project powerpoint

Lectures 15 & 16 Lectures 15 & 16 October 26 & 28, 2010October 26 & 28, 2010

Race in AmericaRace in America

III. Current Situation of Race in America

III. Current Situation

1. Historic Achievement:Dismantling of the machinery of legal racial segregation and oppression and erosion of cultural supports for racism.

Progress is real:• African-Americans in ads and on TV• Acceptability of inter-racial marriage• Emergence of a vibrant black middle class• Positive images are common• Political visibility: Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice,

Barak Obama

High School

4-year College

Education level completion rates by race, 1957-2008

Managers ManagersProfessional & technical

Professional & technical

MEN WOMEN

BlackWhite Racial differences in managerial,

professional and technical occupational distributions, 1950 and 2000

2. Continuing realities of significant economic disadvantage for racial minorities

• Stagnation of advances• Household Poverty• Poverty wages• Unemployment• Lack of wealth


Black median family income as a percentage of white median family income

Ratio of Black to White Average Wealth

Under 6 yearsUnder 18 years

3. Continuing realities of active discrimination• Petty harassment: taxis, surveillance in stores, etc.• Housing• Employment: the problem of “statistical discrimination”• Criminal justice system: prison sentencing • Lending• Education: Central city schools


III. Current Situation: Housing

Data are from a “housing audit” study in which black and white couples acted as “testers” seeking rentals and home purchases.

“Statistical discrimination”:A situation in which an employer makes a hiring decision about an individual on the basis of beliefs about the average characteristics of a social category rather than the characteristics of the specific individual. Why? Because it is less costly to do so, not because of an dislike of people in that category.

Example: Employers believe that on average a young black man will be a less reliable employee than a young white man with the same formal qualifications, and since it is difficult to get reliable information about individual reliability, the employer will rely on presumed group traits to make the choice.

III. Current Situation: employment

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

Whites withno prison

record

Whites withprisonrecord

Blackswithoutprisonrecord

Blacks withprisonrecord

Rates of “call backs” in Employment discrimination audit studyRates of “call backs” in Employment discrimination audit study

Data from Devah Pager Sociology dissertation, 2002

III. Current Situation: employment

III. Current Situation: education

Spending per pupil in rich suburbs and cities, 2006-7 school year

III. Current Situation: criminal justice

Incarceration rates by race, 2005

Imbalance in ArrestsMarijuana possession arrest rates in some of California’s

largest cities 2006-08

Source: “Smoke and Horrors”, op-ed by Charles M. Blow in New York Times, October 22,

2010Based on research by Harry Levine and Jon Gettman, “Targeting Blacks for Marijuana: possession arrests of African Americans in California, 2004-08”, (Drug

Policy Alliance, LA: June, 2010)


Numbers of Blacks, Latinos and Whites Arrested for Marijuana Possession in New York City in Two Decades

Source: Harry Levine, “Marijuana Arrest Crusade..continues” , NYCLU, September 2009