The Discrimination System:

The Discrimination System: Barbara Reskin Department of Sociology University of Washington, Seattle Race and Public Policy January 3, 2004

Heuristic Model of System Analysis Subsystem B Subsystem D Subsystem A Subsystem C

Disparities in Test Performance Disparities in Access to Higher Education School Segregation Disparities in Criminal Justice Neighborhood Segregation Racial Stigma Labor Market Disparities Disparities in Economic Status

Indices of Black-White Segregation, 2000 • Detroit 85 • New York 82 • Milwaukee 82 • Chicago 81 • Newark 80 • Cleveland 77 • Miami 74 • Indianapolis 71 • Kansas City 69 • Los Angeles 66 • Atlanta 65 • South Africa under apartheid: 92.5

Neighborhood Segregation Subsystem Housing Market Discrimination Mortgage-Market Discrimination Neighborhood Segregation Location of Public Housing Zoning Decisions Disparate Economic Resources Opposition to Black Neighbors

Housing Market Discrimination • 13% of black testers posing as house buyers were offered assistance in mortgage lending, compared with 24% of white testers. • Hispanics who asked about unadvertised units were 8 percentage points more likely to be steered toward relatively low-income neighborhoods than their Anglo counterparts • Blacks were quoted higher rents than whites for the same unit. The Economist, June 1998

Effects of Neighborhood Segregation School Segregation Achievement test scores Exposure to crime; arrest Transportation and other public services Neighborhood Segregation Job segregation Racial stigma Property values; community power

Trends in School Segregation: Percentage of Students of Color in Predominantly-Minority Elementary and Secondary Schools

AP Classes by Race In predominantly-white suburban schools, advanced placement courses are universal. In poor and minority neighborhoods, only 43 percent of high schools offer AP classes

Number of Students per 1000 Who Took AP Exams, by Race, 1984-1997 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1997 National Center for Educational Statistics 2000

Unequal Treatment in the Classroom In an experiment in which teachers gave performance feedback to students whom they could not see, the teachers gave less positive feedback after correct responses, briefer feedback for mistakes, and less coaching to students whom they believed to be black than they did for student whom they thought were white. R. Ferguson 1998:294.

The Likelihood of Encountering Discrimination When You’re Outnumbered If just one white in seven treats African Americans unfairly because of their race, there would be one actively discriminating white for every black person in America. Fischer et al. 1996:183.

StereotypeThreat According to an experiment on the performance of white and black varsity athletes, when the experimenters told the athletes that miniature golf tested athletic ability, the black athletes outscored the whites; when they told the athletes that miniature golf tested athletic intelligence, the white athletes outscored the blacks. Stone et al. 1999

College Attendance by Race (1990s) White 45 36 36 Black 36 43 30 Hispanic 35 57 22 % college students @ community colleges % students @ colleges with mean SATs > 1000 % HS grads in college

Percentage of Students Earning BAs at Schools with at Least Half Minority Students (1993) Race Percentage Hispanic 34 32 Black Asian 7 Jacobs 1996

Family Economics and College Admission Academic CriteriaWhat Money Can Buy Class rank, GPA Tutoring Standardized test scores Prep class up to $1K $60 per shot Personal essay Professional editor Recommendations Professional editor Family social ties

Family Economics and College Admission Nonacademic CriteriaWhat Money Can Buy Musical, athletic “talent” Private lessons, equipment “Character” (volunteers) No part-time job Extracurricular activities No part-time job Interesting experiences Unpaid internships Travel abroad Campus interview Travel expenses In-state tuition $3000-$10,000 Donations to institution 6-figure donations Legacy status Family members alumni

Hiring Discrimination • In more than 2,000 audits, employers discriminated against minorities between 20 and 25 percent of the time • Employers favored whites in invitations to interview, job offers, compensation, job assignments, and information about unadvertised opportunities Fix, Galster, & Struyk; Kenney & Wissoker, 1994.

Hiring Discrimination Faxed applications from “applicants” with names like Kristin, Meredith, Brad and Jay to employers that had advertised for entry-level jobs were 50 percent more likely to be called by employers than applications signed by people with names like Lakisha, Tamika, Rasheed, and Darnell. Bertrand and Mullainathan 2002

Unemployment by Race and Sex, 2002 Adult Adult Teens Men Women White 14.1 5.0 4.2 Black 28.2 10.0 8.9 Current Population Survey, 2003

Labor Force Participation by Sex and Race (in percent) Teens Men Women White 47 60 77 Black 29 64 72 Current Population Survey, 2003

Occupational Segregation Indices of Occupational Segregation with Same-Sex European-Ancestry Whites • African Americans 30-35 • Mexican Americans 32-40 • Southeast Asians 44-45

2002 Median Earnings by Race and Sex for Full-Time Year-Round Workers Non-Hispanic white 41,400 30,890 African American 32,257 27,351 Hispanic 26,493 22,192 Men Women U.S. Bureau of the Census 2003

Numbers (in 1000s) of Black and White Males Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and Jails

Hiring Discrimination Milwaukee employers preferred white applicants to matched black applicants, and applicants without prison records to applicants with records. But they preferred white applicants with a prison record to matched black applicants who had no prison record. Pager, American Journal of Sociology 2003

Disparities in Wealth Middle-class blacks . . . earn seventy cents for every dollar earned by middle-class whites, but they possess only fifteen cents for every dollar of wealth held by middle-class whites. Black Wealth/White Wealth , Melvin Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro

Black-White School Segregation in the South: Percentage of Black Students in Majority-White Schools, 1958-1998 40 30 20 10 0 1954 1960 1964 1967 1968 1970 1972 1976 1980 1986 1988 1991 1994 1996 1999 2002 Source: Orfield, 2003.

EEOC CHARGE HANDLING PROCESS 77,444 cases filed EEOC: no cause 8,248 EEOC dropped68,000charges 8248 cases resolved through conciliation 431 filed in court ca. 338 dismissed < 100 go to trial 2040 resolved for complainant < 100 settled for complainant < 50 win at trial

Remedies for Discrimination Subsystems Higher Education School Segregation Affirmative action Brown v. Bd. of Educ. Discrimination laws, affirmative action CETA, JTPA Busing Criminal Justice FairHousing Acts Automatic Sentencing Labor Markets Neighborhood Segregation Racial Stigma Minimum wage laws, pay discrimination Public assistance Section 8 Housing Economic Standing and Social Status

The Discrimination System: