Inequality: Is the significance of race declining? Kellor Yde

Racial Inequality Racial discrimination has been well-documented as pervasive throughout US history But overt forms of confrontational racism hold less sway than the more insidious forms of institutional discrimination I’ll first focus on how racial inequality will, in fact, continue to be significant, and then examine possible institutional explanations for racial inequality

Wealth Inequality Gap between median wealth of black and white households at its highest point since 1989 Gap between median wealth of hispanic and white households at its highest point since 2001 Median wealth of white households is currently 13 times that of black households

Wealth Inequality

Arguments for Declining Importance? William Wilson: “now the life chances of individual blacks have more to do with their economic class position than with their day-to-day encounters with whites.” (282) While race is still a factor, class is now much more important Programs like anti-discrimination legislation and affirmative action help privileged minorities but don’t help impoverished minorities Therefore, perhaps minorities have just as good chances of obtaining higher incomes as whites, and it’s just their generational wealth disadvantage that causes inequality

Income Disparity But median adjusted income gap has increased for both Hispanics and blacks Since the 60s, the white-black income gap grew from $19k to $27k Since 1970, Hispanic median income was 68% of white median income, today it is 60% The Asian American median income gap is negligible however

Institutional Explanations Incarceration and the criminal justice system Transportation inequality Employment discrimination Poor education

Incarceration Practices: Impacts: Indiscriminate prosecution in the justice system Police militarization and brutality Lack of police accountability Drug War Impacts: Cycle of poverty Disenfranchisement politically and economically

Transportation Inequality Massively disproportionate spending on the highway system and not urban transit Urban segregation and “white flight” Businesses relocate to areas with money Low income families can’t afford cars to work or even access food Reproduction of poverty Transportation is a barrier to upward mobility Many upfront and also unpredictable costs American poverty line doesn’t even properly consider transportation costs, based solely on costs of food

Employment Discrimination Racial discrimination makes it more difficult for minorities to obtain jobs, especially in a competitive market it’s very easy to avoid hiring minorities This also makes it difficult for minorities to move upward towards white-collar jobs

Poor Education Access to education can be difficult for minorities who are born into systems without a strong enforcement of school attendance Furthermore, inner-city schools are chronically underfunded and disproportionately occupied by minorities In Chicago, 87% of public school enrollment was black or Hispanic, while 10% was white In DC, 94% were black or Hispanic, and less than 5% were white Discrepancies between white-dominated private schools and inner city schools in terms of money spent per student and teacher salaries is often double or triple in favor of white kids

References Drew Desilver, “Black unemployment rate is consistently twice that of whites,” Pew Research Center, August 21, 2014. Jonathan Kozol, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Harper’s Magazine, September 1, 2005. “King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal; Many Americans See Racial Disparities,” Pew Research Center, August 22, 2013. Matthew Dombroski, “Securing Access to Transportation for the Urban Poor,” Colombia Law Review, 105:2, 2005. Rakesh Kochhar and Richard Fry, “Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession,” Pew Research Center, December 12, 2014. William Julius Wilson, The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions, excerpts from pp. 1-9, 12-23, 183-185, edited by David B. Grusky and Szonja Szelényi, 1978.