Bianca Martinez

Documenting D Desegregation: Segregation i in A American W Workplaces by R Race, E Ethnicity, a and S Sex, 1 1966–2003

The chosen article seeks to answer the three questions; the first questions the trends that occur when segregation is measured in an establishment position, the second asks the number of trends produced in the industrial region, and last the function of changes in integration. To calculate these findings, the article looked at trends in private sector workplaces to find segregation and desegregation using EEO-1 reports from the years 1966 to 2003. The reports include, sex, race, and ethnic distribution in different areas of workplace positions. The information being looked for does not have much literature reviews backing up the data that is being looked at in this article. Due to their being little findings on the topic, this article provides insight on the issue of segregation and desegregation trends in the workplace. When looking at trends the article concluded that there was very little change on sex segregation between 1960-1970. The article reveals that there was a dramatic decline in 1970-1980, and not much change between 1980-1990. The trends also reveal that there was an estimated 1 percent a year decline in occupational sex segregation, with even more declines in 1990.  The trends showed an estimated black–white occupational segregation that declined 2.9 percent per year between 1960 and 1980 among women. Men, black–white occupational segregation declined 1.5 percent a year between 1960 -1980, going to a straight 0.6 percent. For all three comparisons, integration, segregation and desegregation were looked at among different groups and work titles. The studies revealed that social services were more integrated than personal service which were able to be more segregated due to the nature of the jobs. The reports of EEO-1 were used to document work segregation in private sectors, beginning in 1966. The limitations included only being able to cover establishments in the private sector industry that had 50 or more employees. Another limitation included that the EEOC data only allowed us to look at occupations, but not specific job titles. The issue also included the criticism because of the detail of job titles were not included. Another limitation of EEO-1 was that there was also an exclusion of small firms from the reporting. The article explained how there is still a lot of work left when it came to equality I employment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977–2004

The chosen article is about African American, Hispanics, and White beliefs on Black and White inequality. The article focuses on the issues of inequality for African Americans, and what other believe cause this inequality, whether its disadvantage or because of racially-structured disparities. Going into a little background the article explains how issues like the ones being looked at arise because whites believe Blacks have the same or similar opportunities to themselves, they believe that inequality has been dismantled, as well as that these individuals also heavily rely on government support programs. The author goes into some detail about the Black and White gap that seems to be less as time moves forward due to the increased opportunities for Blacks, but then hits with reality when he mentions that there are still many disparities between Blacks and Whites, and that this gap is very real. The author used dependent variables that included asking individuals if why they believed there was a gap between Blacks and Whites. The independent variables included, race and ethnicity. The first table showed White's explanations of why there was a gap; this table revealed used factors such as ability, motivation, education, and discrimination which would lead to findings for the Black-White socioeconomic gap. The tables explained if there were declines across these aspects by non-Hispanic whites. The next table took the same factors but this time it looked at the decline of the support for traditional racism among whites across the table. These tables also included information on why certain races felt that there was a gap between Blacks and Whites. The results all came in differently with Whites mainly saying there was a gap due to education and Blacks focusing more on the gap and believing it was more due to discrimination, and Hispanics focusing more in-between the explanations. In all the article continued to summarize the findings of the tables which suggested that Whites beliefs differ more than those of Blacks and Hispanics in this area.

Inequality

African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black / White Inequality, 1977–2004

The question being answered in this study looks at what people think causes inequality. The dependent variable was formed in a question asking what is the reason on average is the cause of inequality between Blacks and Whites in the United States. The data collection used to compile this data was done using the General Social Surveys, and gathered over a period starting in 1977 and ending in 2004. The races that were evaluated in the study were Non-Hispanic Caucasians, Hispanics, and African Americans. The independent variables accounted for were race, social class, age, gender, and religious fundamentalism. There were two groups of factors being evaluated as reasons for inequality. The first set being, Individual Factors. These individual factors included inequality due to a biological factor of less ability to learn, and inequality due to being lazy. The second group was Structural Factors. The structural factors included inequality due to discrimination, and lack of education. These factors are usually correlated with Institutional Discrimination.

The findings were quite interesting, showing the answer changes overtime had increased for the response choice of none of the above answer. The author points this out as evidence to support the claim that, people do not believe inequality still exist. In fact, the results are showing that more African Americans are saying it is individual factors and choices that are resulting in inequality toady. The findings also showed Hispanics response individual factors increase overtime, with a low response in structural factors. These ways of thinking are found in conservative views. This is often seen due to assimilation. The results concluded that African Americans still acknowledge that discrimination is present; however, African Americans continue to be the smallest group to say the cause of inequality is due to biological inferiority. The Caucasian responses indicated that their views show inequality most likely had to do motivation from the individual. Hispanics showed to be in the middle, and African Americans responded inequality was less likely to be caused by laziness.       

Skin Tone, Race/Ethnicity, and Wealth Inequality among New Immigrants

            Contrary to the article above, this article explores inequality among new immigrants in the United States subjugated to inequality because of their skin tone. The instrument used to collect the data was the New Immigrant Survey. The form of data collection used was conducted through interviews. The dependent variable was measuring how both skin tone, and race/ethnicity are contributing factors in wealth inequality. The explanatory variable was measurement of skin tone using a scale of colors numbered one through ten. The control variables were migration experience, education level (prior to migration, as well as post migration), and income.

            The findings showed that inequality is affected by skin tone. The darker the skin tone the less education had been received, lower income levels were reported, and overall lower wealth. It is important to note that this was only true for immigrants that were not White. If the immigrants were White, assimilation and growth in wealth was not an issue. Even white immigrants that varied in skin tone di not experience much discrimination and inequality. However, immigrants that were not White all reported having higher difficulties assimilating, and struggles with lower income. These results are congruent with the notion that European features are desired and preferred. This form of inequality does not only reside in the United States. Many countries still use skin tone as a form of discrimination resulting in oppression. The content within this article, and the results clearly show that inequality is not contributed by individual factors alone. There are structural factors put in place to keep inequality. Contrary to the previous article inequality continues to be present.         

Matthew Bevers Inequality Quiz

Matthew Bevers

April 18, 2017

Inequality Quiz

Going Back in Time? Gender Differences in Trends and Sources of the Racial Pay Gap, 1970 to 2010

This article is about the pay gap between males and females, while also comparing the gaps between White and Black males and females. This study focuses on the period of time between 1970 and 2010 and why the pay gap exists. One of the more interesting points of this study is the relationship of the pay gap between different races, but the same sex. The research that this study conducted found that the pay gap between White men and Black men was higher than the gap between White women and Black women. The reason for this is the negative stereotypes that Black men possess such as violence, laziness, and being a criminal. The reason this stereotype does not affect Black women is because employers do not associate these traits to Black women. Black women have the stereotypes that they are easy to get along with, hardworking, and willing to ask for help. The main findings of this study show four important factors. The first is that comparison of the racial pay gap between gender groups underscores the significance of the intersection between gender and race. The second is that the pay gap between White men and Black men was much more pronounced than the pay gap between women. The third is that pay inequality is more of a gender problem than a race problem. The fourth and final finding is that over time, the pay gaps between both genders and races stayed about the same.

African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality

This study is about different races and analyzing historical patterns of why these different races think inequality between Whites and Blacks exist. Historically, Blacks have attributed inequality to more of a discrimination basis than other races, but that is changing in recent years. For non-Hispanic Whites believing that inequality is the result of motivation or inborn inferiority has continued to decrease. Although they have decreased non-Hispanic Whites are still the highest in believing that it is a motivational problem, but both Blacks and Hispanics are rising in this regard. Non-Hispanic Whites also feel as though the answers given don't represent how they feel about why there is inequality, but are more prone to choose the answers of education and structural deficiencies as reasons for inequality. A general trend for this study suggests that minorities are supporting the more conservative answers of motivational problems which is a shift from the traditional answer of structural problems. While non-Hispanic Whites are usually more prone to answering only in the educational and structural categories, Blacks and Hispanics are more varied with their responses over all the questions. Overall this survey suggested that while non-Hispanic Whites continue to believe less in motivational and inferiority based situations, the other groups surveyed are becoming more conservative in their answers. This survey took information from the GSS from 1977 to 2004 in the U.S. with persons over the age of 18. The sample size started around 1000 people then peaked to 3000 later in the data's life.

Bianca Martinez

Documenting D Desegregation: Segregation i in A American W Workplaces by R Race, E Ethnicity, a and S Sex, 1 1966–2003

The chosen article seeks to answer the three questions; the first questions the trends that occur when segregation is measured in an establishment position, the second asks the number of trends produced in the industrial region, and last the function of changes in integration. To calculate these findings, the article looked at trends in private sector workplaces to find segregation and desegregation using EEO-1 reports from the years 1966 to 2003. The reports include, sex, race, and ethnic distribution in different areas of workplace positions. The information being looked for does not have much literature reviews backing up the data that is being looked at in this article. Due to their being little findings on the topic, this article provides insight on the issue of segregation and desegregation trends in the workplace. When looking at trends the article concluded that there was very little change on sex segregation between 1960-1970. The article reveals that there was a dramatic decline in 1970-1980, and not much change between 1980-1990. The trends also reveal that there was an estimated 1 percent a year decline in occupational sex segregation, with even more declines in 1990.  The trends showed an estimated black–white occupational segregation that declined 2.9 percent per year between 1960 and 1980 among women. Men, black–white occupational segregation declined 1.5 percent a year between 1960 -1980, going to a straight 0.6 percent. For all three comparisons, integration, segregation and desegregation were looked at among different groups and work titles. The studies revealed that social services were more integrated than personal service which were able to be more segregated due to the nature of the jobs. The reports of EEO-1 were used to document work segregation in private sectors, beginning in 1966. The limitations included only being able to cover establishments in the private sector industry that had 50 or more employees. Another limitation included that the EEOC data only allowed us to look at occupations, but not specific job titles. The issue also included the criticism because of the detail of job titles were not included. Another limitation of EEO-1 was that there was also an exclusion of small firms from the reporting. The article explained how there is still a lot of work left when it came to equality I employment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977–2004

The chosen article is about African American, Hispanics, and White beliefs on Black and White inequality. The article focuses on the issues of inequality for African Americans, and what other believe cause this inequality, whether its disadvantage or because of racially-structured disparities. Going into a little background the article explains how issues like the ones being looked at arise because whites believe Blacks have the same or similar opportunities to themselves, they believe that inequality has been dismantled, as well as that these individuals also heavily rely on government support programs. The author goes into some detail about the Black and White gap that seems to be less as time moves forward due to the increased opportunities for Blacks, but then hits with reality when he mentions that there are still many disparities between Blacks and Whites, and that this gap is very real. The author used dependent variables that included asking individuals if why they believed there was a gap between Blacks and Whites. The independent variables included, race and ethnicity. The first table showed White's explanations of why there was a gap; this table revealed used factors such as ability, motivation, education, and discrimination which would lead to findings for the Black-White socioeconomic gap. The tables explained if there were declines across these aspects by non-Hispanic whites. The next table took the same factors but this time it looked at the decline of the support for traditional racism among whites across the table. These tables also included information on why certain races felt that there was a gap between Blacks and Whites. The results all came in differently with Whites mainly saying there was a gap due to education and Blacks focusing more on the gap and believing it was more due to discrimination, and Hispanics focusing more in-between the explanations. In all the article continued to summarize the findings of the tables which suggested that Whites beliefs differ more than those of Blacks and Hispanics in this area.

Sandy Vongthong/ Inequality Quiz

Sandy Vongthong, 496 words

SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICANSARTHUR SAKAMOTO and HYEYOUNG WO

I read the article, The Socioeconomic Attainments of Second-Generation Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans written by Sakamoto and Hyeyoung Woo from University of Texas. The article examines the socioeconomic attainment of Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laotian, Hmong Americans or also known as Southeast Asian. The purpose of the study was to evaluate second generation Southeast Asians comparing 1st and 2nd wave of Asians in the United States and the socioeconomic differences between the groups.

 

Methodology

Researchers used a Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) from the U.S. Census. In their study they focused on Southeast Asians along with African Americans White, and non-Hispanic who were either born in the U.S. or immigrants to the U.S at a young age and attended school. The variables included years of education, wages and profession.

 

Findings

The overall findings revealed that second generation Cambodians, Laotian, and Hmong are just disadvantaged compared to Whites. The results are not the same for Vietnamese as they appear to be advantage in comparison to the rest of the Southeast Asians. The study showed a 19% of high school dropout rate for Cambodians and a 22% of Cambodians with a bachelor's degree. Hmong compared to African-Americans have a fewer high school dropout rate and they are also more likely to obtain some form of college degree. The results for Laotians tend to be so close to African-American as far as education is concerned. The group that stood out most was Vietnamese as they had a higher level of education almost more than similar to Whites. As for wages Vietnamese men and women earned more than whites during 1999. The wages for Cambodians, African-Americans, and Hmong was closely related. For the most part the data for both men and women were almost similar with exception of Laotian women earning more than White women and Laotian men earning less than any other groups.

 

The second article I read was Beyond Hispanic/Latino: The importance of gender/ethnicity-specific earnings analyses, written by Rosalie Torres Stone Julia McQuillan. Methodology

The study consisted of 511, 952 participants from an Integrated Public Use of Micro Data Series (I-PUMS) of 2000, ANOVA and Chi-squared. Researchers studied men and women who identified themselves as Mexicans, Puerto Rican's, Cubans, non-Hispanic Whites. The variables included household characteristics, demographic, family income, employment, and position.

 

Findings

The findings revealed that different ethnic subgroups earnings vary with individual characteristics. Cuban and Puerto Rican men and women are not clustered in one particular place it has nothing to do with job opportunities however more individual preferences whereas Mexican men and women, shows a cluster of people living in a particular area due to the labor market. Overall non-Hispanic men had an advantage compared to any other group. The earning for non-Hispanic White men ($40,490) were significantly higher than the other groups followed by Cubans ($31,100), and Puerto Ricans ($26,520). The group earning the least were Mexican men ($21,670).  The article was short and was mainly focused on men. Some of the findings about women included non-Hispanic white women earn less than non-Hispanic white men. 

Marco Gomez 600 words

Marco Gomez

Word Count 600

 

African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black / White Inequality

 

            In this study the researchers are looking into a question asked that if African Americans, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites differ in their beliefs when talking about inequality between blacks and whites in the US. It also looks to see if the responses to blacks and whites change over time. The researcher uses GSS surveys to find the answer to the question.

            Methods used in this study was gathered from a General Social Survey (GSS) dated 1977-2004. They targeted English-speaking adults 18 years and older living in non-institutionalized settings within the United States. The sample size collect was about 1,500 until 1994, then increased to 3,000 when the GSS became biennial. The dependent variables asked if on the average, blacks have worse jobs, income, and housing than white people. Do you think these differences are because of: A. discrimination, B. Black less in-born ability to learn, C. Because most blacks don't have the chance for education or D. Because most blacks just don't have the motivation. The Independent variables used were Race, Gender, Class, Region, and Fund.

Findings showed that those who responded to B and D were considered "self-centered", If they answered A and C they were "structuralist". The findings showed that there was an increase over time in the answer of "none of the above". For reason being that people don't believe that inequality exist as much anymore. The findings also show that the percentages of whites and blacks regarding discrimination are almost equal. The reasoning is because it shows that blacks are starting to blame the individual. Blacks are still most likely blame discrimination, whites are still more likely to blame motivation and Hispanics are in between. In the end the author states this change is because people are starting to become more conservatives when dealing with inequality.

 

The Mark of a Criminal

            In this article the researcher looks into the effect a criminal record has on people's chances of landing a job. They also take it one step further and look into how race plays a part in the process. Using black and white as their main focus in race, they present an experimental study where they match 2 individuals of each race and have them apply to real entry level jobs. As the experiment unfolds they find that the criminal record does affect their chances but also race does play a significant role in the process.

 

            Methods used in the study were 2 black and 2 white males called testers. They paired them by same race and added a fake criminal record to one and the other had a clean record. The testers were 23 yr. old college students that lived-in Milwaukee. The testers alternated the criminal record with each other when applying to different jobs. The jobs were entry level jobs that were selected from the Milwaukee journal sentinel newspaper.  One member of the pair would apply first, the other would apply a day later. Total 350 employers were used. 150 by the white pair and 200 for the black pair. The jobs applied to consisted of restaurant workers, laborers, warehouse, production workers, operators, customer service, sales, clerical, and managerial positions.

 

Findings showed that only 75% of employers investigated employee criminal history. 27% of employers said to perform background checks. The data collected showed that the black men received 5% call back with criminal record and 17% without. The white men received 14% call back with a criminal record and 34% without. In the end, we clearly see that race plays a big factor in this because the employers are willing to hire a white criminal over a black non-criminal. 

Kamaldeep Kaur

Kamaldeep Kaur- 596

Child poverty during the years of the great recession: An analysis of racial differences among immigrants and US natives- Thomas, Kevin J

Within this article the dependent variable or what is trying to be explained includes:

• Racial differences during recession

• Child poverty rate

• Demographic consequences of recessions

• Disparities amongst native born and immigrant children within recession

The independent variables were examined with state-level fixed-effects models in order to differentiate various levels of impact amongst each state and the method used to test the variables included a study of combined data through 11 years from the US American Community Survey. Within the analysis, recession states were defined by a negative GDP growth rate during the recession period of 2008 and 2009. The analysis was restricted to households with children under the age of 18 and categorized as immigrant or native born depending on the parents born status identification. The independent variable which is used to explain the variation of demographic consequences of recession for various children in the United States includes:

• State poverty rate

• Household heads Has post-secondary schooling

• Speaks English well

• Family size

• Single-parent

• Parent identification

The findings showed that throughout the years of 2000-2011, consistent poverty disadvantage prevailed for children of foreign-born parents than those native born. Since an upward trend in poverty trend was significant throughout the years 2007-2011, this can be considered the recession period used to test these measures. Racial disparities can be seen by the various groups for the highest poverty rates amongst those who were native born are those of Black households. The models specifically show that children of immigrant parents showed highest rates of poverty from Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, and Whites with the least of all groups. Moreover, the highest change in rate of the years 2008-2011 was highest for Black households than any other racial group. The data also shows that children that had the highest risk of poverty were of states with the deepest concentration of recession and included immigrant households.

Wealth Inequality Among Immigrants: Consistent Racial/Ethnic Inequality in the United States- Matthew A. Painter

Within this article the dependent variable or what is trying to be explained includes:

• Wealth inequality

• racial/ethnic inequality

The independent variables are tested using data from the survey of income and program participation and quantile regression of a panel from 2001 through 2004. Within the SIPP the information was measured by asset and debt holding amongst various groups in the U.S in order to account for the median wealth value. The independent variables includes:

• immigrant status

• U.S. education

• English language proficiency

• Time spent in U.S

Findings showed a median net worth value of $66,915 with Whites having the highest median value of $92,917 while Blacks had the lowest net worth median value of $8425. Moreover, wealth contrast is significant of Asians and Whites in comparison to Latino and Black groups. Model four contains a tremendous amount of controls and yet shows significant amount of racial disparities. It shows that Latino and Asian groups have an average of $17,000 less wealth than Whites. Blacks are at the bottom of the model's data with having an average of $39,411 less wealth than Whites within the United States. Gaps in wealth can also be resulted from having a U.S education from a foreign education with  a higher median value of $17,132 as well as having a higher English proficiency is advantageous. Ultimately, the results show that racial/ethnic inequality is significant of immigrants in comparison to Whites and reveal the U.S experience includes a high median wealth inequality for Whites than Latinos and Blacks. In such, those of higher U.S education and native birth lead to higher wealth while immigrants of lower proficiency of English leads to lower wealth.

Carmen Esqueda

Inequality Between Blacks and Whites

A research study was done using the General Social Survey.  The studies were done over 27 years dated back to 1977 up to 2004 including 3,000 participants.  The dependent variables is the topic at hand are blacks at a disadvantage in life and what are the reasons such as discrimination, no ambition, lack learning skills.  According to the results 26.2% whites believe blacks are at a disadvantage due to lack of learning skills, but declined to 10.3% by 2004.  15.8% blacks believed they have lack of skills, but that declined to 13.9% by 2004.  As for having no ambitions 66.2% whites agreed, but it declined to 50.0%, blacks 35.9%, but declined to 44.9%, Hispanics agreed at 55.7%, but declined to 50.6%.  The main problem that I feel is the problem to inequality is discrimination.  Whites agreed at 40.9%, but declined to 31.0% by 2004, blacks are the highest with a percentage rate of 76.6% declining to 60.7% by 2004.  Hispanics rated sort of high on agreement rated at 60.6%, but declined to 40.7% by 2004.  The decline among the blacks is because some blacks consider themselves middle class conservatives separate from the black working class.  In addition, they do not feel sorry for themselves, they believe there are resources regardless of being poor.  Therefore, they do not believe discrimination plays a huge role in inequality. 

A second research study was conducted to compare happiness levels among blacks and whites happiness topics that included marital happiness, and financial satisfaction.  The sample size is 36,069 between the years of 1972 to 2008.  Majority of the sample size is white at 77.5%, blacks 13.6% and non-white is 8.9%.  The results indicated a significant relationship between blacks and whites.  Blacks rated low compared to whites on all the happiness scales.  Blacks rated at 65% less than whites to be less happy with their marriage.  The results were not always high percentages the scale fluctuated back and forth over the years.  However, one variable that was measured stays the same no matter what over the years.  That variable is level of trust blacks rated the highest compared to whites.  In any event, due to the quality of life space between blacks and whites the differences in happiness decline over time.

 

Articles:

African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004

Race, Ethnicity and the Quality of Life in America, 1972-2008 

Kristopher Havlik - 109674454 Soc111 Kubal

            Kristopher Havlik

556 Words

            In the article, "African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004," Matthew O. Hunt utilizes General Social Surveys to explain how different races in the United States form an opinion of the Black and White Socio Economic Status divide. He uses these surveys from the years of 1977-2004 to show the different patterns of how each race has changed their opinions over time. Hunt explains that the belief about inequality and the reality of it are two separate entities and he goes on to show that as inequality has changed in the United States, so to has peoples perceptions about that SES divide between Blacks and Whites. The dependent variables in the studies were the reasoning of why people believe there is inequality and why there is such a huge divide in Black and White SES. The independent variable is race and ethnicity. The difference in opinion lies with what someone's race is, their education, their age, gender, and in what area of the country that they reside. Older generations and women were more likely to think that the issue with inequality and the divide in SES was because of the structure that the government has in place. While younger generations, as well as men, believe that they reason for inequality and the divide between Black and White SES is because of a lack of motivation by the individual. Meaning that the only reason that a Black individual cannot be more successful and overcome adversity is because of their own lacking abilities or because they are lazy. As time passes, more races are starting to come to the conclusion that the reason for inequality and a divide in SES is not because of the government structure, but because of the individual's lack of ability and unwillingness to succeed.

            In the article, "Skin Tone, Race/Ethnicity, and Wealth Inequality Among New Immigrants," the authors explain that immigrants often face disadvantages when they come to America. More often than not, the immigrants are not discriminated against because of where they came from or who they are as a person, but because of their skin tone. The authors used four different hypotheses for why they believe that immigrants often face inequality in the United States. The first was an idea that is called the preference for whiteness hypothesis. This is a hypothesis that explains that people in the United States believe that people with a skin tone that is white, are more liked and accepted by society. The authors even go on to say that this is idea has been in place since the times of slavery. The second idea that the authors use is the duel influence of skin tone and racial ethnic status for immigrants' financial well-being. This idea explains that people of color, or with a darker complexion, are often thought to be in a lower socio economic class than that of their white counterparts. The third idea that the authors use to explain their theory is specific comparisons of different racial groups including Asians, Blacks, Latinos, and Whites. Their reasoning for doing this was to further examine the differences in inequality between each racial group. The last idea that the authors used was to examine immigrants' financial well-being and including their wealth and investments. This was to show the difference in wealth between different racial groups based on skin tone. The authors used different ways of explaining this gap between races because of skin tone.

inequality quiz

TITLE: African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004

AUTHOR: Matthew O. Hunt

WORD COUNT: 594

 

      This research was done with the intent to answer three questions, (1) have whites views of B/W SES gap changed? (2) What are the patterns in Hispanics views of the gap (3) Do beliefs about the gap differ depending on race/ethnicity?

 

      Data from the 1977-2004 General social survey (GSS) was used to determine differences regarding the explanations for the gap in Black and White Social Economic Statuses (B/W SES). The GSS surveys were crafted to obtain a representative sample of 18 and older U.S.A residents.

 

      Response rates were between 74-82%. Wording in survey questions changed but has been refined to allow quality across-survey analysis. Hunt uses a coding scheme that allows for him to form a sample of Hispanics by utilizing demographic questions that verified if respondents' ancestors were from countries of Hispanic origin. Sample was a total of 16,397; 13,517 Whites, 2,022 blacks and 858 Hispanics.

 

      Explanations are categorized as being (1) "structural" or (2) person-centered. Structural explanation explains inequality as a result of societal structure, meanwhile, the other views inequality as a result of individuals' personal qualities. Hunt makes a distinction between two types of the person-centered explanation. One is "traditional individualism" including the view that blacks are innately inferior. The other, "motivational individualism", which explains inequality due to lack of will by blacks. Hunt focuses one question. Answers B&D are "person centered". A&C are structural.

      Results confirmed that some respondents' indicate a "compromise explanation"; they held both person-centered and structural explanations. Blacks were more likely to explain due to discrimination than others. Whites views have changed; there was a decline in use of  "traditional individualism" view and an increase in purely motivational and educational view. Blacks and Hispanics showed an increase in the motivational view and a decline in the structural view.

 

 

TITLE: Income Inequality and Social Dysfunction

AUTHORS: Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate E. Pickett.

 

            Evidence from a number of studies show that population health and social problems are worse in societies where income is less equal. Data from multiple studies is combined in order to measure the differences in health between societies with high and low-income inequality.

International comparisons and a comparison of the 50 U.S. states are included in the data.  Out of 38 variables, 29 showed to be remarkably worse in societies with greater inequality. Smoking, suicide, alcohol abuse and property crime didn't show a relationship with inequality. Adult mental illness was related to inequality internationally but only mental illness in children and women was found to relate to inequality between the 50 states.

            Almost all variables that did not show relation to inequality were determined not "socially gradient" in some way or another. However, they could not explain the lack of relationship with smoking.

            They examined other possible influences for the results such as the roles of individual income, the relationship between status and stress and size of areas.

In the U.S. 50 states, all measures, illustrated a tendency for worse population health to be associated with greater income inequality with correlation coefficients from 0.4-0.9. This shows that, it is inequality not individual incomes, which affect population health. They explore that it could be social positions and stress. Greater inequality may increase physiological and psychosocial stresses that accompany having an inferior status.

            In the end several conclusions were made, one was that health and social problems related to inequality are usually those with social gradients. Two others were that the importance of status differences could explain the relationship and that social dysfunction affected entire societies not just the poor. They made a prediction that future research should include research that connects psychosocial processes to social problems related to SES inequality. 

Shelby Nava

In the article, "The role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White health inequalities across the life course: Point-in-time measures, long-term exposures, and differential health returns" the study uses the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to conduct the discrepancies in income between whites and blacks, and how this affects their health. This study included data over several years, ranging from 1984 to 2007, about information regarding wealth and health between Blacks and Whites over an extended period. By using multilevel growth curve models to determine socioeconomic well-being over time, this study shows that there is a huge gap between Blacks and Whites in two important factors that show the well-being of an individual: body mass index and self-rated health.  This is because of the lack of equality in healthcare availability and income differences. Those with more money and access, typically Whites and non-minority groups, have less money to keep up with healthy habits and less access to affordable healthcare.

            In this next article "Going Back in Time?", the data was taken from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from the years 1970 through 2010. The analysis focuses on comparing the pay gap between blacks and whites so all other races were excluded from the analysis. Variables used were level of education, potential work experience, marital status, number of children, nativity status (whether they were foreign born), what region they lived in, and occupation. In this analysis they measured discrimination by the unexplained gap in wage after controlling these wage-related variables.  The data used to explain the gap with discrimination could overestimate as well as underestimate the amount of discrimination there is in wages. This could overestimate the amount of discrimination because it does not control for every factor of wages that may have another explanation. The unexplained gap could also be unequal distribution of whites and blacks in more detailed occupational categories or differing fields of study. Using the unexplained gap could also be underestimating the amount of discrimination. This is because when looking at the variables that they did in this analysis like education and occupations they do not consider for the discrimination that could have been faced in educational institutions, jobs that might require different amounts of work, or less desirable jobs. The first thing that they did in this study was comparing explained and unexplained gaps in wages by each decade separated by men and women. They found that in 1970, on average, a white man's weekly earnings were more than double those of black women and almost 150% those of black men. In the 1970s the racial gap declined by a lot because both black men and women's wages increased dramatically (by 15 and 23%) and the earnings of white men and women remained the same. Among women the gap was gone by the 1980s. Similar wages among black and white women remained through the 1980s and 90s because both groups earnings were rising at a similar pace. The wage gap is much larger between black and white men. Consistently black men are targeted by economic discrimination, and the wage gap shows this.

The role of socioeconomic factors in Black-White health inequities across the life course: Point-in-time measures, long-term exposures, and differential health returns

Going Back in Time? Gender Differences in Trends and Sources of the Racial Pay Gap, 1970 to 2010

Maida Sepulveda

Maida Sepulveda

501

 

In the article "African American, Hispanic and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality" the author Matthew O. Hunt set forth to review whether African Americans, Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites (who I will refer to from here on as whites) had different explanations on the divide of the socioeconomic status between African Americans and Whites.  He also reviewed whether their opinions had changed over time.  In order to gather his own data for his specific questions, he used the data that the GSS collected from 1977 to 2004.  He was able to use the variable ETHIC from the GSS to further code the ethnicity of the respondent.  Due to the fact that not every year has the same questions on the survey he was limited to the years that asked about the individuals' beliefs about why they felt on average blacks had worse housing, income and jobs.  They also offered possible reasons for it to which the individual taking the survey would have to respond yes or no.  From that they would code the responses.  The years that he was able to use were 1977, 1985-1986, 1988-1991, 1993-1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004.  What he was able to find through all of the coding was that there was a decline for the racist beliefs among the Whites in the 1990's into the early 2000's.  Also during that time period Whites slowly increased the belief of the Education-only.  They also showed support for the Discrimination mode.  Both African Americans and Hispanics also showed that they believed, in an increasing amount, in the motivational individualism.  They did however show a decrease in their belief that it was purely structuralism.  He found that Hispanics have similar beliefs to African Americans.

 

In the article "The Race Discrimination System" the author argued that discrimination produces some of the race-linked disparities.  The Race-linked disparities that she touched on were segregation in residential areas and therefore resulting in school also.  Education because the schools that are predominately black don't have the same resources that other "white schools" have.  The labor market, it's present in all areas of labor market.  The mortgage markets and therefore housing, blacks are less likely to own their own home and those who do qualify can and usually are steered into a black neighborhood.  The credit market because on average a black individual is paying higher APR's and interest on purchases such as a car loan.  Health services because blacks don't have the access to health care as whites do.  Lastly the criminal justice system and the discipline that comes from it, there are harsher punishments that are inflicted on blacks than on a white individual with the same crime.  The author's objective was to offer starting points for students studying racial inequality by offering 4 strategies to eliminate the disparities that are race based.  They were: 1.  Have an exogenous force that acts on every sub-system, 2.  Act on leverage points, 3.  Remove institutions from the discrimination system, 4.  Increase accountability, reducing discretion.

Zachary Riggins

Zachary Riggins 

599 words 

Examining Two Articles on Income Inequality 

In the article African American, Hispanic, and White Beliefs about Black/White Inequality, 1977-2004, data was gathered from the General Social Survey between 1977 to 2004. Unlike previous research, a coding scheme was employed to distinguish between three groups (whites, blacks, and Hispanics) instead of two (blacks and non-blacks). The idea of this approach was to better understand opinions of the growing Hispanic population within the United States concerning white/black inequality. The dependent variable included an item on the survey scoring beliefs about inequality twofold: structuralist (discrimination and education) and person-centered (ability and motivation). Independent variables are standard of social research including: race, education, social class, age, gender, location, and ideology. Declines were measured in both person-centered scores among whites from 1990 to 2000. The decline in motivation score among whites however was unexpected considering the steady support from 1980 to 1990. There was a substantial increase among whites opting out of all four options, tripling the "none" category since the 1980's. There has been a decline in scores of all four items in blacks and Hispanics as well, excluding the score increase among blacks regarding motivation. Whites showed larger declines in person-centered scores whereas black/Hispanic in structuralist. In fact black/Hispanic opinion of structuralist reasons for black disadvantage became more similar to whites'. One interesting find regarding gender is that white females are less supportive of motivation as a cause for income inequality and instead more supportive of discrimination being a cause—white males score the opposite. 

The article Segregation by race and income in the United States 1970-2010 examines structural disadvantage of blacks through income and location of residence (coined together as residential segregation). Data was gathered from Brown University's Longitudinal Tract Database from 1970 to 2010. The number of people gathered each year by tract through the U.S. Census Bureau averages at about 4000. This study was focused on Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs). It divides income within these MSAs into fifths (from lowest to highest). Various measures were taken into account in order to further pinpoint race-to-income relations, such as a P* index within the multivariate formula to clarify interaction between race and poor or wealthy. They found that overall black-white residential segregation has lowered since 1970, but Hispanic-white and Asian-white showed no significant difference and even perhaps slight increases in certain MSAs. It seems higher income within already-segregated neighborhoods means lower white interaction by minorities. What this means is that certain races pooled into areas around those with higher incomes of the same race, thus furthering some segregation we see today. This trend is strongest among Asian Americans compared to blacks or Hispanics. However in cases where the higher income minorities have more residential mobility, they end up having more interaction with whites and less with poor people in general. Considering all the data, this trend has seen a slow increase in general since 1970. 

Perhaps the change in public opinion from the first article is reflected by the trends seen in the second article? Over the past few decades we have seen slow-but-steady increase in residential mobility of more affluent minorities. It would be remiss to not point out possible ties between how whites have withdrawn from person-centered views on income inequality and the general slow increase in white-minority interaction regarding income within MSAs. If we hearken back to the homelessness literature review, this could fall under contact hypothesis. Such an increase of interaction, as a form of contact, might be swaying white opinion away from person-centered views on income inequality. They become less likely to believe in traditionally-racist values passed down from previous generations barring certain propensities such as location (South America tends to be more favorable of person-centered views on income inequality).