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The Equity Solution: Racial Inclusion Is Key to Growing a Strong New Economy
2014
America is quickly becoming a majority people of color nation. At the same time, inequality is skyrocketing and racial inequities—from the homogeneity of the tech sector to the segregated suburbs of St. Louis—are wide, persistent, and glaring. Equity—just and fair inclusion of all—has always been a moral imperative in this country, but a new consensus is emerging that equity is also an economic imperative. Scores of economists and institutions like Standard & Poor's and Morgan Stanley now believe that rising inequality and low wages for workers on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder are stifling growth and competitiveness, and that racial inequities threaten economic growth and prosperity as people of color become the majority.This brief offers new research to inform the debate about equity and the future of the American economy. Using data on income by race, we calculate what total earnings and economic output would have been for the nation in 2012 if racial differences wer...
The Review of Black Political Economy, 1999
This article is a product of our shared reflections on late twentieth century legal, economic and policy conversations on Black-White economic inequality. Our entry point is recent developments in human capital theory and color-blind jurisprudence. We take as a given that economists, lawyers and judges shape public policy on racial economic inequality; their research and rulings are constitutive of the "common sense" that shapes popular opinions and political conversations. We choose these traditions for two reasons. First, each articulates the normality and inevitability of a present-day racial economic inequality characterized by white economic domination and Black subordination. Second, we believe that color-blind jurisprudence and human capital theory are deeply complementary narratives of white economic supremacy. This essay explores the ideological terrain shared by economists and jurists who continue to normalize and institutionalize Black-White economic inequalities. What we see is this: both mainstream economists and today's high courts have reached closure on racial inequality. By 'closure' we mean that each community articulates a hegemonic account of Black-White inequality. Neoclassical economists remain largely unresponsive to colleagues who argue for the persistence of racial discrimination. Although a generation of political economists (some more Marxist than others), institutionalists, and feminists have penned many a robust critique of human capital-based explanations of racial inequality (and crafted numerous alternatives), the leading U.S. departments of economics continue their march to the beat of the human capital drum. They remain largely undaunted by the conceptual, (methodo)logical, historical and empirical challenges to their works, comfortably affirming the wonders of labor markets that, for the most part, reward equals equally. 1 When confronted by the secular increase in Black-White wage in
2017
Patrick L. Mason. (2017). "Notes on the economics of structural racism: a synopsis of the stratification literature on racism, racial identity, and the labor market." 1 Structural racism arose with European exploration, enslavement and colonization of Africans, triangular trade, and the historical development of capitalism as a world system (Reich, 1981; Williams, 1944; Whatley, 2008). Eradicating structural racism requires fundamental transformation of American society (King, 1968). Structural racism is far more than individuals' racially biased decisions based on incomplete, incorrect, or imprecise information. It is also far more than individuals' racially hostile behavior, attitudes, or values based on irrational opposition towards those perceived as different. Structural racism consists of public policies and institutional practices with persistently racially disparate outcomes, cultural representations that continuously encourage invidious comparisons across racial groups, and norms of social interactions that encourage the reproduction of racialized social identities. Structural racism allows "privileges associated with "whiteness" and disadvantages associated with "color" to endure and adapt over time. … [I]t has been a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist (Aspen Institute, 2016)." Racism is multi-dimensional and deeply rooted within American society. But, those facts do not imply that racism is a naturally occurring social phenomena due to some immutable characteristic of "human nature" and therefore will always be with us. The dominant economic narrative on racial inequality ignores structural racism. Instead, the canonical frame and its derivative polices offers an individualist perspective on economic inequality. Individualist reasoning is committed to the notion that racial inequalities in economic wellbeing are primarily outcomes of individual decision-making regarding skill accumulation, laborforce participation, employment, hours, occupational selection, and risk-taking. Racial differences in individual decision-making are then explained by the assertion of racial differences in the endowments of market functional values, behaviors, and culture. Individualist
Racial Inequality in the United States of America
The segregation of facilities, services and opportunities available to various racial groups in the United States is the underlying cause of ongoing racial inequality throughout the nation..... By observing the poverty by race statistics throughout America, it can be seen that there is large disparity across various racial groups, leading us to question the causes and responsibilities that key agents have in improving such inequality issues.
African Americans in the US economy
2005
African Americans in the U.S. Economy is an invaluable collection of essays for high school teachers, college professors, politicians, activists, and all people interested in the struggle for racial justice in the United States. The editors are to be congratulated for assembling an outstanding volume covering a very wide range of historical, theoretical, empirical, and policy issues relevant to the economic status of African Americans. The editors, in conjunction with the contributing authors, comprise a "Who's Who" of the Black Political Economy School. This volume, comprising 43 essays, demonstrates both the intellectual and the political importance of this approach to contemporary economic analysis. As an economics professor who has struggled for over twenty years
Bold Policies for Economic Justice
The Review of Black Political Economy, 2012
The U.S. is characterized by a longstanding pattern of large structural racial inequality that deepens further as a result of economic downturn. Although there have been some improvements in the income gap up until around the mid 1970s, the employment gap, and the racial wealth gap -two dramatic indicators of economic security -remains exorbitant and stubbornly persistent. We offer two race-neutral programs that could go a long way towards eliminating racial inequality, while at the same time providing economic security, mobility and sustainability for all Americans. The first program, a federal job guarantee, would provide the economic security of a job and the removal of the threat of unemployment for all Americans. The second program, a substantial child development account that rises progressively based on the familial asset positioning of the child's parents, would provide a pathways towards asset security for all Americans regardless of their economic position at birth.
Persistent Disparity: Race and Economic Inequality in the United States since 1945
Southern Economic Journal, 1999
Occasionally enlightening, often frustrating, this book examines the continuing gap in economic status between white Americans and African-Americans. The authors stake out a pessimistic position, arguing that the perceived relative economic progress of blacks during the 1960s and 1970s was largely illusory. Furthermore, they con
Metaracism: explaining the persistence of racial inequality
Choice Reviews Online, 2015
List of Tables and Figures vii 1 What Is Metaracism? 2 The Structure of Metaracism 3 The Culture of Metaracism 4 Politics, the State, and the Maintenance of Racial Oppression 5 The Growth of Inequality 6 The Assault on Social Welfare and Education Policies 7 The Incarceration Crisis 8 Minority Voter Suppression 9 Metaracism at a Crossroads Bibliography Index About the Book v Contents The twenty-first century promises to be a paradoxical period in US race relations: an age of unparalleled progress, yet of unprecedented repression; an epoch of remarkable racial advancement, yet of persisting racial inequality; a season proclaimed to be one of postracial/post-civil rights politics, yet one of continuing racial strife. This paradox is not new. It has persisted throughout US history. It has just become more pronounced. On the positive side of the ledger, African Americans serve in highly visible and prominent political positions. Barack Obama was elected the first black president in this nation's history and then reelected to a second term. Colin Powell became the first black man and Condoleezza Rice the first black woman to serve as secretary of state. Mo Cowan of Massachusetts and Tim Scott of South Carolina became the first two black men in history to serve simultaneously in the US Senate. Cory Booker was elected the first black senator from New Jersey. This is an age for the progress of black professionals, marked by a dramatic increase in the number of black physicians, black scientists, black university professors, black engineers, black attorneys, black chief executive officers (CEOs), and other black professionals. Indeed, between 1970 and 2008, the nationwide number of black physicians increased from 6,044 to 54,364, attorneys from 3,703 to 46,644, and college professors from 16,582 to 63,336. 1 This constitutes a period of visible and profound racial progress. On the negative side, some consider this to be the new Gilded Age 2 and the new Jim Crow era. 3 This is a period in which the rich have grown richer; inequality has become more extreme; the black/white gap in income, wealth, and education has widened; equal opportunities have diminished; and upward mobility has declined. Incarceration rates among the poorer and darker citizens have soared, evoking complaints and condemnation