Toward a General Theory of Racial and Ethnic Group Relations

The Major Argument

This is an attempt at formulating a general and comprehensive theory of ethnic group relations that can systematically answer several important issues of ethnic and racial group relations such as, the type and degree of assimilation, the existence of conflict between ethnic groups, the degree of stratification based on racial and ethnic group identity, etc. To this end, the theory takes the form of specifying the dependent and independent variables of ethnic group relations, and suggesting how the former can be explained in terms of the latter by systematically analyzing the nature of independent variables in any potential ethnic group relations. So, on the dependent variable side, Gordon identifies four of them: (1) types of assimilation, with the major distinction between cultural and structural assimilation, (2) degree of total assimilation, (3) degree of conflict existing in the society between the minority group and the majority group and among each other, (4) degree of access to societal rewards - economic, political, institutional, etc., for the minority group in comparison with the majority group. On the other hand, in order to explain these four interrelated set of dependent variables systematically, Gordon categorizes really a broad and encompassing array of independent variables considered as falling into one of the three headings: bio-social development variables, interaction process variables, and societal variables.
 

The Prior Theory

Although this may not be so important as it is about the material we are assigned, the author first notes that this new theory developed here builds upon the past theory on the equivalent topic he has developed earlier. One notable feature carried over from that model that should be mentioned here is the identification of different types of assimilation (the dependent variable 1). In it, seven different dimensions of assimilation were identified, which were: cultural, structural, marital, identificational, attitude receptional, behavior receptional, and civic (p. 65). The distinction between cultural and structural assimilation is particularly important, for Gordon theorizes that while cultural assimilation could take place without any further levels of assimilation taking place, leading to what he calls "structural pluralism" (which is, incidentally, the situation found in the U.S. according to the author at the time of writing of this work), after structural assimilation has taken place all other forms of assimilation would inevitably follow. In short, the type and degree of assimilation is a particularly important concern here. On the other hand, the most notable addition to his prior model is, according to Gordon, the consideration of the issue of power and conflict that tended to be ignored in his previous model. To this end, he notes that Blalock's distinction of competitive power (the ability to compete as individuals) and pressure power (the power to effect change in a collective fashion) is particularly useful, and accordingly in the exposition on this new theory he would try to incorporate these different elements of power systematically as part of his independent variables.
 

More on Independent Variables

This part forms the biggest chunk of the meat of argument, for the independent variables Gordon tries to cover here encompasses really vast array of sociological and psychological factors that could potentially be considered in the analysis of ethnic and racial relations. In fact, perhaps it may be that he tries to be too comprehensive so that the resulting theory no longer seems to have much potential to be applied to one concrete empirical research.

Bio-Social Development Variables

Here, the central assertion is that while sociologists tended to shy away from the consideration of questions regarding "human nature", incorporation of this factor is indelibly necessary if sociologists are to reach the comprehensive understanding of the ethnic and racial group relations, which tend to be characterized by remarkably similar sort of processes of assimilation, conflict and tension in spite of all the cultural and social differences existing among various peoples of the world. So, in order to delve into this matter in a systematic fashion, the author notes that the biological organism of man contains capacities and imperatives to act on three levels: the satisfaction of physiological desires, cognition, and emotional or affective response. In this regard, the author considers the protection of self as a particularly important theme of personality development and human interaction. What is the relevance for the issue of ethnicity? Here, the claim is that ethnic identity is so central to individuals so that it becomes incorporate into the self. In short, defense of the self comes to have equivalent meanings with the defense of one's ethnic group identity. The author suggests that the widespread prevalence of ethnocentrism may be due to this fact. Gordon further develops on this issue of human nature by then considering the issue of whether humans innately prone to aggressive behavior or not. Drawing upon the work of Gregory Rochlin, his answer is that while aggression itself may not be innate to the humans, love of self, narcissism, is, and threats to this sense of self is what makes people respond in an aggressive fashion. He then further incorporates the element of cognition and emotional or affective response; overall the basic picture of the "human nature" Gordon presents here can be summarized as follows. Humans are basically motivated by self-interest, irresistibly narcissistic and protective of the self, ready to defend the self by aggressive behavior, and possessed of not unlimited intellectual capacity (p. 79).

Interaction Process Variables

Five variables in this realm are identified as salient in explaining the ethnic and racial group relations: stereotyping, frustration-aggression mechanisms, felt dissatisfaction phenomena, calculation of success chances, and conflict escalation (Notice that these concerns are very similar to the ones studying the collective actions of various nature - particularly, the second and third factors are those that are the central concerns of RD theorists, while the fourth is especially relevant to the mobilization theorists). In this paper, Gordon notes that since the first two have traditionally been given considerable amount of attention, it is the last three that he mainly desires to explicate on fully. I stay very brief here, and note only of the very central points. For the frustration aggression mechanism, Gordon notes that the society's value system and attendant ideologies are particularly important in determining how much of dissatisfactions the minorities are likely to experience. For the last two factors, notice that these issues are intricately related to the issue of power - the perceived sanctions based on force or power are key factors in determining the level of conflict and aggression likely to be instigated by the dissatisfied.

Societal Variables

Of the three groupings of variables this group contains the greatest chunk of the wide array of social and demographic variables. Gordon further classifies these societal variables into seven subcategories, which are: demographic variables, the degree of value consensus or dissensus, cultural differences between majority and minority groups at the time of initial contact, nature of ideologies about racial, religious, and ethnic groups, distribution of power between majority and minority groups, degree of access to societal rewards, and the political nature of the society with regard to the democratic - totalitarian scale. He further expands on the fourth in this writing particularly, and notes that societies can be categorized as falling into one of the four groups in terms of ideologies regarding racial and ethnic groups, which are: (1) racist, (2) assimilationist, (3) liberal pluralist, and (4) corporate pluralist.