“Similar to how Black people will point the finger at other Blacks for not doing what they are doing, and yet, we all are at the bottom of this caste system.”
This reminded me of conversations that I have with my father, whom I constantly build with, as we often see the effects of this system in our everyday lives. I pulled up this excerpt my father emailed me from The Consequences of the American Caste System by John Uzo Ogbu:
Caste-like Minority Status
The author defines three types of minority groups:
Autonomous minorities like Amish, Jews and Mormons are groups that aren't subordinate to a dominant group politically and economically.
Immigrant minorities that came to American more or less voluntarily. They may be poor and work in lower paying jobs, but that fact doesn't reflect their true status in the total hierarchy, because these groups don't see themselves as low caste. They see low paying jobs as temporary and better than what they left back in their home country. They also compare themselves not with the dominant group but those they left behind. They tend to do relatively well in school, even though they don't share the same culture as the white middle class. These include Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, etc.
Caste-like minorities were incorporated into the country more or less involuntarily and permanently. These include blacks, American indians, Mexicans, Native Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans. Membership is acquired at birth and retained permanently. Regarded by white majority as inferior and not desirable as neighbors or workmates. They lack political power and are economically subordinate. They face a job ceiling, and are not hired on the basis of training and skills like other minorities.
Caste-like groups also reject the ideology and beliefs of the dominant group that rationalize their position. They believe their problems are due to the "system" and racism than their own inadequacies. They may develop a "collective institutional discrimination perspective". This leads them into channel efforts into collective struggle.
Caste-like minorities are not the same as racial minorities.
Race becomes a significant variable in school performance only when the groups are stratified. Blacks have received status summation and a job ceiling not faced by lower class whites. Unsuccessful whites blame themselves, unsuccessful blacks blame the system. "What distinguishes blacks from lower-class whites is not that their objective material conditions are different, but rather that the way the minorities perceive, interpret, and respond to their conditions are different."
It goes on to discuss the differences in IQ scores among black students, and how caste factors into those differences. IQ scores are often used by schools to segregate children, the same schools that tell us that a caste system only existed in India long ago, and many believe that today in America we live in a society free of class or caste. Just like some feel amerikkkan chattel slavery is a thing of the past, and think we are living in a post-racial America.
The troubles of black people in Amerikkka are many, but together and with an understanding of the system we can begin to correct the problems that befall us.
I am thankful to have a father that continues to teach me the truth about the world we live in; knowledge is power, so I share it with you as I learn and grow.
