to know how to behave as Negroes, only certain ones are expected to have objective knowledge of what it is like to be a Negro. It is not enough to say that a Negro who is over— achieving, who has accepted the value of success, has thereby rejected playing Negro roles. There are still roles open to the successful Negro, particularly if his success does not bring him into frequent contact with the general public, and is in a field in which Negroes are expected to excel. The achievements of Negroes in scholarship and the arts are most likely to be overvalued when they conform to what whites think Negroes should study, write, or paint. [These warped estimates of the work of Negroes form a part of the folklore of race relations which has grown out of segregation. The road to distinction and to more concrete rewards in the segregated Negro world is not as rough as whites who invest the Negro with pathos think it is.5 Reactions to Being Negro It has been noted by Johnson that minority group reactions have usually been considered to follow a certain 4Johnson states that his Negro subjects reported feeling uncomfortable whenever they are asked how it feels to be Negro or to discuss race relations with whites, op. cit., p. 197. 5E. Franklin Frazier, ?The Negroes' vested Interest in Segregation,? in Arnold M. Rose (ed.), Race Prejudice and Discrimination (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951), p. 339. 32 sequential pattern.6 The first reaction to minority group status is usually one of acceptance of majority group stereo- types and subsequent feelings of self-hatred. This reaction is followed by attempts to integrate into the majority group. These attempts are usually not successful so the third reaction to develop is one of hostility and avoidance of contact with majority group members. Johnson indicates that still a fourth reaction may follow involving racial pride and militancy.7 It would seem that as a group American Negroes have had time to run the gamut of these reactions a number of times. That Negroes are far from being homogeneous when it comes to their orientations toward being Negro is an indication that all Negroes are not at the same point in this sequence of reaction patterns. Johnsonis study of Negroes in a New York community consistently shows a wide distribution of responses to a number of questions con- cerning Negro reactions to minority status. Johnson '“’ .3 ’x is; 7 ...g{i a" concludes, nevertheless, that the Negroes in this community .' 4"" 9’5" -’ ' it Q g £7 .. are divided into two factions, one being a more recent development than the other. These two factions are 69p. cit., p. 202. 71bid. 33 distinguished in terms of their orientations toward being 1.4.... Negro, one set of orientations Johnson calls the ?Old Negro Creed? and the other the ?New Negro Creed.? References are also made to the status characteristics of Negroes most likely to be adherents to either of these two creeds. The Old Negro Creed is most often adhered to by Negroes who are older, less educated, southern-born, and who have low incomes. They are also less likely to partici- pate in voluntary associations. From the manner in which Johnson describes this creed, it appears to be a mixture of the first and third stages of minority group reaction patterns. ?They are likely to endorse all the items of lassitude, hostility, insulation, self-hatred, avoidance, and 'angry' reactions to the 'language of prejudice.'?8 The New Negro Creed is most frequently held by younger, better educated, northern-born Negroes who also have high incomes and participate in voluntary associations. ?They have almost no 'distasteful' reactions, express a belief in militancy, and maintain an attitude of friendliness toward whites in general. . . . They have few discomforts in interracial situations, . . . i.e., they are more likely 8Ibid. 34 to be annoyed than angry.?9 The New Negro Creed seems to combine the second and fourth types of reactions to minority group status mentioned by Johnson. These two creeds interestingly enough suggest that the sequential pattern of minority group reactions proposed by Johnson does not in fact constitute a necessary order of progression. The Old Negro Creed seems to be held by Negroes who have not attempted integration, yet they have reached the third stage of hostility and avoidance. The New Negro Creed involves attempts to integrate, but instead of reacting to failure in these attempts by with— drawing, the pattern of reaction is to continue trying to (1 associate with whites fortified with feelings of racial pride and militancy. Thus, the crucial variable would seem to be that of racial pride. With racial pride Negroes are able to withstand setbacks in their attempts to integrate. One could even argue that racial pride is a valuable antecedent to attempts to integrate in the first place. If Johnson is correct and the fourth pattern of reaction to minority group status does involve ingroup pride it does not logically follow that complete integration 9Ibid., p. 212. Johnson uses the term hostility to suggest individual feelings of hatred toward an outgroup, and militancy to refer to collective aggression against an out- group. 35 would be the desired goal. It is racial pride on the part of whites, for example, that is offered as the reason for rejecting the attempts of Negroes to assimilate. Johnson himself finds that Negroes who endorse the New Negro Creed are only somewhat more permissive toward intermarriage. It is essential to point out in discussions of how Negroes react to their ascribed position that self-hatred and racial pride are not the only two evaluations that they may have of themselves. The term self-hatred is an unfortunate one for it does not adequately describe the psychological referent usually given to it.11 Self—shame or self—abasement more adequately describes how Negroes would feel if they accepted the stereotypes that are assigned to them as being negative and the majority group's stereotype of itself as being positive. A Negro who believes he is inferior to whites in the way that stereotypes inform him does not necessarily hate himself. It would seem more likely that he would feel ashamed of himself, that he would regret having to be lOIbid. llKurt Lewin, ?Self—Hatred Among Jews,? in Arnold Rose, (ed.), op. cit., pp. 321-322. 36 such a burden on the white man.12 Do women who believe that women in general are inferior to men hate themselves or do they occasionally apologize for their handicaps? For the most part they apologize, and try to make up for their inadequacies by being responsible mothers, wives, and homemakers. It does not seem to the writer particularly patho- logical for a Negro to hate being a member of an oppressed group. It is difficult in fact to understand what is natural about a Negro saying that he is proud of being a member of the lowest statused group in American society even if he does justify his pride by citing differences between the present status of American Negroes and their status before the Civil war. Most writers on this subject have unwittingly fallen into the dichotomy that prevailing popular views on race present. That is they give only the minority- majority view on race, i.e., one is proud of one's race or one is ashamed of his race. They have failed to realize \Nn a third alternative, that of hating to be assigned to a low or high status position solely on the basis of race. 12See the lists of stereotyped beliefs regarding Negroes in Gordon W. Allport, The Nature of Prejudice (Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Bodks, 1958), pp. 192-94, and in Ehrlich, op. cit., p. 173. 37 These writers, and integrationists in general, have spoken of eliminating the use of race as a status category, and yet When a Negro suggests he is not proud of his race the only alternative given is that he must be ashamed of “his race.14 There may be some who might even interpret this to mean the person must be denying he is a member of any race.15 These restricted views on racial identification are probably due to the fact that race is generally seen in this society as something that should be a source of pride, and even by the very people who also vigorously argue 0 O I O I I O 0 16 for its elimination as a criteria for aSSigning status. Pluralism and Racial Pride There is some confusion over the issue of the importance of racial pride as an antecedent condition for 14For a brief discussion, and at least recognition of this dilemma, see Robin M. Williams, Jr., The Reduction of Intergroup Tensions (New York: Social Science Research Council, 1947), reprinted in Barron, op. cit., pp. 462-63. 15The writer asserted in a talk given at an NAACP meeting that he was not proud of his race. It was only after the heat of the ensuing argument had subsided that the writer realized a number of the combatants had taken this to simply mean he had denied being a Negro. 16The basis for this tendency to see racial pride cited as a positive value in the same context with claims of scientists that races do not differ in mental and cultural capacity, and with reference to equalitarian socital values is probably found in the fact that, as Allport notes, when the dominant group is deeply prejudiced, neither separation nor assimilation are considered desirable goals for the minority group, op. cit., p. 232. 38 the development of organized and effective Negro protest. The confusion is partly reduced by equating integration with separate—but-equal, or, perhaps the better term in this case would be pluralism. When integration is not regarded as having the same meaning as assimilation, when a continuum of degrees of assimilation may be specified with integration falling somewhat short of complete assimilation, then, it is less confusing to talk of an integrated Negro with racial pride.l7 Most writers, while noting the value of variety in culture, point out certain dangers in the development of in-group pride. ?A group which becomes enamoured of its own achievements, real or mythological, or which blinds itself to the accomplishments of other groups closes the door to . . 1 . . its own improvement.? 8 Nevertheless, it is also commonly 7Lincoln sees a need for distinguishing the terms ?integration? and ?assimilation.? ?Intogration, for our present purposes, refers to the freedom of a minority to participate in the total life ofhtfieflcommunity without necessarily merging with the majority group. . . . Assimilation, . . . refers to the merging of a minority into the general community and gradual disappearance of its identity and its unique cultural values.? C. Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon, 1961), p. 239. Now that he has made this distinction it is interesting that separatist organizations such as the BlaCk Muslims become simply groups that are exclusive in membership, ibid., p. 234. lalbido. p. 230. 39 acknowledged that minority groups tend to at some time or other become divided into two factions, one faction seeking assimilation and the other wanting to maintain a separate identity.19 One would expect that the visibility of the minority group and the position of the majority group toward assimilation are two determinants of the attitude a minority group will take toward integration. Racial pride may be a source of psychological strength and confidence for an integrationist. The notion of self- hatred, to be distinguished from self—shame, is a more likely source of psychological strength for an assimilationist. Self-shame will plague the integrationist more than the assimilationist for the former believes there is a difference worth maintaining. The integrationist will be plagued by self-shame because, even though variety may be the spice of life, the integrationist must constantly prove his unique worth in a pluralistic society.20 The difference 19Allport, op. cit., p. 231. 20The haunting presence of this self-shame is quite evident in the program Martin Luther King offers to Negroes for achieving integration. ?We (Negroes) must not let the fact that we are the victims of injustice lull us into abro— gating responsibility for our own lives. Our crime rate is far too high. Our level of cleanliness is frequently far too low. Too often those of us who are in the middle class live above our means . . . ‘We are too often loud and boisterous and spend far too much on drink. Even the most poverty- stricken among us can purchase a ten-cent bar of soap . . .? Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (New York: Ballantine Books, 1960): pp. 182-83. 40 between an integrationist or pluralist and a segregationist or separatist is a matter of the number of significant contributions to the total society a group feels it is capable. On the other hand, the assimilationist argues the groups are divided along lines that suggest none of them have any basis for being considered capable of making unique cultural contributions. In other words a reasonable racial assimilationist would presumably become an integrationist if races were demonstrated to be particularly fit for significantly different activities. The prevailing consensus of opinion seems to be, both among Negroes who are working to achieve civil rightS- and among social scientists predicting the outcome of these efforts, that the future will witness the emergence of a truly pluralistic society. Leading integrationists assert they do not want to marry whites; they only want to go to schools with them, eat with them in public places, work with them, etc.21 Handlin sees the emergence of Negro 1King notes that ?. . . the Negroes primary aim is to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.? Op. cit., p. 168. DuBois, who was instrumental in challenging the accommodative position of Washington, states the case for racial pluralism eloquently. ?The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer 41 suburbias as ends in themselves, and the desire for complete assimilation as pathological.22 These arguments for the ?naturalness? of racial pluralism ignore the basic issue, however, and that is the use of race as a criteria for ascribing status. It is one thing to argue in favor of a pluralistic society based on special interests and quite another to argue since Negroes have been discriminated against and forced to develop a rudimentary way of life of their own they should be allowed, in fact encouraged, to further the enhancement of an American self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in the flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world, He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.? 'W. E. Burghardt DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (New Yerk: Premier Books, l961),p. 17. 22?The central problem of identification is settled for the Negroes by the fact that it is the white society that sets them apart as a group. For a long time, this enforced affiliation created the pathological attitude that assimilation was the only acceptable ideal. . .? Oscar Handlin, The Newcomers (Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Bodks, 1962), pp. 114-15. ?If New Yerk continues to witness, in the next twenty-five years as it has in the past decade, an abate- ment of prejudice in accord with its tradition of diversity . . Under such conditions, the differences that identify the Negroes and the Puerto Ricans will lose their stigmatizing effect and will become the basis for the healthy development of ethnic communities. . .? Ibid., p. 118 [emphasis mine]. 42 Negro culture. It is neither pathological to desire having race disassociated from status and culture, nor to desire an association between race, and status and culture. Both positions may be taken as a goal with equal legitimacy. Questions of scientific validity arise, however, when argu- ments for necessary relationships, or lack of necessary relationships; between race and culture are also alluded to in the justification of a separatist or assimilationist . . 23 pOSition. The Assumppion of Racial Equality If, as is commonly done, the assumption is made there are no differences between the races as far as cultural capacity is concerned, then the position that racial pluralism 2 . 3Handlin, for example, does not seem so concerned that race should serve as a basis for ethnic communities as he is that ethnic communities should serve democracy, ibid., p. 119. Somehow, Handlin is able to see a connection between the maintenance of ethnicity and democracy, perhaps he sees ethnic groups as publics anxious about perpetuating demo- cratic processes. Is it possible that if it were not for ethnic groups concerned with their freedoms America would be a totalitarian society? The answer to this would lead into a discussion of politics in pluralistic versus mass societies. See Joseph R. Gusfield, ?Mass Society and Extremist Politics,? American Sociological Review, XXVII (1962), 19-30, for a statement of the case in favor of the mass society providing a milieu in which tolerance for dissent will be cultivated. 43 is an ideal must be given justification on other than a biological basis. This position may reasonably be justified by arguing for the maintenance of the status quo, or for cultural variation as an end in itself. A cultural and racial assimilationist position is contrary to the status quo and to human history in general, at least since the Middle Paleolithic began. Technology has only recently advanced far enough that it is reasonable to talk about a world culture as thoroughly standardized as the hand-axe tradition of the Early Paleolithic. And for the first time in human history climatic conditions can be ignored enough to seriously talk of racial assimilation, and perhaps even of planned human evolution.24 These comments are made to suggest that it is not pathological to desire racial and cultural assimilation in the United States, but that such desires are contrary to what seem to be the basic trends in human and cultural evolution. Pluralism, on the other hand, seems an adequate description of the general course of racial and cultural evolution, and perhaps, given present trends such as the ever increasing concentration of American Negroes in the larger cities of the 24The ?splitting? of the gene will undoubtedly be of as great consequence as the splitting of the atom. 44 United States, the emergence of racially homogeneous Nation states, and a conflict between East and West of unparalleled magnitude, pluralism will continue to be the course of racial and cultural evolution in the future. The fundamental point, however, is that unless one is willing to specify advantages peculiar to specific races that would be lost through racial amalgamation, racial pluralism must be justified solely in terms of cultural traits historically associated with different races. Cultural pride, then, not racial pride would seem to be the least pathological psychological fortifier of racial pluralism. Perhaps those writers who do speak of the importance of racial pride really have in mind cultural ethnocentrism, and not a tolerant racism. Regardless of what they have in mind, the results are the same-—the maintenance of a combined racial and cultural identity. The Function of the Negro in American Society This discussion of psychological reactions to being Negro, or more generally to being a member of a minority group, leads necessarily to a discussion of the relation- ships between minority and majority groups. A basic question that can be raised in discussing the psychology of minority groups is that of the functional value of in-group 45 pride. Ethnocentrism may support integrative and disruptive social forces depending upon the nature of intergroup relation- ships. Ethnocentrism is likely to have an integrative effect from the point of View of in-group members, while, from the point of view of intergroup relations ethnocentrism may lead to conflict. On the other hand, there is also the possibility that numerous ethnocentric groups may be essential to the maintenance of the over-all social system. In the particular case of the United States it has been suggested that the existence of minority groups is essential for the operation of the capitalist system of enterprise.25 And, if not essential to this system of enterprise, the elimination of minority groups would certainly make the capitalist system a more difficult one to maintain. Minority groups would not be competing among themselves for the right to work or for higher wages, but would be united into a common class that would be in opposition with the controllers of the means of production. This particular position assumes capitalism requires a heterogeneous laboring class because homogeneity would lead 5Oliver C. Cox, Caste, Class and Race (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1948). See also Oscar Handlin, Race and Nationality in American Life (Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Bodks, 1957), pp. 40—53, for a general discussion of prejudice and exploitative capitalism. 46 to class consciousness and ultimately class conflict. Such a position when stated in an extreme form does not give enough credit to the controllers of the means of production. It assumes that they must necessarily fail to satisfy the demands of labor. Anyone familiar with the importance of credit buying in the United States would understand how it is possible to satisfy demands for more consumer goods without raising wages. In any case it is not immediately obvious that the American Dream will disappear with the emergence of a homogeneous laboring class. And it is this American Dream, the belief that opportunities exist for individual success, that seems basic to the capitalist system, not beliefs concerning what race or ethnic group has the right to succeed. A more general issue that is raised when the require— ment that a minority group maintain its identity is questioned concerns the universality of social stratification. That is, if majority-minority group relationships are inherent in any social organization, then the best a minority group can hope for is either that it will one day become the majority group, while the least such a group can hope for is that it will not be exploited too severely. A third hope arises when a third group appears that can be exploited while the old minority group joins the ranks of the majority. 47 In other words if social stratification is necessary for the maintenance of any social system, and if the assimilation of Negroes into American society would seriously alter this society's system of stratification, then, all that is required for the maintenance of the system would be a criteria of status to take the place of race. In fact if a criteria of status could be developed that offered more psychological and economic rewards than race, the problem of racial assimilation would be a less difficult one. Minority-majority group relationships based on race do not seem to be necessary, therefore, for either the maintenance of the American capitalistic society in particular, or for the persistence of systems of stratifi- cation in general. True, the presence of the American Negro as a minority group offers economic and psychological advantages to certain white (and Negro) Americans but still it is possible to envision an America without racial dis- crimination. The problem with racial assimilation is that it is difficult to find another criteria of status to match race in terms of ease of applicability. Of course, this is only a problem if minorities are viewed as fulfilling some necessary function. The only alternative to race that comes to mind is that of sex, and there may be some merit in Negroes locking toward women as a substitute minority group. 48 Women are as readily identifiable as are Negroes; they have thus far been somewhat more willing to accept inferior positions, and also have less physical strength than Negro males. Pluralism and Status Inconsistenoy gThe concept of status inconsistency suggests a person with low ascribed status and high achieved status will be concerned with raising his low ascribed status.27 There are two ways in which a low ascribed status may be raised. One is through the successful efforts of many people with low ascribed statuses to achieve statuses believed to be beyond their ability. The other is to have the legitimacy of the ascriptive status revdked even though persons with such statuses tend to have other statuses of low value. The first method involves the efforts of individuals, and the second that of groups. The first often implies a gradual process of social change and the second often a more i sudden social change{ According to the status inconsistency hypothesis, 26These, of course, must be viewed as tentative conclusions. More research is needed in this area. 27Elton F. Jackson, ?Status Consistency and Symptoms of Stress,? American Sociological Review, XXVII (1962), 469-80. 49 people who overachieve will have desires to change the social order. This has the interesting implication that the first or individualistic method of altering low ascribed statuses may facilitate the development of the second or collective method; overachievement may lead to attempts to eliminate the social barriers that have been surmounted. One would expect that such social activity will be even more likely the greater the number of overachievers there are who have passed over the same barrier to success. More specifically, to the extent that opportunities open up for Negroes to achieve economic success, there will also emerge groups of Negroes concerned with eliminating all forms of racial discrimination. This hypothesis of status inconsistency fits well with the notion that it is rising expectations that lead to revolutions.28 Many writers point out that even though it has only been 100 years since Negroes were slaves they have made considerable economic, political, and social gains. If this is so then it does not fit with the foregoing discussion of pluralism. One would expect status gains by Negroes to have resulted in the breakdown of racial pluralism in the 28For an explication of this notion see James C. Davies, ?Toward a Theory of Revolution,? American Sociological Review, XXVII, 1962, 5-18. ‘ 50 United States, that Negroes would have collectively attacked the use of race as a status criteria the more their levels of achieved status approached those of the general population. Negroes, it has been suggested, take essentially a pluralistic position as far as their ultimate goals are concerned.2 That is, they do not seek to eliminate the use of race as a status position, only the extent to which it is associated with low achieved and ascribed statuses. Thus, status inconsistency among Negroes seems to be related to increased efforts to raise their ascriptive status. In other words, individual efforts to achieve success are now given social support, and collective action has turned toward making it easier for Negroes to rise in the stratification system. Rather than status inconsistency among Negroes leading to attempts to reject racism, it has led instead to the alteration of an essentially individual method of achieving status consistency into a collective effort. This means that if most Negroes do not even aspire to assimilate, perhaps the freedom riders and the Black 29In his discussion of a study of Negroes living in the New York area, Handlin notes that the Negroes interviewed seldom gave integrated housing as an attraction when they changed their place of residence. ?Examination of situations in which Negroes have been relieved of the anxiety of inferiority reveals that they are as prone as other groups to clannishness or self-segregation,? op. cit., pp. 93-94. 51 Muslims want basically the same thing after all, and that is to improve the economic status of Negroes. Johnson's description of the New Negro Creed and of the Negroes most likely to accept it hints at the possibility that, even though a pluralist ideology dominates Negro - protest, among the overachieving Negroes there lurks a desire for assimilation. Believers in the New Negro Creed ?. . . hold complete integration as their goal, have a somewhat moreypermissive attitude toward intermarriage, and regard the struggles of the Negro as part of a general drive toward The More Perfect Union.?30 If Negroes overachieve in areas where they cannot easily avoid the fact that they are regarded by others as unusual, and where they cannot avoid realizing that certain amenities typically associated with their achieved position are being denied them, then it is less likely that they will take a pluralist position. To put this in terms that have a fairly long history in sociological literature, Negroes who are marginal men, who are caught between the Negro and white worlds, will be less likely to see the continuation of cultural pluralism as a solution to their problems. To 3oJohnson, op. cit., p. 212 [emphasis mine]. 52 the extent status achievement among Negroes can be described in terms of social class within the Negro community, this variable should then be associated with desires for pluralism. The Black Muslims are an example of a group that can be expected to grow in size should Negroes begin to evaluate themselves solely in terms of their own class system. To the writer's knowledge, there are no groups advocating assimilation that are as extreme as the Bladk Muslims. Groups such as the NAACP seem to take a position somewhat short of assimilation, and it is difficult to tell at this point what ideological position, if any, the various freedom groups in the south will take. One might note that those Negroes who do achieve success in areas that are likely to make marginal men of them do not often engage in collective action, at least of a militant sort. Those in respectable areas such as teaching and the business world in general are perhaps hampered by the respectability of their positions. Those in somewhat less respectable areas such as the entertainment world seem to prefer limiting their protest to interracial marriage or long trips abroad.31 It may be that pluralism, like the 31Richard Bardolph, The Negro Vanguard (New York: Vintage Bodks, 1961), p. 291. At the moment Dick Gregory and Al Babbler are among a few Negro entertainers who are engaging in a more aggressive protest against discrimination. 53 caste system itself, is so pervasive that the marginal Negro, or the overachieving Negro in general, prefers to seek comfort wherever he can rather than face up to the criticism of both Negroes and whites. There is some evidence that Negro entertainers are beginning to succumb to the pressures of the caste system and are being attracted more and more toward pluralism.3 Conclusion we briefly explored the question of whether or not there are necessary reasons for the continued use of race as a criteria of status. It does not seem necessary for the maintenance of the American economic system or as an essential part of systems of stratification. That race will continue to be used as a criteria of status for some time to come seems probable, however, given the long history of its use, and the present division of the world into developed and underdeveloped countries which to quite an extent also happens to follow lines of racial demarcation. The question of pluralism versus assimilationism as an ideological position was raised because it is a central issue in any minority group's struggle for equality. It 32Leonard Feather, ?Jazz and Race,? Hi Fi Review, February, 1963, 45-49. 54 is also necessary to specify which ideological position status inconsistency will lead Negroes to take. One speculation was made that the gradual improvement of the economic status of Negroes will lead to a pluralist ideology, while sudden changes in the status of Negroes will lead to an assimilationist ideology. This suggestion is related to the concept of marginal men, in that sudden changes in the status of Negroes increases the likelihood that many of them will be marginal men. Men caught between two social systems would seem more likely to favor the merging of the two systems into a single system than men who felt loyalties . . 3 to only one to the two systems in question. 3One difficulty in restricting our discussion to the question of pluralism versus assimilation is that it minimizes the importance of a third alternative, rejection of the present society ip toto for some form of Utopia either of escape or reconstruction. CHAPTER III STATUS INCONSISTENCY AND DESIRE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE Research Problem To develop a measure of status inconsistency for this study, status dimensions have been selected that seem 1.“ 311‘, £191", 1 capable of producing marginal men of Negroes. An attempt has also been made to ascertain the extent to which, in the I mbwfl desires of-Negroes for social change, there is evidence of desires for assimilation. The result is an extremely stringent test of the status inconsistency hypothesis. Net only are specific desires for social changes being predicted, these desires are also believed to be quite infrequent in the population being studied. The value of the status inconsistency concept, if there be any, lies in the fact that by careful selection of the statuses to be simultaneous- ly considered it may be possible to increase the specificity of predicted response patterns. 1Negroes who have a difficult time identifying with Negroes, but because they are Negro they are frequently re- minded of the fact that most people expect them to have pride in their race. 55 56 Status Inconsistent Negpoes .7. .- 3‘ ‘ is ‘I ,I“ .«,. Negpoes are not status inconsistent simply because they have achieved high status, they are inconsistent because they put more effort into the competition for status than is expected. By definition a wealthy Negro is incon- sistent with the stereotype of Negroes, how he acquired his wealth may also be inconsistent with expectations concerning level of drive for wealth. Even though this is a society in which everyone is supposed to achieve to the best of his ability, there are still limits placed upon how much effort a person is expected to put into trying to improve his station in life. The fact that previous studies have found it necessary to distinguish between consistent and sharply inconsistent combinations may not be due entirely to the operation of social mechanisms that help to reconcile status inconsistencies. It is likely that the difficulty of attainment is also increasing, so that not only are sharply inconsistent combinations more difficult to cover up, they are also more difficult to develop. When both aspects of status 2William Goode, ?A.Theory of Role Strain,? American Sociological Review, XXV (August, 1960), pp. 483-96. 57 inconsistency--unexpected high-low combinations and unexpected effort--are considered there should be less need to distinguish sharply inconsistent high-low combinations in order to realize the effects of status inconsistency. For example, it is probably more difficult to achieve high occupational status with a low educational status than with low economic status. And yet, high economic status is probably just as effective, if not a better, leverage than high educational status for achieving high occupational status. The introduction of the element of effort while perhaps permitting greater accuracy in the measure of status inconsistency raises theoretical complications. It is being predicted that overachieving Negroes will be most desirous of social change since they have not been rewarded enough for their efforts. The problem that arises is that most Negroes, regardless of the stereotype of ignorance, are probably aware of the fact that they are not going to receive the same kind of treatment as whites even after they have overachieved.3 This would mean that many Negroes who 3Since groups with high ascribed status can only become inconsistent through overachievement when they fail to achieve in all relevant dimensions, and since values and norms are not so explicit and universal concerning these 58 overachieve are at least to some extent consciously pro- ducing status inconsistent combinations. Thus, for a Negro the very act of overachieving may be a personal attack on the caste system, and therefore must be considered a consequence of desires for change rather than an antecedent condition. A Negro who over- achieves is not only a good American, he is also a good Negro for he is helping to prove that Negroes do not deserve being thought of as an inferior race.4 This fits with Jackson's findings that people with low ascribed and high achieved status do not seem to blame themselves for their inconsistency. From the Negroes' point of View over- achievement may result in a consistent self image, while the fact that other Negroes fail to overachieve may disrupt his self-image. forms of inconsistency, these people may very well be shocked to find they are handicapped or rebuffed because they are lacking in a particular status dimension. 4The Negro in America is so constantly striving to become an American that he has no time to become or try to become anything else. . . . This is the answer to the question that so many people have asked about American Negroes: Why do not American Negroes rebel? Aside from the fact that they are a minority and their'rebellion would be futile, they haven't got time to rebel. (Richard Wright, White Man,Listen1 (Garden City: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1957), P. 41.) 59 Negroes can achieve high status, restrict their contacts to other Negroes who have also achieved high status, and avoid those problems that arise when they try to assert their status in the presence of whites. The development of Negro middle and upper classes thus operate as mechanisms which enable the avoidance of contacts with whites and the problems of status inconsistency. In this context, it is only from the point of view of racial stereotypes that these Negroes are status inconsistent, and insofar as stereotypes concerning the Negro shift to include those who have achieved status, it will not be possible to describe middle and upper class Negroes as being status inconsistent even from the point of view of the white population. These problems are introduced in this chapter be- cause they raise questions concerning the measurement of status inconsistency, and indicate the importance of the social context. In this study it is being assumed that Negroes have not accepted the closed caste position, and therefore are still bothered by the fact that they are not able to lose their identity as an essentially endogamous and low statused group. This assumption is necessary if status inconsistent Negroes are to be expected to take an assimilationist ideological position. 60 To the extent to which absolute status achievements give rise to status inconsistency, the implication is that the traditional stereotypes concerning Negroes are still effective. In other words, if Negroes must also overcome ascribed statuses other than the fact of race before the effects of status inconsistency are felt, the implication is that traditional social stereotypes are losing their effectiveness. If the assumptions that we have made concerning the basis for assimilationist desires among American Negroes are correct, and even if the traditional stereotypes concerning Negroes are still effective, a measure of status inconsistency should be all the more closely associated with desire for social change that treats status achievement not only in terms of absolute levels, but in terms of implied effort as well. Given the explicitness of the Negro's position in American society, there is perhaps less justification in treating status inconsistency as an independent variable in the prediction of desires for social change, since it may be a consequence of such desires as well.5 Nevertheless 5"Certainly, awareness of status inconsistency and its intervening effects on upward mobility should be exhaustively assessed before low crystallization pep §e_can be taken as the independent variable. One may guess that concomitants of status striving may 61 in such cases being status inconsistent should have the effect of increasing the intensity of already existing desires for changes in the caste system. It is in this sense,then, that reference will still be made to status inconsistency as an antecedent of desires for social change. \5 \9 Went Variables WM 1 iismFor comparative purposes status dimensions were selected that have been used in previous studies and have been found to produce the expected effects of status incon- T MW» sistency. Negroes, because their low social status is ascribed, are likely to be most strongly affected by status inconsistencies that are describable in terms of status achievements that have definite social importance. For f WI‘CW 'NSgroes to achieve status in dimensions that are highly valued means they have surpassed many whites who are also in the competition. Achievements such as these cannot be dismissed as being due to advantages that are inherent in a superior racial heritage. ~ ' o athle ' ' ments, fEETEEample, may be explain ' 'al heritage, account for at least part of Lenski's findings." (Leonard Broom, ?Social Differentiation and Stratification,f in Robert K. Merton, Leonard Broom, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr. (eds.), Sociology Today [New York: Basic Bodks, Inc., 1959], p. 432). 62 by those who wish to do so, without disrupting those ’4. // /_/J—../-’ beliefs that legitimize ascribing to all Negroes low social status. Thus, the selection of socially significant status dimensions that are ranked in terms of abilities considered lacking in the Negro'race will best fit the objectives of this study;; ~ f’ A Exline and Ziller point out the importance of relating the status dimensions selected to the predicted [behavioral consequences.6 In doing so they refer to the study made by Adams as an example of how the failure to make this selection feature an essential part of the research design may lead to erroneous conclusions.7 Adams found in his investigation of the relationship between status con- sistency and group productivity that there was not a positive association between status consistency and technical pro- ductivity. Exline and Ziller, however, predict status consistency will be positively related to technical productivi- ty when status dimensions are specifically selected in terms of their relevance to the power structure of the task 6Ralph V. Exline, and Robert E. Ziller, ?Status Congruency and Interpersonal Conflict in Decision-Making Groups,? Human Relations, XII (1959), 147-62. 7Stuart N. Adams, ?Status Congruency as a Variable in Small Group Performance,? Social Forces, XXXII (1953), 16-22 a 63 environment. The dimensions selected by Adams they felt did not meet this criterion. :In thebpresent study the concern is with predicting desire for social change. The dimensions used must be selected with this variable in mind. 5.20" f“ ’_./ l- O. ?Three status dimensions meet the foregoing pre- requisites--income, occupation, and education. All three of these status dimensions have been employed for explanatory purposes in other studies of status inconsistency; they are commonly used in conjunction with one another to make evalu- T ”Hag!" “f ations of general status attainment? NEgroes are not expected to achieve high status in any of these dimensions, and even if they should manage to do so, all the rights usually associated with such achievements are still not given to them; and, finally, each of the dimensions may be regarded as having implications concerning collective 477%} action and desire for social change as a response pattern. ' Kan. 4-... \“ ‘,_- .n-d" J Economic Success Usually personal economic success is not thought of as being positively associated with desire for social change. The acquisition of wealth, even wealth acquired by illegitimate means, would seem most likely to lead to concern for maintaining the status quo, particularly those 64 conditions that permit the continued accumulation of wealth. Nevertheless, Brinton observes that the four revolutions he used as basic sources of data for The Anatomy of Revolution occurred in countries that were experiencing improved economic conditions.8 Furthermore, the revolutions seem to have developed, at least in their early phases, among those people who were acquiring economic wealth, but were not making comparable gains in other status dimensions, such as social honor, or political power. It seems, then, that economic success minus any fringe benefits that are expected to accompnay it, and are deemed important, may be a potent enough irritant to give rise to social protest, even of a revolutionary nature. Of particular importance to this study, however, is the extent to which economic success is thought of as 8It should be noted that although Brinton makes the point that a good many ?respectable? people participate in revolutions, his major point seems to be that revolutionists are drawn from all social classes. In all four of our revolutions, even in the Russian Revolution, the rank and file was composed of quite ordinary men and women, probably a bit superior to their less active fellows in energy and willing- ness to experiment, in the English, American, and French revolutions, even in their crisis periods, people of substantial property [Italics mine, W.B.] (Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution [New York: Vintage Books, 1960], p. 32 and pp. 166-67). 65 reflecting an ability to save and spend money wisely. According to beliefs that are basic to the caste system, abilities such as these are not likely to be found among Negroes. In other words, Negroes, because of racial factors, are considered to be at a disadvantage when it comes to making the sacrifices that are required to save and spend money wisely. Occupational and Educational Success 7 Occupational achievement is not usually thought of ‘ asubeing associated with desire for widespread social change.; Inasmuch as educational success is to some extent associated with intellectualism, one could expect educational achieve— ment to lead to social criticism.lo Also since educational achievement involves mental ability, Negroes, according to the stereotypes pertaining to them, should be at a significant disadvantage when competing for achievements in this status dimension. 9See Gordon W. Allport's chapter on ?Stereotypes in our Culture? (The Nature of Prejudice [Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Bodks, 1958]). 10For discussions relating intellectuals to social protest see Karl Mannheim, Essays on the Sociology of Culture, (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., 1956) and Brinton, op. cit., pp. 41-52. llAllport, op. cit. 66 Similarly, according to the stereotype, occupational success carries with it increased responsibilities and demands which would be too difficult for Negroes.12 On the other hand, economic success, it has been argued, may lead to desire for social change when other factors operate to prevent the utilization of this wealth to enhance status in non-economic terms. Occupational success cannot easily lead to desire for social change in these same terms, for occupational success, like educational success, is not as readily translated into other kinds of status attributes as is economic wealth. Jackson, however, suggests an argu- ment for the consideration of both high occupational and educational statuses as sources of experiences facilitating the development of desires for social change. Included in Jacksonls arguments are his reasons for distinguishing ascribed and achieved statuses. In summary, I suggest that low education and occupation make it unlikely that an inconsistent will respond to his difficulties in an active, coping manner, especially by a reaction against the social system. If in addi- tion his ascribed status is higher than his achieved ranks (as would usually be the case), he may experience feelings of guilt which will make an internal response even more likely. He thus tends to respond passively and internally by developing psychosomatic symptoms. 67 An inconsistent high in occupation and education on the other hand is likely to respond in an active, reality oriented way. This response is likely to take a social direction, due to his ability to see his problems in a social context. If his ascribed status is lower than his achieved status, he will be even more pre- disposed to see the social system as the source of his difficulties, since he will lack grounds for self-blame. He therefore tends to respond with politically liberal attitudes and actions.13 Ascriptive Status and Achievement Ascribed statuses, which are believed to have the effect of making status achievement even more difficult, will also be used in this study. If status inconsistency is basically a variable concerned with the extent to which there is evidence that a person has overachieved or under- achieved, then, more must be considered than simply a measure of distance between a person's highest and lowest statuses. Of great importance are the positive or negative implications that a particular status has for achievement in other status dimensions. Thus, there would seem to be at least two important variables involved in characterizing status combinations in terms of their consistency. Previous research has treated status inconsistency 13Elton F. Jackson, ?Status Consistency, Vertical Mobility and Symptoms of Stress," (unpublished Ph.D. 1 dissertation, University of Michigan, 1960), p. 73. 68 solely in terms of the distance between statuses. The present research will be concerned with that aspect of status inconsistency, but will also try to handle the variable of difficulty of overachievement. The term ?status incon- sistency? will be restricted to that measure which takes into account what seems to be difficulties inherent in status achievement for Negroes, as well as the absolute achievements they have made. This study will not, however, be an attempt to come to grips with problems concerning the actual measurement of these two basic variables. That is, no answer will be given to such questions as how to measure the distance between statuses in different status dimensions, or how to relate any two statuses in terms of the difficulties involved in obtaining one given the other. In order to handle these problems a number of social values and norms would have to be taken into consideration. Goode's theory of role strain might be viewed as one possible starting point for working out the details of a theory of status inconsistency, for he considers problems of relating statuses to one another as well as problems that arise when . . . . 14 soc1al values and ?third parties? are taken into account. l4Goode, op. cit., 483-96. 69 Status inconsistency could be treated as one type of role strain. The Importance of Age Since the population as a whole has been moving toward higher educational status, and since children are only required to remain in school up to a certain age, older Negroes very likely were brought up in an educational climate quite different from younger Negroes. Nevertheless, inasmuch as education is often a prerequisite for higher paying, and higher statused occupations, being born some years ago when there was less emphasis upon education is likely to also be a disadvantage occupationally and economically. Arguing from this point of view, older men would not be expected to have achieved high status. From another point of View, however, young men are not expected to achieve high status. More specifically, older men would not be expected to have high educational status, and therefore would not be expected to have high occupational or economic status. Young men would not be expected to have high occupational or economic status because they have not had a reasonable amount of time to acquire these statuses. Thus, the great achievement for older men would be high educational status, and for young men high occupational or economic status. 70 One assumption being made throughout this study is that race is the most significant status dimension for Negroes, and for this reason young Negroes who do not achieve high educational status will not be considered status in- consistent, even though from the point of View of age they may be regarded underachievers. Similar considerations hold for Negroes of northern origin who have not achieved high status. The Importance of Region of Origin A Negro having the South as his region of origin has enough of a handicap to deserve two additional status in- consistency points for each status increase on any of the achievement status dimensions. The Negro with a southern region of origin comes from the most economically and educationally deprived region of the country where his being Negro is also most obviously a great handicap. In addition to these status barriers, the Negro with a southern region of origin also has the problem of adjusting to a northern way of life, particularly its subtle, and not so subtle, forms of discrimination. The Importance of Skin Color Skin color, being the essential mark of Negro status, becomes a barrier to status achievement itself. Dark skin 71 color is negatively valued for it is a physical feature of Negroes, light skin color is positively valued for it implies white ancestory. It should be noted that when it comes to the basic question of getting any job rather than going unemployed, dark skinned Negroes from the South may have an advantage when it comes to competing for jobs traditionally assigned to Negroes. Status Inconsistenoy: Qperationalization The primary concern of this study is to investigate one specific type of status inconsistency--the combinations of high achieved statuses and low ascribed statuses. All the subjects involved in this study have one low ascribed status, they are all Negroes. The crucial problem in operation- alizing status inconsistency, then, is to develop an index of status achievement. Three achieved status dimensions have already been selected which seem appropriate, so attention may now be turned toward organizing these status dimensions in a meaningful way for the assigning of status inconsistency scores. Rather than divide the sample into consistent and sharply inconsistent groups on the basis of absolute achievement an attempt will be made to treat status inconsistency as a continuous complex variable involving references to both level of status achievements and effort 72 required to maintain combinations of achieved and ascribed statuses. Studies of status inconsistency have tended to recognize age as an important factor in the achievement of high educational status. In addition to age this study will include region of origin and skin color as important factors affecting the allocation, and achievement of high status as far as Negro males are concerned. The Achieved Status Variables Each of the status dimensions will be divided into status levels that seem socially meaningful. The occupational and educational dimensions are most readily categorized in a way that is socially meaningful. The argument for the way in which the economic dimension is categorized is that (1) respondents tended to report their incomes in round figures; (2) responses tended to be between $4,000 and $5,000; (3) an income of $3,000 was the closest figure that seemed significantly less than an income of between $4,000 and $5,000: and (4) there were so few who reported incomes above $5,000 that it is impossible to select a figure above $5,000 as a base figure for high economic status, and still have many cases in that category. Thus, statistical con- siderations have dictated the categories of economic status, leaving the question open as to whether or not the distinctions 73 are socially meaningful as well. The income categories, however, continue to specify levels of economic status achievement, and therefore the basic prerequisite that the status dimension be hierarchical is at least met. The occupational and educational status dimensions are divided into what seem to be culturally recognized levels. The occupational status levels are (l) unskilled occupations, (2) semiskilled and skilled occupations, and (3) white collar or supervisory occupations. The status levels of the educational dimension distinguish those who (1) did not complete high school, (2) completed high school, and (3) went beyond high school. Qperationalization of Ascribed Statuses In order to carry out the type of analysis the fore— going suggests, it will be necessary to devise an index of exposure to the Southern way of life. Respondents who have spent at least 19 years of their life in the south before coming to Lansing will be regarded as being from the south. Length of time in the south will be taken as the sum of the number of years spent in a southern place of birth, plus the number of years spent in the place of residence prior to moving to Lansing, when that place of residence was still in the south. For a few subjects this will be an accurate 74 measure of the length of time they spent in the south before moving to Lansing. For others, who lived elsewhere in the south besides their place of birth, and their residence prior to Lansing, this figure is not as high as it should be. In any case, the index is such that status inconsistency points will not be given to subjects who do not deserve them. The procedure for classifying subjects with respect to age will simply be to divide the sample in half. The result is that respondents over 41 years of age will be, for present purposes, considered ?old,? and those 41 years of age or less will be considered ?young.? Skin color will refer to a subjective measure made during the interview by the interviewer. A five point scale was used in the interview situation. However, subjects will be divided into two groups with respect to skin color for purposes of analysis. Those subjects who were con- sidered to have dark skins will be distinguished from the rest of the sample. The interviewer rated subjects as having either ?light? (12), ?light brown? (21), ?brown? (23), ?dark brown? (18), or ?dark? (76) skin color. The dimension of age and skin color are divided so that half the respondents are dark or light, old or young. The division, however, may still be meaningfully related to 75 the problem at hand. For example, a person who is 41 years of age today was old enough to serve in World War II, an event of some significance for Negroes with the outbreak of war. On the other hand, Negroes who were still of school age at this time probably had a better chance to continue their education beyond the level of their parents. Status Inconsistenoy Score A point system has been developed to distinguish degrees of status achievement and of status inconsistency. Points will be assigned to individual respondents for each level of status achievement, and whenever they have ascribed statuses that are considered to be barriers to status achievement. The sum of these points will be the respondent's status inconsistency score. More specifically, one status inconsistency point is given for each level of achievement above the lowest level for three status dimensions—-income, occupation, and education (see Table l, Achieved Status Score). Additional status inconsistency points are then given depending upon skin color, age, and region of origin. One status inconsistency point is given to dark skinned subjects, and two points to respondents from the south for each level of achievement they attain. Older subjects receive additional points for each level of educational 76 attainment, while young respondents receive points for each level of occupational and income achievement. Table 2 shows how all the possible status inconsistency scores would be assigned using these directions. Table l. Achieved status dimensions and levels. Achieved Dimension Categories Status Level Score Income Occupation Education Low 0 0-$3,000 Unskilled 0-llth grade Middle 1 $3,001 - SemiSkilled Completed $5,000 and skilled high school . 2 $5,001 - White collar Beyond high High and over and school supervisory The first three columns of Table 2 present all the possible combinations of status achievements. The sum of these status achievement scores gives us the achieved status scores found in the fourth column from the left. The remaining columns contain status inconsistency scores that are derived by taking into account the eight possible combinations of ascribed statuses. As is shown in Table 2, a person may be completely status inconsistent and receive a score of 0, or he may receive as high a status inconsistency score as 28. The first person would have no status achievements, 77 «H HH m m MH OH R o m o N H MH OH 5 o oH HH m m m N H o mH OH h o VH HH m m m H H H m o o N 0H m m o N o o N 0H m m o m o o N N o N o m o v N OH m o o N N o o m o o N 0H m m o N H o H m h m m m h m m N o H H m h m m m h m m N H H o o m N H m o m N H o o H m o m N o m N H H o H o o m N H m o m N H H o o o o o o o o o o o o o o Mama ucmHH Rama ucmHH Hymn ucmHH xnmn ucmHH «HoHoo muoom .osH .om .000 cme msumum momsumum om>oaco< cusom sunoz endow cuuoz "GOHmom . om>oHcom UHO mcsow "mom mmmdpmpm ooQHnomd .monoom mucoumHmcoosH msuwpm mo mucoEsmHmmm oHQHmmom HHN .N oHQme 78 ON NN HN NN OH OH OH NH OH NH OH mH NH NH ON NH OH NH NH HVH OH mH OH .mH HH OH HVH NH HH NH OH OH KOKOl\mnnum msumum umuoanum Umnflnomm unmoHMHcmHm an macaumcflnfioo msumum om>mH£om .mmmsumpm mo soausnfluumflo mocmswwnm .o OHQME I—le—IONI—IQNQ‘Nu—lm u-lv-i r-l mmHuUmHHoo xocmumHmCOUCH mcumum CH COHummHoHuHmm .COHuUm m>HuomHHou CH COHummHUHuHmm tam xocmumHmCOUCH mcumum .c mHQma 207 mNH MN No om N N o N m N 0 OH OH m NH 5 H H H H N H N m N c N H m H m m m w m H H m N H H m v MH wH NH H MH HflBOE musmHH Hmswm o>wH£Um ou mxm3 umonsm we» no moo mH GMHumHHcU @000 m mcHoQ poop mmoH hqu sH Imconum mmmummmHn mmsoum cH HwBOm mH wumnu mmomoon umwuono mo mason HmooH>HocH Hm>o msoum muumHmm 9mm oou om no: on mQOHu ImuumGOEwo GHIuHm mGOHumuum Icofimo cHuuHm mo cums: no: no: “How oou om mGOHu unnumCOEmo CHIuHm Hmuoa mH mH vH NH NH HH OH m m h m AxocmumHmcoosH cch u mnoom QmHAM xocmumHmcoocH mopmum COHumucmHHO coHuo< .COHumucmHno COHpom ocm xocoumHmCOUCH msumum .m mHQmB 208 mNH mH wN NH cN as N N O N m N o OH OH m NH 5 MH wH NH H MH HflBOB H m m m m m H H H nonuo comm uooum uoc UHsonm Hocuocm mco zocx #0: Op 033 moonmmz H H v H H m H g 8 m H m mchcmH 2H uHHsn on no: OHsocm uoonoum mchsos cummZIHHm Gd H H m H N m m H H H c30 Hchu HHm meH mo xms m m>ms no: on mwoummz H N N N N N H N m N s H omchuchE on #0: OHoocm uH Hon .oHHH no >83 m m>ms mooumwz H H v H m o N OH N m O s m .pmchu IchE on oHsocm our» omHH no so: m m>ms moonmmz Hmoos 0H mH VH MH NH HH OH O m h m m w m N H O AchmumHmcoocH cmHs u onoom ansq COHuHmom NocmumHmCOUCH moumum HMUHmoHoooH .coHUHmom HMUHmoHomOH cam NocmumHmCOUCH msumum .O oHQma 209 ONH N N O N O N O OH OH O OH > MH 8H NH H mH HHBOB NH H H H N H H H v mcoz bH m N N H N N H m H c058 you #59 .mEom gm N H H v H m H O N m g m uHQ m muHoo NH H H H N s s O m N O h N m ouo>mm 8m H m m m m H g m m m ohoHosoo Hmuoa OH OH 8H mH NH HH OH O O b O m s m N H O coHumcHEHnomHQ AchmpmHmcoosH smwn n muoum SOHHM OCHmsom xocmumHmcoocH msumum um>HmUHmm .coHumcHEHnomHO.OCHmsos mo HGSOEM 0cm xocwumHmcoucH usumum .m mHQwB ONH N N O N O N O OH OH O OH 5 mH 8H NH H mH HHBOB 5H H H H H v H H N m msoz mm H m N c O O O N m nose uos yon .mfiom mm H N N s H m s v N w m N O O m an m muHso OH H N N N H H H m H H H N oum>mm H H H H H H H H ouoHosoo Hmuoa OH OH 8H mH NH HH OH O m b O m w m N H O COHpmcHEHHUwHQ AxocwumHmcoocH cch u muoom ancq HmcoHummoooo NosmumHmcoocH mcpmum om>Hmonom .COHumcHEHnomHO HmcoHummsooo mo ucooEm ocm NocmumHmsoocH msumum .h OHQMB 210 Table 9. Achieved status and desire for social change. Desire for Social change (high score = high desire) Achieved Status (high score = high achieved status) 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 Total 4 1 l 2 5 l l l 3 6 2 2 7 2 1 1 4 8 l 2 3 9 l 3 l 1 6 10 4 4 3 11 ll 3 3 5 4 2 17 12 2 3 2 2 9 l3 5 5 3 l 1 15 14 2 3 6 3 1 15 15 2 3 l l 7 16 l 3 2 2 2 10 17 l 4 6 2 13 18 2 l l 4 l9 1 1 l 3 20 1 1 2 21 l l 2 22 0 23 1 1 TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 7 3 129 211 Table 10. Achieved status and ideological position. Ideological Achieved Status Position (high score = high achieved status) 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 Total Negroes have a way of life that Should be maintained 8 7 18 ll 3 2 49 Negroes have a way of life, but it should not be main- tained l 5 7 6 3 1 1 24 Negroes do not have a way of life all their own 1 l 8 2 3 1 1 17 An all-Negro housing project should not be built in Lansing 2 6 7 6 l 1 l 24 Negroes who do not know one another should not greet each other 1 2 3 5 2 2 15 TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 7 3 129 212 Table 11. Achieved status and selection of problem area. Problem Areas* Achieved Status (high score = high achieved status) Occupation Housing 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total 0 0 5 5 9 8 2 l 30 XX 0 l 2 9 5 2 1 l 21 X 0 3 8 12 4 4 4 32 X X 3 4 3 5 1 l 17 0 . X 2 7 6 2 l 18 0 XX 1 3 2 l 3 l 11 TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 7 3 129 * 0 = not mentioned first X = mentioned first XX = mentioned first on both items Table 12. Achieved status and amount of occupational discrimination perceived. Perceived . occupational (high scorgczliigg :zzizjed status) Discrimination 0 l 2 3 4 5 6 Total Complete 1 5 l 7 Severe 2 3 7 4 l l 18 Quite a bit 3 ll 15 ll 6 4 2 52 Some, but not much 3 6 10 10 4 2 35 None 5 6 4 1 l 17 TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 7 3 129 213 Table 13. Achieved status and action orientation. Action Achieved Status Orientation (high score = high achieved status) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Sit-in demon- strations go too far; had not heard of sit-in demon— strations 6 6 10 9 2 2 l 36 Sit-in demon- strations do not go too far 5 ll 20 13 8 3 2 62 Selects group over individual forms of protest because there is power in groups 1 4 ll 6 1 23 Disagrees strong- ly with idea that being a good Christian is one of the surest ways to achieve equal rights 1 _—___—— * TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 129 N N [.1 N m \I DO 214 Table 14. Achieved status and collective participation. ' Collective Achieved Status Participation (high score = high achieved status) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Does not know of any group working to re- duce discrimi— nation in Lansing 7 6 l4 6 2 2 37 Familiar with such groups 4 9 l7 7 3 2 1 43 Belongs to such group(s) but not to NAACP l 5 6 5 l 2 20 NAACP member 2 5 7 ll 2 2 29 TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 7 3 129 215 Table 15. Achieved status and amount of housing discrimination perceived. Perceived Housing Achieved Status Discrimination (high score = high achieved status) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Complete 2 4 7 9 l l 24 Severe 3 5 l6 8 5 3 2 42 Quite a bit 3 6 9 8 5 2 l 34 Some, but not much 1 4 8 2 l l 17 None 4 2 3 3 12 TOTAL 13 21 43 30 12 7 3 129 216 Table 16. Ascribed status and desire for social change. Desire for Social Change (high score= Old YOung Old YOung Old Ybung Old YOung high desire) S'ern S'ern N'ern N'ern S'ern S'ern N'ern N'ern Dark Dark Dark Dark Light Light Light Light Ascribed Statuses Score Total 4 2 l l 5 3 2 l 6 2 1 1 7 4 1 1 1 1 8 3 2 1 9 6 3 1 1 1 10 11 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 11 17 1 4 4 2 1 2 2 12 9 1 2 2 l 1 2 13 15 1 1 4 1 2 l 5 14 15 1 2 3 l 3 2 3 15 7 1 3 1 2 16 10 3 1 1 1 1 2 1 17 13 1 l 3 3 1 1 3 18 4 1 1 l 1 19 3 1 1 1 20 2 1 1 21 2 2 22 0 23 1 1 TOTAL 129 15 11 19 22 12 8 17 25 217 Table 17. Non-white households, 1960, City of Lansing and Lansing Township. Sample Universe 15, 16, 18 128 88.9 85.3 1480 83.1 80.6 5 6 4.2 4.0 69 3.9 3.8 21 2 1.4 1.3 25 1.4 1.4 24 2 1.4 1.3 10 0.6 0.5 8 2 1.4 1.3 54 3.0 2.9 17 l .7 0.7 5 0.3 0.3 3 l .7 0.7 31 1.7 1.7 12 l .7 0.7 31 1.7 1.7 13 l .7 0.7 ___;9 0.6 0.5 (1691) All others within city 0 .0 0.0 89 5.0 4.8 171-4' 100.0 1780 100.0 Lansing Township __6 4.0 __JZZ 3.1 150 100.0 1837 100.0 In the sample the (1) Main Negro area is over-represented, while (2) Tracts 8 and 12 are slightly underrepresented, and (3) Scattered tracts within the city are also underrepresented. However, it appears reasonable to assume that many of the scattered non-white are non-Negro, which would tend to increase the representativeness of the sample. APPENDIX B QUESTIONNAIRE Lansing Community Study - l - Spring 1961 Institute for Community Development Michigan State University Address Date of Interview 1. How long have you lived in Lansing? years months 2. (If not born in Lansing) Where did you live before coming to Lansing? State Town 3. What do you think of Lansing as a place to live? Favorable Unfavorable 4. a. What are some of the main problems you have had while living in Lansing? b. What are some of the main problems that Negroes in general face in Lansing? Hand Card (listed; Housing; Churches; Jobs; Public Places; Schools; Police; Hospitals) 5. a. Please read through the list of things on this card. Which one of them presents the most serious problems of discrimination for Negroes in Lansing? Next most serious 7 Next ; Next Next ; Next ; Next ‘0 ‘0 b. Have you yourself ever met with discrimination in Lansing with regard to: (number of times) Housing ___. Churches____Jobs___ Public places___ Schools Police Hospitals 219 220 Hand card (Contains: number scale, from very great amount of discrimination (high no.) to no discrimination (0).) 6. a. Which number on this card indicates the amount of job discrimination that occurs in Lansing? Which number would most Lansing Negroes choose in estimating job discrimination in Lansing? Which number indicates the amount of job discrimination that most whites would want to have in Lansing? In, say 15 years from now, how much job discrimination do you think there will be in Lansing? Which number on the card? Now, using the same numbers, I want to ask you the same questions about housing discrimination in Lansing. Which number indicates the amount of housing dis- crimination in Lansing? Which number would most Lansing Negroes choose? What amount of housing discrimination would most whites want to have in Lansing? In, say 15 years from now, how much housing discrimi- nation will there be in Lansing? Now I would like you to think about discrimination in the whole country rather than just in Lansing. Over the past few years, do you think that, in general, discrimination has gotten better or worse in this country, or is it about the same? better worse same Apart from how you yourself feel, do most Negroes seem to think that discrimination has gotten better or worse or remain the same in this country over the past few years? better worse same How long do you think it will be before Negroes receive equal treatment in this country? (years 221 10. a. Do you think Negro parents should bring up their children to be proud of being Negro? Yes No b. When a Negro makes an outstanding achievement, should the fact that he is a Negro be emphasized? Yes No c. Do you think most Negroes are really ashamed of being Negro? Yes No d. Do you think Negroes have a way of life all their own? Yes ___ No ___. Should Negroes try to maintain this way of life? Yes ____ No ___. Should it be maintained even if it means having to live in segregated neighborhoods? Yes ___ No . 11. a. Would you be against a new housing development for Negroes only in the Lansing area? Yes No b. Should Negroes greet each other on the street even if they don't know one another? Yes No c. Do you think it is possible for a Negro to really be close friends with a white person? Yes No d. Do you think Negroes should make every effort to maintain separate churches? Yes No e. What about separate Negro colleges? Yes No f. What about organizations such as the Masons and Elks and so on? Yes No 12. a. What can an individual Negro do to reduce discrimi- nation in Lansing? b. What groups, organizations, or clubs are working to reduce discrimination in Lansing? c. Does it seem to you that Negroes can do more to reduce discrimination as individuals than by working together? As individuals As groups Why do you say this? 13. 14. 15. 16. b. 222 Are you a member of any groups, organizations, or clubs working toward reducing discrimination in Lansing? If yes: Which one or ones? If no: Are there any groups you would be willing to join? If yes: Which one or ones? If no: What kind of group would you be willing to join? What percentage of the Lansing Negro population would you estimate are members of the NAACP? What kinds of things does the NAACP do to help the Negro? Have you heard of the Muslim movement in the U.S.? Yes No What percentage of the Lansing Negro population would you estimate are Muslims? What seems to attract people to this movement? Have you heard or read anything about the sit-in demonstrations? Yes No Do you think these demonstrations go too far in pushing for equal rights? Yes No What percentage of the Lansing Negro population would you estimate go to church regularly? Do the Negro churches in Lansing work at reducing discrimination? Yes No 17. 18. 223 Would you say being a good Christian is one of the surest ways a Negro has of receiving equal treatment in the future? Strongly agree Agree Not sure Disagree Strongly disagree Which one of the following is most effective in reducing discrimination in Lansing? (Hand card containing: Labor Unions Churches Muslims NAACP Republican Party Democratic Party ) Others: Which one is the next most effective? Which one has the least effect on discrimination in Lansing? Are you working at present? Yes No ‘l_‘29: How long have you been unemployed? months Where was your last job? city and pplant ' How long did you work there? years months. What job did you hold there? How long did you hold this job while working there? years months Did you have any other jobs while working at this place? Yes No What were they? Where did you work before you came to ? city and plant? What was the- main job you had there? . 19. 20. a. 224 (if yes to 18a) Where are you working? plant How long have you worked there? years months What job do you hold there? How long have you held this job? years months Have you had any other jobs while working at this place? Yes No What were they? Where did you work before you came to ? city and plant. What was the main job you had there? Where were you born? state town - In what year were you born? How long did you live there? years months Where did you live before coming to Lansing? state town How long did you live there? years months How long have you lived in this house? 4_years months How often have you changed houses while living in Lansing? What was the highest grade you completed in school? Since you left school have you had any technical training or special job training? Yes No What kinds and where? 21. 22. 225 What newspapers or magazines do you read rather regularly? About how long per day do you watch TV, on the average? What are your favorite programs? Do you belong to a church? Yes No Which one? About how often do you go? When you go, whom do you go with? About how often did you go to church when you were a child? Do you now belong to any church groups? Yes No Which ones? . Are you married? Yes _____ No ____ For how long? syears months 'I_.Qg: were you ever married? Yes No For how long? years months Do you have any.chi1dren?. Yes ____ No_____ What are their ages and sex? Number of children Do you have any (other) dependents? Yes No What are their relations to you? 23. 24. 25. 26. 226 Number of dependents besides children. Does your wife work? Yes ___ No ____ What job does she have? plant (job Does anyone else in the family work? Yes ___ No ___ Who else works and what jobs do they have? Select three of your closest friends and just tell where they each work and what jobs they have. Plants Jobs Relationship Are any of these friends also relatives of yours? Yes No What is their relationship to you? Do any of your relatives live in Lansing? Yes No How many times have you been unemployed in the past 5 years? What was the longest period? From to or weeks ‘0 What would you estimate your average yearly income has been for the past five years? Now I would like to ask a couple of general questions and have you answer with whatever comes into your mind, anything whatever. 27. a. First, what are some things you enjoy doing? 28. 29. 227 Which do you enjoy most? Next? Now, what are some things you don't like doing? Which one do you dislike most? (If not mentioned) Do you find your job enjoyable or do you dislike it? Enjoyable Dislike Neutral What are some things about your job that you like? What are some things about your job you dislike? BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, Stuart N. ?Status Congruency as a Variable in Small Group Performance,? Social Forces, XXXII (1953), 16-22 0 Allport, Gordon W. The Nature of Prejudice. Garden City: Doubleday Anchor Bocks, 1958. Banks, W. S. M., II. ?The Rank Order of Sensitivity of Discrimination of Negroes in Columbus, Ohio,? American Sociological Review, XV’(1950), 529-34. Bardolph, Richard. 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