Discrimination

Relative versus Absolute Deprivation

An understanding of discrimination in modern industrialized societies such as the United States must begin by distinguishing between relative and absolute deprivation. It is not absolute, unchanging standards that determine deprivation and oppression. Although minority groups may be viewed as having adequate or even good incomes, housing, health care, and educational opportunities, it is their position relative to some other groups that offers evidence of discrimination.

Relative deprivation is defined as the conscious experience of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities. After settling in the United States, immigrants often enjoy more material comforts and more political freedom than they did in their old country. If they compare themselves with most other people in the United States, however, they will feel deprived because, although their standard has improved, the immigrants still perceive relative deprivation.

Absolute deprivation, on the other hand, implies a fixed standard based on a minimum level of subsistence below which families should not be expected to exist. Discrimination does not necessarily mean absolute deprivation. A Japanese American who is promoted to a management position may still be a victim of discrimination if he or she had been passed over for years because of corporate reluctance to place an Asian American in a highly visible position.

Dissatisfaction is also likely to arise from feelings of relative deprivation. The members of a society who feel most frustrated and disgruntled by the social and economic conditions of their lives are not necessarily worse off in an objective sense. Social scientists have long recognized that what is most significant is how people perceive their situation. Resistance to perceived discrimination, rather than the actual amount of absolute discrimination, is the key.

Total Discrimination

Social scientists—and increasingly policymakers—have begun to use the concept of total discrimination. Total discrimination refers to current discrimination operating in the labor market and past discrimination. Past discrimination experienced by an individual includes the poorer education and job experiences of some racial and ethnic minorities compared with those of many White Americans. It also includes inferior schooling, poorer health care, inadequate counseling, poor job record, and less inherited wealth—all economic and social factors that have consequences for the life a person lives in the present.

When considering discrimination, therefore, it is not enough to focus only on what is being done to people now. Sometimes a person may be dealt with fairly but may still be at a disadvantage because he or she suffered from poorer health care, inferior counseling in the school system, less access to books and other educational materials, or a poor job record resulting from absence to take care of brothers and sisters.

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