Transcript Discrimination and Crime

Intersections
The Political Economy of
Race and Class in the United
States
I. Defining Race and Class
A. Little genetic variance exists in humans
1. Why? Bottleneck 100,000 – 200,000 years ago
2. Migration: “The Urge to Merge”
3. Result: We all have about the same set of ancestors in
1000 BC (everyone alive now is descended from
everyone alive then, but in different proportions)
B. Race not biologically significant
On average: Two random people of the SAME race have
90% as many genetic differences as two random people of
DIFFERENT races
C. “Race” is a Social Category
1. Nationality as Race: “How the Irish Became White”
2. Ancestry as Race: “One Drop”
3. Multiracial Classification: Breaking Down Categories
D. What is Social Class?
1.
Usual Criteria: Income, Wealth, Power
2.
Prestige occupations

They Pay More

They Require More Education

They Entail More Abstract Thought

They Offer Greater Autonomy
E. Intersectionality


This term refers to ways in which different types
of divisions or discrimination may reinforce each
other
Example: Race and Class




Racial stereotyping denies economic opportunities 
lower incomes
People with lower incomes can’t live in nice
neighborhoods  housing segregation
Poor neighborhoods have more crime  racial
stereotyping of their residents
Implication: If race and class divisions reinforce
each other, tackling one will be difficult without
tackling the other
II. Explaining Income Inequality:
Intersectionality or Something Else?
A. Unemployment: What explains
the racial gap?
1. Name Discrimination


“White”
names
about 50%
more likely
to be called
for
interviews
than “Black”
names
Sample
stereotyped
names:
“White”
Male
“Black”
Female Male
Female
Jake
Molly
DeShawn
Tiara
Dustin
Amy
Tyrone
Ebony
Brett
Claire
Jamal
Shanice
Wyatt
Emily
Darnell
Jasmine
Logan
Katie
Terrell
Precious
2. Interviewer Bias
i.
ii.
iii.
Identical qualifications  Whites
usually hired
Identical statements  Whites
perceived as less aggressive
Experiments: Interviewer race
affects evaluation of qualifications
(circumstances vs. personal
responsibility)
B. Education
1. It matters, but can’t explain whole income gap
2. Domino Effect: College Education
Reinforces Class Divisions
C. Perceived Workplace Racism: A
Problem for Free Markets
D. Trends in Income Inequality
1. Recent Growth: A rising tide that lifts
some boats faster than others. Why?
2. Comparison: US vs. World

Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality):
higher numbers mean more inequality
3. Increasing inequality is relatively
new – little change for 35-year period
III. Wealth Inequality: Obstacles to
Social Mobility
A. How Do Families Accumulate
Wealth?
1. Theory from Classical Economics


Savings, Wise Investment, Hard Work
Life Cycle
2. Institutional Accumulation: Wealth transferred
through legal channels

2/3 of Middle Class Wealth is Home Equity:
Homestead Acts, FHA, Home Mortgage Interest
Deductions promote this form of wealth
A. How Do Families Accumulate
Wealth?
1. Theory from Classical Economics


Savings, Wise Investment, Hard Work
Life Cycle
2. Institutional Accumulation: Wealth transferred
through legal channels



2/3 of Middle Class Wealth is Home Equity:
Homestead Acts, FHA, Home Mortgage Interest
Deductions promote this form of wealth
Education: Land Grant Colleges, GI Bill, Subsidized
Student Loans, “In Vivo” wealth transfers from
parents
Retirement Accounts: Federal programs, subsidies,
and tax credits for pensions and savings
B. Inheritance and “Sedimentation”
Wealth transfers perpetuate “sedimentation” of
inequality – implies that historical discrimination
creates inequalities that persist even after
discrimination ends. Two primary mechanisms:
1. Inheritance
 Whites 4 times as likely to Inherit;
 Typical Inheritance for Whites=$10,000; AfricanAmericans=$800
2. In Vivo transfers (Down payments; Education and
College Tuition) -- Today, most people pass their
disposable tangible wealth to their children during life by
education expenditures (not by will or inheritance).
Other in vivo transfers:
 Life insurance
 Joint tenancy
 Pensions
C. Fragility: Small Assets Dissipate
During Recessions

Example: During the 2001 recession and “jobless
recovery,” Latino and African-American families
lost over one-quarter of their wealth while the
wealth of white families grew slowly, 2 percent.
D. Class Mobility in America: Is
Inequality the Future?
1. “The high cost of being poor.” Without savings
(wealth) or credit (related to wealth and
income):





No deposit – Funnels people to rent-by-the-week
motels, more expensive than apartments (largely due
to food costs)
Higher utility and other deposits
Bank scarcity: Reliance on money orders, checkcashing facilities, payday lenders, pawn shops, rentto-own furniture and appliances
Higher costs for groceries (no mega-stores), laundry,
gas
Car purchases, loans, insurance much higher for poor,
even controlling for driving record
2. Intergenerational Mobility
a. Definition: Probability children will have
different relative income than parents
b. Trend:
Shrinking
E. Wealth Gap is Intersectional:
Both Class and Race Matter
1. Mobility higher for poor white children
than poor African-American children
2. Net Worth Gap Unlikely to Close
Soon
IV. Housing and Spatial Inequality
A.
The spatial inequality thesis:



Social and racial inequities are
“geographically inscribed” (correlated with
location)
Government policy helps determine
geography of inequality (which is not
necessarily “natural” or “neutral”)
Implication: Political decisions about housing
and land use can increase or decrease both
racial and class inequality. As always,
politics creates winners and losers…
B. Home Ownership
1. Present-Day Institutional Discrimination:
Homeownership and Assets
a. Mortgages: Blacks have 60% higher Rejection
Rate vs. income/asset-comparable Whites
b. Interest Rates: Blacks Pay More (About 1/3 of
1%)
 Translates into $12,000 More for Typical Home
over 30 years
c. Subprime Loans
Racial gap
in lending –
even
wealthy
AfricanAmerican
borrowers
get highrisk loans
2. Lending Gap Widens PreExisting Wealth Gaps
3. Home Ownership Gap Persists
C. “Spatial Racism” -- De Facto
Segregation
1. Decreasing but still high
2. More prevalent in North
3. Causes:
a. Fragmentation: Smaller
school districts and
administrative units
Milwaukee, the most

segregated city in America
b. Government Policy

“Spatial Racism” reinforced by:



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

Zoning laws prevent affordable housing in many
suburbs
Housing policies concentrate subsidized housing
Municipalities subsidize the relocation of
businesses out of the city
Transportation spending favors highways,
metropolitan expansion and urban sprawl
Court decisions prevent metropolitan school
desegregation
School funding is tied to property taxes
c. Ongoing Housing Discrimination for
Renters
Evidence: HDS 2000 Report



4,600 paired testers, one minority and the other white
Pose as otherwise identical homeseekers and inquire
about availability of advertised housing units
Identifying discrimination:


White testers told of available units when African-Americans
not told: 12.3% of the time
African-American testers told of available units when Whites
not told: 8.3% of the time


Inference: If sample size is large enough, discrimination rate of 4%
against African-Americans on this dimension
Many dimensions aggregated together to provide total rate
of housing discrimination: whether allowed to inspect
apartment/house, quoted rent/price, rent incentives, etc.
Other findings



Systematic “steering” found: Whites likely to be
recommended houses in white neighborhoods,
minorities in minority neighborhoods (remember,
income/employment etc is identical)
Effect is strongest when older agents
encountered – consistent with prejudice
hypothesis
Interesting: Austin singled out as unusually likely
to generate discrimination against both Latinos
and African-Americans (only metro area with this
“distinction”)
d. Personal Choice?
4. Effects of Segregation


Educational inequality: Inter-district busing prohibited
Also reinforces other spatial inequalities (maps them
to racial boundaries)
D. Sprawl, Fragmentation and
Housing Opportunity for the Poor
1.
Zoning: Suburban regulations drive up
the cost of housing and limit rental
housing
a.
b.
New housing becomes unaffordable to low
income residents
Disinvestment in the inner city reduces the
asset value (wealth) of homeowners in
inner city neighborhoods
Example: Zoning and Housing
Opportunity in Columbus, OH
Minimum Lot Size for Single Family Home
12,000
11,000
10,000
9,000
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
11,000
10,000
8,000
8,400
10,000
10,000
8,400
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
Suburban lot size requirements in the Columbus suburbs drive
up the cost of housing
Result: >90% of new single-family homes built 2000-2002 not
affordable to >75% of African American and Latino households
Square Feet

2. “Job Sprawl”
Jobs have moved away from the labor pool in
many metropolitan areas, making connecting
job-seekers with jobs a challenge which is
compounded by poor public transportation


40% of all suburban jobs cannot be reached by public
transportation
Public investment disproportionately favors highways
over public transportation
Recent Job Growth 98-02 and Public Transit
in the Baltimore Region
Spatial Mismatch:
Job Growth & Public
Transit in Baltimore
•
Percent Change
in Jobs
Job Loss
0-5
5 - 15
15 - 30
30 - 66.6
“Job Sprawl” also
correlates with
greater segregation
for African
Americans from
employment
E. Opportunity Segregation: Cumulative
Impact of Sprawl, Fragmentation and
“Spatial Racism”


Low income residents segregated from opportunities
such as:
 Good schools, meaningful employment, safe and
stable neighborhoods
 This is “opportunity segregation”
Also reinforces mapping of class and race
V. Political Economy of Criminal
Justice: Who Commits the Crime –
and Who Does the Time?
A.
Juveniles
1.
2.
Drug
dealing:
Use:
Hard
Drugs
3. Other Destructive Behavior
Self-reported
behavior in
interviews
4. Who Does the Juvenile Time?
Juveniles in
Adult Prisons
B. Who Does the Adult Time?
1. Whites Less Likely to Be Arrested if Reported:
Graph of % Of African-Americans
100%
80%
60%
54%
40%
36%
35%
29%
20%
33%
27%
20%
11%
0%
Rape
Robbery Aggr. Assault
Reported
Arrested
Simple
Assault
2. Is There Police Bias?
Increases in minority police  Increases
in arrest rate for whites, no decrease in
arrest rates for minorities
3. Trials

Television viewers were so accustomed
to seeing African-American crime
suspects on the local news that even
when the race of a suspect was not
specified, viewers tended to remember
seeing an Africa-American suspect.
Result: Conviction More Likely
4. Sentencing Disparity
5. Racial consequences of the war
on drugs
a. Drug Use Rates for Adults (% using past month)
15
12
9
6.4
6.4
White
Black
6
3
0
Source: 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse
b. Disparate Treatment Based on
Race

African Americans constitute about 13% of
drug users BUT:



36.8% of those arrested for drug violations
42% of those in federal prisons for drug
violations
59% of those in state prisons
6. Lifetime likelihood of
imprisonment

Among men:



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28.5% African-Americans
16% Latinos
4.4% Non-Latino Whites
Among women:



3.6% African-Americans
1.5% Latinos
0.5% Non-Latino Whites
C. Class Bias in the Courts?



Money matters: Wealthy litigants more likely
to win
Amicus Curae briefs affect decisions
State Supreme Courts: Repeat players (Haves)
Beat One-Shot Appellants (Have-Nots)

Relationship decreases when outside amici favor
have-nots
VI. What should we do?
A.
Simulation results
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Who won?
What does the starting level of money
represent in real life?
What does the “Passing GO” bonus
represent?
What does the “Thimble rule” represent?
Losers: What could you have done to
become a winner?
Other players: Why should you bother
playing at all?
B. Structured Life Chances:
Playing the Hand You are Dealt

Monopoly is an analogy for the social world we
live in



Perception vs. Reality




Rules of the Game: Structures choices
People play the game: Agency
Perception: Everyone starts with same $
Reality: People start with varying amounts
Individual life chances are largely (but not
entirely) structured by the “hand one is dealt”
Social design: Rawls and the “Veil of Ignorance”
C. Responses to Income Inequality
Leave it alone
1.
a.
b.
Argument: Inequality creates incentives to succeed
Problem: Inequality produces social conflict, which can lower
economic growth. Inequality can reduce incentives if perceived as
entrenched
Income redistribution
2.
a.
b.
Argument: Progressive taxes combined with social welfare programs
reduce inequality
Problem: Social support encourages inefficiency and free-riding
behavior
Reduce effects of inequality: better-funded public defenders,
“Robin Hood” school funding, etc.
3.
a.
b.
Argument: Allows incentives created by inequality and perception of
class mobility
Problem: Best outcome is to reduce effects, not eliminate them
(family support, etc) – may be sufficient to reduce incentives but
insufficient to overcome perception of entrenchment
D. Race: Affirmative Action?
Problem: Discrimination (Not Just Disparity)
Exists
1.
a.
b.
c.
Housing  Education and Wealth
Employment  Income
Law Enforcement  Socioeconomic Outcomes and
Rights
Dilemma: How to Solve? Assume agreement
that government shouldn’t discriminate…
2.
a.
b.
c.
Government allows discrimination: Cannot avoid moral
choices!
Government bans discrimination: Leads to buckpassing, enforcement problems.
Affirmative Action: Race-based programs to remedy
effects of ongoing discrimination
3. Rationales and Counter-Arguments
Focus
Past
Racism
Argument For
Reparations
Argument Against
Individualism
Identification
Present
Unequal Outcomes
Inequality by Race
Race-Blind Equality of
Opportunity
Present
Prejudice
Check on
Discrimination
Bureaucratic
Expansion/Crudity
Future
Diversity
Dependence
Resentment
4. Polls:
Inconsistent

Does this
reflect
cognitive
dissonance?