Complete revision notes for the Unit 4 side of the US Politics A Level course. These notes were created using multiple textbooks, websites, books, articles, journals and undergraduate essays. They contain content beyond the level required to achieve a top grade at A2 level politics, and include sub...
Racial and ethnic politics
Past paper themes – 45 markers:
• Affirmative action – success/failure
• Has equality been achieved?
• Immigration reforms
Ethnic diversity and minority representation
• Since it’s creation, the US has become increasingly ethnically diverse, especially so in recent
years (1980-2010):
o White = 79.6% to 63.7%
o Hispanic = 6.4% to 16.3%
o Black = 11.5% to 12.6%
• The recent spike can be attributed to migrants searching for political freedom and economic
equality, plus a desire to experience the American experiment of democracy
• As of 2016:
o 62% white
o 12% black
o 18% Hispanic
The civil rights movement
Early developments:
• The ‘Reconstruction Amendments’ (13th, 14th and 15th) were passed in the hope of amending the
wrongs of slavery, but in reality little changed in practice for almost a century
• The 20th century saw a rise in ‘residential segregation’:
o The Great Depression caused black people to move increasingly to the big cities –
especially those in the northeast e.g. Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C.
o This left the rural regions almost exclusively white
o This created two Americas – a metropolitan, multiracial suburban America, and a rural,
often biracial America
Minority rights and representation in the 20th century:
• The 20th century brought two significant developments to the civil rights movement:
o Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) which illegalised segregation – served as
the catalyst for the movement to overturn the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine
o 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlawed discrimination based on race or ethnicity
• There was also the on-going argument between ‘equality of opportunity’ and ‘equality of
results’:
o Many argued that equality for opportunity did nothing for equality in practice, and only
promoted the theory of rights and equality
o This gave rise to the desire for proactive action to ensure these results – done through
busing, quotas, and affirmative action
• Definitions:
o Busing – the movement to create racially mixed schools, especially in racially homogenous
neighbourhoods (black inner city and white suburbs)
o Quotas – the reservation of a certain number of spots for minorities
o Affirmative action – giving minorities a head-start in higher education and employment by
using race or ethnicity as a beneficial criteria
Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’:
• In May 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sent ‘freedom riders’ to challenge transport
segregation in Southern states; this ultimately led to the 1961 Civil Rights protests, where 70,000
people participated and 3,600 arrested. It occurred in over 100 cities in 20 states
• Against this backdrop, MLK gave his famous speech that was considered a defining moment for the
civil rights movement
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