not quite post-racial: the status of race in the united states, 2009 edition

Andrew Grant-Thomas

Deputy Director Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Research Assistance provided by Cheryl Staats

Portland State UniversityNovember 17, 2009

Today’s Conversation

The state of race in the U.S. today

Explicit Bias

Structural racialization

Implicit Bias

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Are we post-racial (yet)?

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Data: U.S. Census Bureau, 2007 American

Community Survey

Racial Equity Status Report. Prepared for the W.K. Kellogg foundation by the Kirwan Institute. September 2008.

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Data: 2001 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

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Proportion of students (by race) attending high poverty schools (schools with more than 75% of students eligible for free and reduced lunch) in the 2005-2006 school year


U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data

(CCD), “Public Elementary/ Secondary School Universe Survey,” 2005–06

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Projected Life Expectancy at Birth, 1999, by Race, Gender and Hispanic Origin

Source: National Projections Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington DC 20233.

77

84

81

87

73

82

68

75

75

80

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Hispanic males

Hispanic females

Asian males

Asian females

American Indian males

American Indian females

Black males

Black females

White males

White females

Happiness

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36%

28%

34%

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

White Black Hispanic

Data from Pew Research Report, “Are We Happy Yet?” February 13, 2006

Percentage Very Happy by Race, Ethnicity

Among the Best Paid Executives Younger than 40

9 http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0910/gallery.highestpaid_40_under_40.fortune/index.html

What do all these people have in common?

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Diversity in the U.S. Senate 1,913 people have served in the Senate (1789-present)

Only 20 have been ethnic minorities:

6 African Americans (1 currently serving)

5 Asian Americans (2 currently serving)

6 Hispanic Americans (1 currently serving)

3 Native American Indian

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http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/minority_senators.htm

Possible Explanations of These Disparities

Is it culture?

“If they wanted to, they could pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”

Is it interpersonal racism?

“If only people would stop stereotyping and discriminating….”

Is it structural?

“Institutions can interact in ways that are discriminatory.”

Is it some or all of the above?

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13Compared to Whites, are Blacks

More ___ than Whites, tied with Whites, or less ___ than Whites?

More Less

Wealthy 5% 77%

Industrious 9% 46%

Violence-prone 45% 10%

Intelligent 3% 38%

Committed to strong families 15% 44%

Committed to intergroup tolerance 18% 38%

Compared to Whites, are HispanicsMore ___ than Whites, tied with Whites, or

less ___ than Whites?More Less

Wealthy 7% 78%

Industrious 22% 35%

Violence-prone 38% 15%

Intelligent 3% 42%

Committed to strong families 34% 25%

Committed to intergroup tolerance 22% 34%Data from 2000 GSS. Topical Report No. 32. National Opinion Research Center.

Do you agree with the following statement: Irish, Italians, Jewish and many other minorities overcame prejudice and worked their way up. Blacks should do the same without special favors.

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44%

28%

13%

9%5%

1%0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

Agree strongly

Agree somewhat

Neither agree nor disagree

Disagree somewhat

Disagree strongly

Don't know

N = 1,325

Data: 2008 General Social Survey (U.S.). From Polling the Nations

Opportunity is racialized and spatialized.

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Structural Racialization

How race works today: There are still practices, cultural norms and institutional arrangements that help create & maintain (disparate) racialized outcomes

Structural racialization addresses inter-institutionalarrangements and interactions.

It refers to the ways in which the joint operation of institutions produce racialized outcomes.

In this analysis, outcomes matter more than intent.

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Place and Life Outcomes

Employment

Housing

Childcare

EffectiveParticipation

HealthEducation

Transportation

We all live in opportunity structures.

The opportunities available to all people

are not the same.

We must consider how institutions interact with one another to produce racialized

outcomes.

Contrasting Low & High Opportunity Areas: Where would you want to live?

It’s more than just a matter of choice.

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Place Matters: Costs of Opportunity Isolation

o Individual/family costs

Living in “concentrated disadvantage” reduces student IQ by 4 points, roughly the equivalent to missing one year of school (Sampson 2007)

o Societal cost

Neighborhoods of concentrated poverty suppress property values by nearly 400 billion nationwide (Galster et al. 2007)

People of color are far more likely to live

in opportunity deprived neighborhoods and

communities.

Living in Low Opportunity…

… generates unhealthy levels of stress hormones in children, which impairs their neural development

… correlates with children having levels of lead in their blood 9 times above average; high levels of lead linked to ADD and irreversible loss of cognitive functioning

… links to higher levels of violent offending among juveniles

… is highly correlated with childhood aggression and social maladjustment

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Million Dollar Blocks

Prison Expenditure by Block

Brooklyn, NY

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Some people ride the “Up” escalator to reach

opportunity.

Others have to run up the “Down” escalator to get there.

Analyzing Opportunity in Portland

Education Economic IndicatorsHousing and

Neighborhood

Reading Proficiency Scores

Proximity to Employment

Homeownership Rate

Math Proficiency ScoresProximity to

Employment (change)Neighborhood Poverty

Rate

Free and Reduced LunchPopulation on Public

Assistance

Student-to-TeacherRatio

Unemployment Rate

Adult Educational Attainment

Average Commute to Work Time

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Distribution of Opportunity in Portland

Population by Race, 2000

Neighborhood Opportunity

AsianAfrican

AmericanHispanic White

Low & Very Low 37.0% 60.2% 59.5% 34.0%

Moderate 21.4% 16.8% 17.0% 21.4%

High & Very High 41.5% 22.9% 23.5% 44.7%

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Neighborhood Poverty by Race/Ethnicity and Income(Portland – Vancouver Metro Area)

Poor Middle Income Affluent

Black 17.9% 14.5% 12.0%

Hispanic 13.9% 12.3% 9.7%

Non-Hispanic White 11.7% 9.5% 7.6%

Asian 12.7% 10.2% 7.7%

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U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census. Diversity Data: http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/Data/Profiles/Show.aspx?loc=993&notes=True&cat=2

Racialized outcomes do not always require racist actors.

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The Spinning Girl

http://hight3ch.com/are-you-left-or-right-brained-

illusion/

OR

http://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/spin

ning-sihouette-optical-illusion.html

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http://hight3ch.com/are-you-left-or-right-brained-illusion/














http://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/spinning-sihouette-optical-illusion.html











Awareness Test

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqrkihlw-s




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Implicit Bias

People have multiple networks that may be activated without our awareness.

Depending on the situation, one network becomes dominant over the others

Even though we may fight them, implicit biases reside within us…

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Our Unconscious Networks

What colors are the following lines of text?

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Implicit Bias – Unconscious Modeling

Implicit Association Test

http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/

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Implicit bias against nonwhites is pervasive.

Distributions of Responses on Explicit

(Self-reported) and Implicit Measures

Groups

Compared

Explicit Implicit

Nonwhite Neutral White Nonwhite Neutral White

Blacks/Whites 12% 56% 32% 12% 19% 69%

Asians/Whites 16% 57% 27% 11% 26% 63%

Note: Percentages represent the percent biased in favor of group.

Source: 94 California Law Review (2006), p. 957

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What Would You Do?

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Biases in Employment

Researchers sent out fictitious resumes in response

to help-wanted ads.

HR reps in the area indicated that they were eager to find qualified minority candidates and embraced diversity.

Each employer

received four

resumes –

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Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004)

• 1) Highly qualified

• 2) AverageWhite-sounding name

(i.e., Emily, Greg, Jill, Todd)

• 3) Highly qualified

• 4) Average

Black-sounding name

(i.e., Jamaal, Lakisha,

Latoya, Tyrone)

Employment Bias - outcomes

Resumes with “white-sounding” names received 50% more call-backs than those with “black-sounding” names.

More shockingly, some average white applicants received call-backs rather than highly-skilled blacks.

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Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004)

Biases Influencing Neighborhood Evaluations

Respondents saw videos of neighborhoods and their “residents” (portrayed by actors).

The neighborhoods in the videos were the same, but respondents were randomly assigned to see either:

(1) White residents,

(2) Black residents, or

(3) a mix of both White and Black residents.

“Respondents then evaluated the neighborhoods in terms of housing cost, property upkeep, safety, trajectory of housing values, and quality of the schools.”

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Krysan, Farley, and Couper (2008)

Neighborhood Videos

http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/tmp/das/

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http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/tmp/das/

Neighborhood Evaluations - Results

“White respondents who saw a neighborhood with only Black residents evaluated it significantly more negatively than similar Whites who saw exactly the same neighborhood but with White residents.”

“When [Whites] are shown the same neighborhood but with White residents, they offer more positive evaluations.”

“Race of residents appears to code the neighborhood with regard to some of the most important characteristics people consider when thinking about where to live.”

“Race may indeed be a “proxy” for other neighborhood features; but our study reveals that it is a “proxy” constructed in respondents’ minds and shaped by their racial stereotypes.”

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www.KirwanInstitute.org

KirwanInstituteon:

www.Transforming-Race.org

Senator Website Photo Credits

Boxer.senate.gov

Bunning.senate.gov

Carper.senate.gov

Conrad.senate.gov

Crapo.senate.gov

Lgraham.senate.gov

Gillibrand.senate.gov

Johanns.senate.gov

Leahy.senate.gov

Lugar.senate.gov

Merkley.senate.gov

Risch.senate.gov

Markudall.senate.gov

Voinovich.senate.gov

Sanders.senate.gov

Also: www.sxc.hu

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not *quite* post-racial: the status of race in the united states, 2009 edition

Spiritual

not quite post-racial: the status of race in the united states, 2009 edition