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

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?

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.

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.

Problems

• Low Incomes of Single-Mother Families

• Absentee Fathers and Child Support

• Teen Pregnancy

• Out-of-wedlock childbearing

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

• Introductory Questions

• Definition and Examples

• Judicial Decisions

• Proposition 209

• Pros and cons

• Evidence

• The Future?

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.

References, continued

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

Introductory Questions

• What is affirmative action?

• What are its goals?

• What are some arguments against it

or in favor of it?

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

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

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

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.

Cons and Pros

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

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

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

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)

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