Examining Universal Policies:

1
Examining Universal Policies Examples from
History
Treating people who are situated differently as
though they are the same can result in greater
inequities
2
The Allure of Universal Policies

• The impulse to promulgate universal policies (as
  opposed to targeted policies) is seemingly
  sensible for democratically elected leaders.
• Targeted policies may appear to favor some groups
  over others.
• Targeted policies often are perceived as
  zero-sum.
• Advocating for targeted policies can be construed
  as catering to special interests or advocating
  for preferences.
• To avoid these perceived pitfalls, elected
  leaders often favor universal policies that
  appear to benefit everyone.

3
The Flaws of Universal Policies

• Universal policies assume a universal norm.
• People are situated differently in society, so
  any conceptualization of what is universal is
  inherently flawed.
• Treating people who are situated differently as
  though they are the same can result in greater
  inequities.
• These slides will highlight historical examples
  of policies that were universal in name, but not
  necessarily in practice, thus resulting in
  greater inequities.
• GI Bill Social Security Interstate
  Highways

4

• GI Bill

Section source Katznelson, Ira. (2005) When
Affirmative Action Was White
5
GI Bill

• The GI Bill was officially known as the Selective
  Service Readjustment Act and sought to ease the
  pathway for soldiers returning to civilian life
  post-WWII.
• It reached eight out of ten men born in the
  1920s.
• Bill provisions included assistance with
• Buying a home
• Attending college
• Starting new business ventures
• Locating a job

6
Benefits For Whom?

• This bill is largely credited for creating
  middle-class America, but almost exclusively for
  whites.
• The GI Bill accommodated Jim Crow and widened the
  nations racial gaps.
• The bill was seemingly for white veterans only.

7
GI Bill Outcomes

• Homeownership
• Capped interest rates and waived down payments
  opened up the market drastically.
• Between 1945 and 1954, 13 million new homes were
  built in the U.S.
• From 1946 to 1947, VA mortgages comprised more
  than 40 of the total.
• Homeownership patterns changed Post-war growth
  was characterized by suburban sprawl.

8
GI Bill Outcomes

• Education
• GI Bill benefits included full tuition and a
  stipend.
• Immediately prior to WWII, 160,000 Americans
  graduated from college annually.
• By 1955, approximately 2,250,000 veterans had
  participated in higher education.

9
Opportunity for All?

• Since deemed Americas first color-blind social
  legislation,1 the GI Bills provisions were
  allocated to those who had served at least 90
  days of active duty, regardless of their race,
  ethnicity, region, or class.
• A large majority of all soldiers black and
  white sought to take advantage of the bills
  provisions.
• A study of soldiers who left the armed forces
  between September 1940 and August 1945 found that
  white and nonwhite participation rates were
  nearly alike 73 and 75 respectively.

1 Bennett, Michael J. When Dreams Came True The
GI Bill and the Making of Modern America p. 26.
10
Barriers to Opportunity

• Despite the bills achievements, many barriers
  were placed in the path of black soldiers.
• Implementation was left to states and localities,
  including those that practiced Jim Crow racism.
• Blacks access to primarily white colleges and
  institutions was limited.
• 95 of black veterans used their education
  vouchers at historically black colleges in the
  South.
• These historically black institutions were
  limited in number and had limited space to admit
  the influx of black veterans seeking education.

11
Barriers to Opportunity (cont)

• Vocational training and other schooling
  opportunities also left blacks at a disadvantage.
• Blacks were largely excluded from agriculture
  training programs.
• On-the-job training for a skill or craft required
  veterans to find an employer willing to hire
  them, and many white business owners did not want
  black trainees.
• Black vocational schools lacked many of the trade
  classes black veterans desired, including
  mechanics, electrical work, business training,
  and carpentry.
• Much of the training blacks received was
  inadequate.

12
Barriers to Opportunity (cont)

• Job placement centers staffed by whites channeled
  black veterans into black jobs even though the
  veterans had training and work experience from
  their military service.
• Black veterans were often denied access to the
  loans promised by the GI Bill.
• Blacks were often deemed ineligible for small
  business loans.
• Financial institutions often denied home loans,
  citing lack of established credit, insufficient
  capital, and other inadequacies.

13
Summary of GI Bill Effects

• The education gap widened instead of closed.
• The vocational training black veterans received
  was not held to any standards, thus often proving
  inadequate.
• Job placements reinforced the existing division
  of labor by race.
• Blacks often failed to qualify for loans.
• despite the assistance that black soldiers
  received, there was no greater instrument for
  widening an already huge racial gap in postwar
  American than the GI Bill. (Katznelson 2005, p.
  121)

14

• The Social Security Act of 1935

15
Social Security Act

• The provisions of the act had enormous potential
  to help African Americans.
• African Americans worked longer into old age,
  were more likely to be laid off, and were often
  relegated to the lower rungs of the social and
  economic hierarchy.
• However, this so-called quintessential universal
  policy was universal only in terms of able-bodied
  white males working outside the home full-time
  for pay.

16
Two Tiers of Social Security

• Social security separated aid into two tiers

Tier 1 Social Insurance Programs
Tier 2 Public Assistance Programs
17
Uneven Impact

• Social Security benefits accounted for prior
  wages, which reflected African Americans
  disadvantaged position in society.
• Farm workers and domestics jobs which many
  African Americans held were excluded from
  receiving benefits.
• This exclusion from Tier 1 forced many blacks
  into Tier 2 public assistance programs.
• The definition of work excluded women.
• Unpaid household labor and child-rearing
  responsibilities were not counted toward Social
  Security.

18
Long-term Consequences

• Tier 1 social insurance programs excluded 65 of
  the working Black population.
• Because of continuing discrimination and unequal
  education opportunities, many people lack Tier 1
  economic security. 
• By separating out benefits for the employed (like
  retirement and unemployment insurance programs)
  from those for the unemployed, people in Tier 2
  public assistance programs are often stigmatized.
  

Dona Cooper Hamilton and Charles V. Hamilton, The
Dual Agenda  the African-American struggle for
civil and economic equality.  New York  Columbia
University Press, 1997. 
19

• The Interstate Highway Act of 1956

20
Highway Creation

• Signed by President Eisenhower on June 29, 1956,
  the construction of the interstate highway system
  was the largest public works project in American
  history at that time.
• More than any single action by the government
  since the end of the war, this one would change
  the face of America. ... Its impact on the
  American economy - the jobs it would produce in
  manufacturing and construction, the rural areas
  it would open up - was beyond calculation.
  President Dwight D. Eisenhower
  (1963) Mandate for Change

21
Hardships for Central Cities

• The massive highway construction drastically
  affected the structure and organization of the
  central cities, as the new roads were constructed
  around and through existing communities.
• Revenue from these infrastructure projects was
  not fuelled back into central cities
• Many central cities were already suffering from
  the loss of churches, schools, and homes
  during the building process.

22
Suburbs

• Meanwhile, the expansion of transportation
  networks also facilitated the creation of
  suburbs.
• This drove many upper- and middle- class families
  to abandon the central cities in favor of
  suburban life.
• This new residential pattern separated racially
  isolated urban dwellers from equally racially
  isolated suburban residents.
• The Brown v. Board of Education integration
  decision accelerated this white flight.

23
Lasting Effects

• The effects of these segregated residential
  patterns are still visible today.
• Decades of suburban flight have drained low
  income inner city neighborhoods of people,
  business, and investments.
• High vacancy rates and poor investment harms the
  quality of life for inner city residents and
  limits the resources (tax base) for low income
  communities.

24
Concluding Thoughts on Universal Programs

25
In Search of a New Paradigm

• Some so-called universal programs can actually
  make inequalities worse.
• If we fail to pay attention to populations and
  the resources that communities possess, we are
  likely to repeat the mistakes of previous
  universal programs.
• How do we avoid these mistakes?
• We must be intentional.
• Policies should be targeted and programs should
  be structured so that they reach certain
  populations and communities. See Targeted
  Universalism slides on www.fairrecovery.org

26
For Additional Information
www.KirwanInstitute.org
www.FairRecovery.org