A Comparison of black and Japanese Assimilation

Japanese

I. Cultural

A. Low for issei (1st gen), higher for Nisei (2nd gen), highest for Sansei (3rd)

1.Issei retain Buddhism, pass down language, have traditional values

2.Sansei & Yonsei (4th)--high degree cultural assimilation by substitution

II. Secondary

A. Organizational: majority of Sansei and Nisei belonging to groups

name a non-Japanese organization as their favorite

B. Residential:as income/educ rise,more likely to be integrated (spatial assim)

1. Average (mean) dissimilarity index: 46.

C. Occupational: quite a bit among Sansei--prominent entrepreneurs

D. Income: median family $ over $10,000 above that for Anglos

III.Primary: most Nisei/Sansei report at least 1 of closest friends not Japanese

IV.Marital: Sansei as likely to marry outside the group as within it

Blacks

I. Cultural: high although not identical to middle class Anglo

II.Secondary

A. Net worth: median net worth black household 1/10 that of white household

B. Residential: dissimilarity index drops from 86 (1960) to 64-69 (1990)

1. 20 points above average score for Asians and Hispanics

C. Occupational: 1940-1980, occupational dissimilarity fell from 43 to 24

D. Income: 1989, black families get 62 cents for each $1 for white families

E. Unemployment:black rate double or more white rate;after 1970s,gap grows

F. Education:near parity with whites for illiteracy,school enrollment,drop outs

1.Yet whites twice as likely get advanced degree; higher % grad college

III. Primary:Hallinan & Williams(1989):few hundred cross-race friends per million

IV. Marital: 1% exogamy rate for black females 1st marriage; bit higher for males

A. Black-white intermarriage nearly doubled in the 1980s and 1990s

B. 2/3 of whites disapprove of racial intermarriage (GSS 1991), 1/5 of blacks 

Explanations/Theories

1. Cultural view: Japanese traditional values compatible with middle class culture

a. Family/community organization forge conformity conducive to achievement

2. Middleman Minority Theory: Bonacich 1973:soujourners work hard,take risks

3. Ethnic Enclave: forged by cultural and physical capital of top layers of society

1. Versus truncated middleman minority (Butler): segregation cuts off blacks

2. Versus selective mobility (WJ Wilson): black middle class escapes ghetto

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