The Discrimination System:

1
The Discrimination System

• Race and Public Policy

Barbara Reskin Department of Sociology University
of Washington, Seattle
January 3, 2004
2
Heuristic Model of System Analysis

Subsystem B
Subsystem D
Subsystem A
Subsystem C
3
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
4
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

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
6
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
7
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
8
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
9
Trends in School Segregation Percentage of
Students of Color in Predominantly-Minority
Elementary and Secondary Schools
1968 1969 1980 1999
Blacks 77 62 70
Hispanics 55 75
10
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
11
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
12
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 1998294.
13
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
14
The Likelihood of Encountering Discrimination
When Youre 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. 1996183.
15
Stereotype Threat
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
16
College Attendance by Race (1990s)
college students _at_ community colleges
students _at_ colleges with mean SATs gt 1000
HS grads in college

• White 45 36 36
• Black 36 43 30
• Hispanic 35 57 22

17
Percentage of Students Earning BAs at Schools
with at Least Half Minority Students (1993)
Race Percentage
Hispanic
34
32
Black
Asian
7
Jacobs 1996
18
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
19
Family Economics and College Admission

• Academic Criteria What 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

20
Family Economics and College Admission

• Nonacademic Criteria What 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

21
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
22
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.
23
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
24
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
25
Labor Force Participation by Sex and Race (in
percent)

• Teens Men Women
• White 47 60 77
• Black 29 64 72

Current Population Survey, 2003
26
Occupational Segregation

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

27
2002 Median Earnings by Race and Sex for
Full-Time Year-Round Workers
Men Women

• Non-Hispanic white 41,400 30,890
• African American 32,257 27,351
• Hispanic 26,493 22,192

U.S. Bureau of the Census 2003
28
Numbers (in 1000s) of Black and White Males
Incarcerated in Federal and State Prisons and
Jails
29
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
30
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
31
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
32
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
33
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.
34
EEOC CHARGE HANDLING PROCESS
77,444 cases filed

EEOC no cause 8,248
EEOC dropped 68,000 charges
8248 cases resolved through conciliation

431 filed in court
ca. 338 dismissed
lt 100 go to trial
2040 resolved for complainant
lt 100 settled for complainant
lt 50 win at trial
35
Remedies for Discrimination Subsystems
Higher Education
School Segregation
Affirmative action
Brown v. Bd. of Educ.
Discrimination laws, affirmative action
CETA, JTPA
Busing
Criminal Justice
Fair Housing Acts
Automatic Sentencing
Labor Markets
Neighborhood Segregation
Racial Stigma
Minimum wage laws, pay discrimination
Public assistance
Section 8 Housing
Economic Standing and Social Status