Racial Change and Social Policy
| Author | Thomas F. Pettigrew |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271627944100109 |
| Published date | 01 January 1979 |
| Date | 01 January 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
114
Racial
Change
and
Social
Policy
By
THOMAS
F.
PETTIGREW
ABSTRACT:
Five
major
trends
in
contemporary
American
race
relations
are
specified
and
discussed:
(1)
the
discon-
tinuities
of
social
change,
with
uneven
progress
within
and
across
institutions;
(2)
two
contrasting
processes,
one
benefitting
the
black
middle
class
and
the
other
restraining
the
black
poor;
(3)
the
altered
nature
of
racial
discrimination,
from
blatantly
exclusionary
practices
to
more
subtle,
pro-
cedural,
ostensibly
"non-racial"
forms
centered
upon
demo-
graphic
trends,
housing
patterns,
and
spatial
arrangements;
(4)
racial
attitude
changes,
with
greater
rejection
of
racial
injustice
among
whites
combined
with
continued
resistance
to
the
measures
needed
to
correct
the
injustice;
and
(5)
the
shifting
demographic
base
of
American
race
relations,
from
the
national
era
of
1915-1945,
through
the
metropolitan
era
of
1945-1970,
to
the
present
era
of
movement
away
from
large
cities,
the
Northeast,
and
the
Midwest.
Each
of
these
trends
are
shown
to
intersect
in
important
ways
with
the
structural
linchpin
of
modern
race
relations:
the
maldis-
tribution
of
blacks
and
whites
throughout
metropolitan
areas.
Finally,
six
practical
guidelines
for
future
racial
policies
in
urban
areas
are
offered.
Thomas
Pettigrew
is
Professor
of
Social
Psychology
and
Sociology
at
Harvard
University.
A
native
southerner,
he
received
his
B.A.
from
the
University
of
Virginia
in
1952
and
his
Ph.D.
from
Harvard
in
1956.
A
specialist
in
race
relations
throughout
his
career,
Pettigrew
has
focused
on
black-white
issues
in
the
United
States,
together
with
comparative
work
in
South
Africa
and
the
United
Kingdom.
He
is
the
author
of A
Profile
of the
Negro
American
(1964)
and
Racially
Separate
or
Together?
(1971);
and
editor
of Racial
Discrimination
in
the
United
States
(1975).
An
extended
version
of
this
paper
appears
as
a
chapter
in
a
volume
edited
by
Arthur
P.
Solomon
from
a
Conference
on
Alternative
Forms
of
Urban
Growth
and
Development
at
the
Joint
Center
of
Urban
Studies
at
M.I.T.
and
Harvard
University
in
1977.
ANNALS,
AAPSS,
441,
Jan.
1979
115
AMERICAN
race
relations
have
experienced
dramatic
changes,
especially
since
World
War
II.
And
even
the
basic
outlines
of
the
field
that
were
valid
in
the
1960s
are
questionable
now.
From
the
dual
macro
and
micro
perspectives
of
de-
mography
and
social
psychology,
this
paper
will
focus
on
these
rapid
racial
shifts
and
their
policy
implications.
FIVE
MAJOR
TRENDS
The
discontinuities
of
social
change
Race
relations
of the
United
States
have
undergone
profound
altera-
tions
in
the
last
third
of
a
century.
But
no
social
change
of
such
pro-
portions
occurs
smoothly
and
con-
sistently
either
within
or
across
in-
stitutions.
Sweeping
and
fundamen-
tal
alterations
necessarily
entail
considerable
confusion
and
am-
biguity ;
indeed,
the
discontinuities
of
traditional
customs
side-by-side
with
new
practices
is
the
hallmark
of
transitional
periods
between
two
radically
diverse
eras.
Obviously,
America
has
been
transversing
pre-
cisely
such
a
transitional
period
in
race
relations
during
the
past
generation.
As
with
adolescence,
transitional
periods
are
awkward.
The
society
must
haltingly
develop
a
new
equi-
librium
and
a
new,
at
least
par-
tial,
consensus.
The
political
left
views
the
process
as
too
slow;
the
right
as
dangerously
rapid.
More-
over,
the
awkwardness
and
contro-
versy
are
exacerbated
when,
as
with
race
relations,
both
national
symbols
and
social
structure
are
deeply
im-
plicated.
The
treatment
of
black
Americans
has
been
a
national
issue
since
our
beginning;
it
has
been
persistently
our
key
domestic
issue
of
conflict;
and
it
has
shaped
and
contorted
much
of
our
social
struc-
ture.
Understandably,
then,
the
end
of
this
transitional
period
is
not
yet
in
sight.
This
perspective
emphasizes
that
Gunnar
Myrdal’s
hopeful
model
of
a
&dquo;benign
circle&dquo;
was
only
par-
tially
accurate.
Myrdal,
in
his
clas-
sic
An
American
Dilemma,’
argued
that
America’s
institutional
racism
constituted
a
&dquo;vicious
circle&dquo;
where
each
of the
major
social
institu-
tions,
through
its
own
discrimina-
tory
practices,
contributed
to
the
discrimination
and
exclusion
of
blacks
in
other
institutions.
But,
he
pointed
out,
once
racial
change
be-
gan
there
should
emerge
a
&dquo;benign
circle,&dquo;
with
the
same
cumulative
effect
of
interlocking
institutional
practices
that
produced
the
&dquo;vicious
circle&dquo;
now
operating
in
reverse.
Myrdal’s
hope
for
the
future,
as
with
most
of
his
insights,
proved
in
large
part
correct.
But
experience
taught
us
an
important
qualification.
The
reverse
action
of the
&dquo;benign
circle&dquo;
does
not
flow
irresistably.
Progress
in
one
realm,
say
indus-
trial
jobs,
will
mean
little
as
long
as
gains
are
not
forthcoming
in
another
realm,
say
the
ability
to
reside
in
the
suburbs
near
the
jobs.
These
discontinuities
across
institutional
sectors
can
greatly
impede
social
change.
And
they
can
raise
and
later
frustrate
the
hopes
of
black
people-a
situation
that
contributed
directly
to
the
urban
riots
of the
1960s.2
2
1.
Gunnar
Myrdal,
An
American
Dilemma
(New
York:
Harper
&
Row,
1944),
pp.
75-78.
2.
Thomas
F.
Pettigrew,
A
Profile
of
the
Negro
American
(New
York:
Van
Nostrand-
Reinhold,
1964),
chap.
8;
Thomas
F.
Petti-
grew,
&dquo;Social
Evaluation
Theory:
Conver-
gences
and
Applications,&dquo;
in
Nebraska
Symposium
on
Motivation,
1967,
ed.
David
Levine
(Lincoln:
University
of
Nebraska
Press,
1967),
pp.
241-311;
Thomas
F.
Petti-
grew,
Racially
Separate
or
Together?
(New
York:
McGraw-Hill,
1971),
chap.
7.
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