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both factual and fictional, which continued to focus largely on images
of white heroism.
A spirit of reconciliation, however, could not prevent race playing a
divisive role, particularly in terms of senses of local identity. Race was
also used as an issue or mood in local politics, as in the opposition to
Harold Washington, who in 1983 became Chicago s first black mayor, or
in the 1993 mayoral race in New York between David Dinkins, the black
incumbent, and Rudolph Giuliani, the successful Republican challenger,
or the 2005 Detroit race, in which the unsuccessful black candidate was
portrayed by his victorious black rival as pro-white. Furthermore, along-
side the mainstream majority of black politicians, there were vociferous
separatists such as Louis Farrakhan, who aroused considerable disquiet.
More generally, social indices revealed that blacks were worse off
than whites, although the situation has improved. The percentage of
blacks below the poverty line was 35.7 in 1983, 33.1 in 1993, 22.5 in 2000
and 24.7 in 2004, compared to percentages for non-Hispanic whites of
8 9. The percentage of whites in the population, however, ensured that
the number of whites below the poverty line was greater than that of
blacks. White poverty was most important, in percentage terms, in
92 a l t e r e d s t a t e s
Appalachia: in West Virginia, the state with the lowest median house-
hold income in 2000, and in eastern Kentucky. There was also a strong
concentration of white poverty in the western Great Plains and north-
ern Rockies, especially in Montana and the Dakotas. In these areas
there has been no substitute for the declining profitability of agricul-
ture. Partly caused by the concentration of poor blacks, Louisiana had
the largest percentage of children in poverty in the early 2000s. The
relationship between poverty and other indices was controversial but
clearly a factor. Blacks were disproportionately numerous among those
imprisoned, and therefore among the ex-prisoners who lacked a vote,
which might have decisively affected the Florida result in 2000, and
thus the Presidential election. At the national level, in the early 2000s
black mothers were twice as likely as white counterparts to give birth
to a low-weight baby, and their children were twice as likely to die
before their first birthday. Louisiana and Mississippi had the highest
infant-mortality rate in the early 2000s. To take another criterion,
whereas 13 per cent of whites are uninsured, the percentage for blacks
was 21 and for Hispanics 34. The un estimated in 2005 that, if the gap
in health between black and white Americans was ended, close to
85,000 lives annually would be saved.
Perceptions also played a major role in social location. That year, the
readiness to believe false accounts of total social breakdown in New
Orleans after Hurricane Katrina reflected a widespread association
of blacks with criminality. In fact, little of the rumoured violence
occurred. Nevertheless, this association lay behind support for private-
school vouchers, an implicit form of segregation supported by
Republican politicians, as well as the marked increase in gun purchases
after Katrina.
The impact of Katrina illustrated the extent to which Americans
revert to the same issues. Even as Americans dealt with its aftermath and
the racial questions it raised, the nation was paying homage to Rosa
Parks and noting the anniversary of the Birmingham Bus Boycott. In
December 2005 an amphitheatre in Providence was re-dedicated, this
time to Parks. At the same time, Rhode Island continued to face problems
with racial profiling by the police and sought to settle a five-year-old case
involving a friendly fire incident and the death of a black policeman.
s oc i a l t r e nds 93
More generally, the complexities of racial identity are increasingly
understood, at least among those open to scientific advances: no race
possesses a discrete package of genetic characteristics; there are more
genetic variations within, than between, races; and the genes respon-
sible for morphological features, such as skin colour, are atypical. Races
were constructed as much as described. Furthermore, in the usa, bi-
racial marriages and unions increased, becoming the subject of
Hollywood comedy in Guess Who (2005), as well as a standard theme in
pornography. This increase helped to underline the very fluidity of the
racial situation, and at current rates the designation  mixed that has
been added by the Census Board will encompass a large proportion of
the population in 50 years time. Bi-racial marriages rose to nearly 7 per
cent in 2000, with Hispanics and Asians being on average more likely
to intermarry than blacks or non-Hispanic whites. Such a rate ensured
that large numbers of Americans had in-laws of a different colour.
Unless entrenched through endogamy (marriage within the clan),
demographic developments undermined classification in terms of
race. Instead, this endogamy is largely social and educational, although
there are important caveats. In a lecture on social trends, I pointed out
that, thanks to greater educational opportunities for women, doctors
increasingly married each other, only for an Iowan Lutheran minister
to respond that that was only true of the first marriage, and that, for the
second, the (male) doctor always married the nurse.
Racial issues were very varied in character and impact. They were
particularly charged, not only in terms of the geography of whites,
blacks and Hispanics, but also in the very different ethnic geography of
Hawaii, where, in addition to whites and Polynesians, there is a high
proportion of Asians, particularly Japanese but also Chinese and
Koreans. Frequently ignored in American history after mention of
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had both an important quasi-autonomous history [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]