C. Matthew Snipp

Some observations about racial boundaries and the experiences of American Indians

Abstract The number of inter‐racial marriages has increased sharply in the last two decades. There are a number of factors that might account for this development ‐ for example, immigration, changing norms, and marriage market composition ‐ but one indisputable outcome has been a rise in the number of persons with multiracial backgrounds. This article argues that multiracial persons have a number of options about how they might identify their ancestry, and this is causing fluidity and instability in racial divisions that were once considered fixed and immutable. While this might be seen as a recent development, American Indians historically have had high rates of intermarriage with other racial groups. The experience of American Indians with regard to the dilemmas posed by shifting racial identities are discussed for the purpose of anticipating the experiences of other groups. In particular, these issues pose a number of challenges to public policies based on increasingly obsolete conceptions of race.

The size and distribution of the American Indian population: fertility mortality migration and residence.

This paper is a descriptive analysis of the basic demographic characteristics that determine the size and distribution of the American Indian population. The data reported are obtained from the 1990 Census, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Indian Health Service. Among the findings reported in this paper is that American Indians have higher levels of fertility than other groups, especially whites. Mortality due to accidents, diabetes, and alcohol-related illness is especially high for American Indians. And despite relatively high levels of residential mobility, the distribution of the American Indian population has been relatively stable since 1970.

Ethnic reorganization: American Indian social, economic, political, and cultural strategies for survival

Abstract In this article, we argue that there is an important, but as yet unidentified, process involved in the maintenance and reconstruction of ethnic identity. We call this process ‘ethnic reorganization’. We argue that this process is useful for understanding the ethnic survival of indigenous peoples in colonized societies, as well as for illuminating the processes of ethnic renascence among both indigenous and immigrant groups. We find it especially useful in accounting for both the persistence and the transformation of American Indian ethnicity in the United States. Ethnic reorganization occurs when an ethnic minority undergoes a reorganization of its social structure, redefinition of ethnic group boundaries, or some other change in response to pressures or demands imposed by the dominant culture. From this viewpoint, ethnic reorganization is a mechanism that facilitates ethnic group survival, albeit in a modified form. We specify several types of ethnic reorganization. These include: social reorgan...

A New Infrastructure for Monitoring Social Mobility in the United States

The country’s capacity to monitor trends in social mobility has languished since the last major survey on U.S. social mobility was fielded in 1973. It is accordingly difficult to evaluate recent concerns that social mobility may be declining or to develop mobility policy that is adequately informed by evidence. This article presents a new initiative, dubbed the American Opportunity Study (AOS), that would allow the country to monitor social mobility efficiently and with great accuracy. The AOS entails developing the country’s capacity to link records across decennial censuses, the American Community Survey, and administrative sources. If an AOS of this sort were assembled, it would open up new fields of social science inquiry; increase opportunities for evidence-based policy on poverty, mobility, child development, and labor markets; and otherwise constitute a new social science resource with much reach and impact.

Occupational Mobility and Social Class: Insights From Men's Career Mobility

This paper reviews several neo-Weberian ideas about social class for understanding patterns of mens career mobility. Special attention is devoted to the non-Marxist concepts of social class advocated by Giddens, Sorokin, and Parkin. Further insights are provided by an analysis of data for 20,000 men in the experienced American civilian laborforce. The data are fit with a loglinear model and then further analyzed with multidimensional scaling techniques. The data analysis discloses three broad categories of social class that consist of farmers, manual, and nonmanual occupations. The findings also revealfurther subdivisions in which professionals and skilled craft occupations form distinct classes within the nonmanual and manual categories. A third, much smaller, subdivision exists between semi-skilled operatives and unskilled laborers. These findings support neo-Weberian social class concepts. These results are also compared with Breigers (1981) research on intergenerational mobility. This comparison shows that patterns in career mobility reveal a simpler picture of class structure than the eight class categories that Breiger reports for intergenerational mobility. The conceptual implications of these findings are discussed.

Changes in Racial and Gender Inequality since 1970

The decades following 1970 to the present were an important period because they marked an era in which measures such as Affirmative Action were introduced to improve opportunities for American minorities and women. Ironically, this also was a period when income inequality dramatically increased in the United States. We analyze Census data from 1970 to 2009 to assess whether inequality in the earnings received by women and minorities has changed in this period. We find a complicated set of results. Racial inequalities persist though to a lesser extent than they did four decades earlier. Asian workers in particular have seen improvements and a lessening of inequality relative to White workers. Gender inequality also persists, though more in some groups than others. Overall, the results of this study underscore the persistence of racial and gender inequality in the United States.

Working-Class Differentiation and Men's Career Mobility

This paper reviews the usefulness of neo-Weberian ideas about social class for understanding patterns of mens career mobility. Special attention is devoted to the non-Marxist concepts of social class advocated by Giddens, Sorokin, and Parkin. Further insights are provided by an analysis of data for 20,000 men in the experienced American civilian labor force. The data are fit with a log linear model and then further analyzed with multidimensional scaling techniques. Very broadly, the findings support the social class literature by showing that its predictions are consistently upheld. The conceptual implications of these findings conclude the

Measuring Hispanic Origin: Reflections on Hispanic Race Reporting:

There are more than 50 million Hispanics in the United States, composing 16 percent of the population. Hispanics are also one of the fastest-growing race and ethnic groups. The American public often views and treats Hispanics as a racial group; yet 47 years after a Hispanic origin measure was added to the 1970 U.S. decennial census, and after numerous tests aimed at ameliorating racial measurement issues related to Hispanics, we continue to struggle with defining and measuring this population. In this article, we review literature about conceptual and measurement issues regarding Hispanic race reporting, evaluate public tabulations from one of the largest Census Bureau studies conducted in the 2010 Census to test strategies to improve race reporting for Hispanics, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of changing the race question on the decennial census to incorporate Hispanics.

Utopian visions of racial admixture

In a world unbounded by racial divisions, the choice of a lover, a spouse and the children that come from that union should transcend the schemes devised by others to oppress and exploit. Racial admixtures, to the extent that they blur and obscure entrenched ideas from the past, are things to be celebrated and embraced. Both of these books, as different as they are, embrace the essential value of racial admixture but from very different perspectives, for very different reasons, and with very different emphases. The United States of the United Races traces the history of interracial relationships in this country. Carter begins his narrative with a close reading of the French author Hector St John de Crèvecoeur. Crèvecoeur penned a very popular work titled Letters from an American Farmer that was intended to describe everyday life in the new nation. Carter’s discussion makes it clear that Crèvecoeur was an opponent of slavery and portrayed it in the vilest possible terms. However, Carter takes Crèvecoeur’s opposition to slavery and tries to make something more of it. Carter writes:

Indian Reservations in the United States: Territory, Sovereignty and Economic Change. By Klaus Frantz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Pp. xxvi, 370.

As its title indicates, American Indian reservations are the subject of this book. In particular, this book deals with issues pertaining to the economic conditions of federally recognized reservations, of which there are 314. It does not address the special circumstances of Alaska Native communities or those of reservations established or recognized only by state governments.