1 / 18

Do Families Play an Important Role in Explaining Racial Inequality?

Do Families Play an Important Role in Explaining Racial Inequality?. Positive Effects of Families Colin Powell Oprah Winfrey Shorris: role of families in education Adverse Effects of Families Yvette (Anderson: Code of the Street) Shorris: downside of familia, familism.

shandra
Download Presentation

Do Families Play an Important Role in Explaining Racial Inequality?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Do Families Play an Important Role in Explaining Racial Inequality? • Positive Effects of Families • Colin Powell • Oprah Winfrey • Shorris: role of families in education • Adverse Effects of Families • Yvette (Anderson: Code of the Street) • Shorris: downside of familia, familism

  2. A Central Concern: Single Parent Families • Are single parent families more prevalent among racial and ethnic minority groups? • What are some of the differences in life chances associated with growing up in a single parent family?

  3. Table 1: Percentage of children aged 0-17, by family living arrangements: 1990. Arrangements Group Total White Black Latino Asian American Indian Both Parents 72% 81 37 64 84 56 Father 4 3 6 6 3 7 Mother 20 13 49 24 9 30 Relatives 2 1 6 3 2 4 Other 2 2 3 3 2 3 Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 Source: Hogan and Lichter, 1996, Table 3.2, p. 105.

  4. Table 2: Percentage of children aged 0-17 below the poverty line, by family living arrangements: 1989. Arrangements Percentage Poor Total White Black Latino Asian American Indian Overall 18 11 39 31 17 39 Both Parents 9 6 15 22 14 25 Father 23 15 34 33 20 49 Mother 46 34 57 55 39 60 Relatives 34 21 47 36 35 46 Source: Hogan and Lichter, 1996, Table 3.3, p. 107.

  5. Problems • Low Incomes of Single-Mother Families • Absentee Fathers and Child Support • Teen Pregnancy • Out-of-wedlock childbearing

  6. Discrimination and Affirmative Action • Introductory Questions • Definition and Examples • Judicial Decisions • Proposition 209 • Pros and cons • Evidence • The Future?

  7. Some References • Thernstrom, Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom. 1997. America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible. New York: Simon and Schuster • Bowen, William G. and Derek Bok. 1998. The Shape of the River. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

  8. References, continued • Dworkin, Ronald, “Is Affirmative Action Doomed?” New York Review of Books.

  9. Introductory Questions • What is affirmative action? • What are its goals? • What are some arguments against it or in favor of it?

  10. Definition and Examples • “the positive effort to recruit subordinate group members including women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities.” • Examples: 1) efforts to recruit in HBCU’s; 2) race as a factor in employment decisions for police positions; 3) race in college admissions

  11. Judicial Decisions • 1978: Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (5-4) • 1979: United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (5-2) • 1987: Johnson v. Transportation agency, Santa Clara, CA (6-3) • 1996 Hopwood v. Texas (Croson decision as precedent) • Recent University of Michigan decisions

  12. Dworkin Moral Arguments in favor of and against affirmative action a. Any racial distinctions are dangerous b. Diversity in higher education c. Diversity in society’s leadership

  13. Proposition 209 The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

  14. Cons Reverse Discrimination Unworthy Beneficiaries Does not address real problems A sham Pros Race must be used to overcome past Racial balance is real goal Is not designed to solve all problems Difficult and slow Cons and Pros

  15. Evidence • Median Incomes (1997 workers) White Men: $36,118 Black Men 26,897 White Women 26,470 Black Women 22,764 Hispanic Men 21,799 Hispanic Women 19,676

  16. Evidence • Increased minority representation on college campuses • Increased minority representation among faculty • Increased employment in firms and positions where women and minorities were not historically represented

  17. Evidence • While most whites oppose preferential affirmative action such as quotas, hiring preferences, or equal outcomes, most whites support compensatory affirmative action such as special job training and special recruitment efforts (Wilson, WHEN WORK DISAPPEARS, pp.203-204)

  18. The Future of Affirmative Action • What do you think will happen in the next few years? In the long run? • Other states (Washington, Florida) • Efforts in California • block recruitment and outreach efforts • admit students who graduate in the top 4% of their class to UC system • ACLU law suit regarding AP classes in predominantly minority high schools

More Related