Hello all,
I am writing an assignment on the oppression of Blacks in the US. For this assignment I have read the book Masculine Domination by Pierre Bourdieu, in which he accounts for the symbolic violence between the sexes - moreover, he describes the sexes as a social construct.
One thing I have observed is that the income of blacks is considerably lower than the income of whites (about 62 percent that of whites). Now my task is to interpret this data, by using the principles of domination and symbolic violence as described by Bourdieu. I am not really sure as to how I should do this?
Thanks in advance,
Kári.

Hi there

The data you mention can't really help you to mount an analysis of how racial categories are constructed, only to show that structured inequalities exist which stand in need of explanation.

I'd start by looking at how 'race' is constructed using Bourdieu's notion of symbolic violence (along the same lines as his analyses of class and gender/sex). You might want to look at how census categories have changed over time in the US as another source of evidence.

Not sure if that helps at all, but good luck with the assignment: it sounds interesting!

Thanks. I am now looking into how racerelations are characterised by symbolic violence and the phenomenon of blacks don't wanting to "act white" and how that holds them down.

Hi,

Concerning "blacks don't wanting to "act white" and how that holds them down" you might want to consider some of the essays reprinted in Questions of Sociology and In Other Words, particularly The Uses of the People. I also remember reading some remarks from Bourdieu on Willis' work, in Reflexive Sociology.

There has to be an issue of class disposition and trajectory in this. The use of terms such as Bounty or Coconut and the media burble about President Obama or Tiger woods (to name but two) as "not black enough" is obviously class based with bourgeois behaviour characterised as white.
Its rather akin to the rejection of bourgeois norms by the working class in any society; consider Learning to Labour (or here) as an example.

I think you should read the works from black authors and particularly black feminist authors if you want to truly understand black and/or gender oppression in the United States, or worldwide.
Try bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins' "The Matrix of Domination" or Marylyn Frye's "Oppression", even W.E.B. Dubois.

Their subjugated knowledge as members of the oppressed groups will give you far greater insight on black oppression in the United States than a white male ever could.

I would be careful with how you approach "blacks don't wanting to "act white" and how that holds them down". By stating it that way it assumes that "white is right" normalizing whiteness as correct and "right" and blackness or anything else for that matter as "wrong". Which is really just white racial framing, and if you want to study race relations it is important to distance your self from looking at the world through the "white gaze".

Perhaps viewing it as how white racial framing "others" minority groups and the false belief of whiteness as the correct way bolsters white domination and in turn oppresses minority groups such as black folk.

After reading this thread I think I'll repeat my suggestion that you read Bourdieu's The Uses of the People, printed in In other words.

the first half of this podcast could be useful
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qj214

http://www.postcolonialweb.org/index.html