Being Poor, Black, and American: the Impact of Political, Economic, And

Being Poor, Black, and American The Impact of Political, Economic, and Cultural Forces

When schools and communities are struggling, some students give up—but others get active. Critical Exposure helps by teaching advocacy through documentary photography. Students in neglected and crumbling schools across the country took the photos on pages 10–23. For more, go to www.criticalexposure.org.

By William Julius Wilson fall beneath the federally designated poverty line), little or no discussion of inner- hrough the second half of the city challenges by mainstream political stayed to wait out the storm with tragic 1990s and into the early years of leaders, and even an apparent quiescence results. And through Katrina, the nation’s the 21st century, public attention on the part of ghetto residents themselves. attention became riveted on these poor to the plight of poor black Ameri- This was dramatically different from the urban neighborhoods. Tcans seemed to wane. There was scant 1960s, when the transition from legal seg- If television cameras had focused on the media attention to the problem of concen- regation to a more racially open society urban poor in New Orleans, or in any trated urban poverty (neighborhoods in was punctuated by social unrest that some- inner-city ghetto, before Katrina, I believe which a high percentage of the residents times expressed itself in violent terms, as the initial reaction to descriptions of pov- seen in the riots that followed the assassi- erty and poverty concentration would have nation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. been unsympathetic. Public opinion polls William Julius Wilson is the Lewis P. and Linda But in 2005, Hurricane Katrina exposed in the United States routinely reflect the L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard Uni- versity. He is a former MacArthur Fellow, a concentrated poverty in New Orleans. notion that people are poor and jobless National Medal of Science winner, a former When television cameras focused on the because of their own shortcomings or president of the American Sociological Associa- flooding, the people trapped in houses and inadequacies. In other words, few people tion, and the author of several award-winning apartments, and the vast devastation, would have reflected on how the larger books. His most recent book is More Than Just many Americans were shocked to see the forces in society—including segregation, Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. Portions of this article are adapted from two of squalid living conditions of the poor. Of discrimination, a lack of economic oppor- Wilson’s recent articles: “The Political and Eco- course, the devastation of Katrina was tunity, and failing public schools— nomic Forces Shaping Concentrated Poverty,” broadly visited upon the residents of New adversely affect the inner-city poor. published in Political Science Quarterly (Vol- Orleans, black and white, rich and poor, However, because Katrina was clearly a ume 123, Number 4, Winter 2008–2009), and property owner and public housing tenant natural disaster that was beyond the con- “Toward a Framework for Understanding Forces That Contribute to or Reinforce Racial alike. But while many residents were able trol of the inner-city poor, Americans were Inequality,” published in Race and Social Prob- to flee, the very poor, lacking automobiles much more sympathetic. In a sense, lems (Volume 1, Number 1, March 2009). or money for transportation and lodging, Katrina turned out to be something of a

10 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 cruel natural experiment, wherein borhoods, which have the better-off Americans could readily see highest levels of concentrated the effects of racial isolation and poverty. I conclude this article chronic economic subordination. by suggesting a new agenda for Despite the lack of national public America’s ghetto poor, based on awareness of the problems of the the analysis I put forth in the fol- urban poor prior to Katrina, social lowing sections. scientists have rightly devoted considerable attention to Political Forces Since 1934, with the establish- ment of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a program necessitated by the massive mortgage foreclosures during the Great and dysfunctional schools. Depression, the U.S. government Neighborhoods of highly has sought to enable citizens to become concentrated poverty are homeowners by underwriting mortgages. seen as dangerous, and In the years following World War II, how- therefore they become ever, the federal government contributed isolated, socially and eco- to the early decay of inner-city neighbor- nomically, as people go hoods by withholding mortgage capital out of their way to avoid and making it difficult for these areas to them.1 retain or attract families who were able to In this article, I provide a political, eco- purchase their own homes. The FHA selec- concentrated poverty, because it magni- nomic, and cultural framework for under- tively administered the mortgage program fies the problems associated with poverty standing the emergence and persistence of by formalizing a process that excluded in general: joblessness, crime, delin- concentrated urban poverty. I pay particu- certain urban neighborhoods using quency, drug trafficking, broken families, lar attention to poor inner-city black neigh- empirical data that suggested a probable

A Call for Change “The nation’s young black males are in a state of crisis. They Calling for Change in the Infant Mortality Rate do not have the same opportunities as their male or female In 2007, the infant mortality rate for black mothers counterparts across the country. Their infant mortality rates was more than twice as high as for white mothers. are higher, and their access to health care is more limited. They are more likely to live in single-parent homes and less 15 likely to participate in early childcare programs. They are Black Mothers less likely to be raised in a household with a fully employed 13 White Mothers adult, and they are more likely to live in poverty. As adults, black males are less likely than their peers to be employed. At almost every juncture, the odds are stacked against these young men in ways that result in too much unfulfilled potential and too many fractured lives.” 10 –Michael Casserly The Council of the Great City Schools

In October 2010, the Council of the Great City Schools published A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to 6 the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools, in which it compiled data ranging from infant mortality rates to 5 adult earnings to show the enormous challenges facing America’s black children— especially black boys. Throughout this special section, we have reproduced a handful of Infant Mortalities per 1,000 Live Births the report’s dozens of charts. We encourage you to read the full report, which is 0 available online at www.cgcs.org/ 2007 publications/achievement.aspx. SOURCE: A CALL FOR CHANGE, FIGURE 1.1 (DATA FROM THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE –EDITORS CONTROL AND PREVENTION, NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS).

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 11 1956 to route expressways system essentially followed the boundaries through impoverished Afri- that had been established in 1926 as part of can American neighbor- the city’s racial zoning law, although these hoods, resulting in even boundaries were technically removed a greater segregation and iso- few years before the highway construction lation.4 A lasting legacy of began in 1956.6 that policy is the 14-lane Dan At the same time, government policies Ryan Expressway, which cre- such as mortgages for veterans and mort- ated a barrier between black gage interest tax exemptions for developers and white neighborhoods.5 enabled the quick, cheap production of A n o t h e r massive amounts of tract housing7 and particularly drew middle-class whites into the sub- e g r e g i o u s urbs.8 A classic example of this effect of loss of investment in these example of housing market incentives is the mass- areas. “Redlining,” as it came the deleteri- produced suburban Levittown neighbor- to be known, was assessed ous effects of hoods that were first erected in New York, largely on racial composition. highway con- and later in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Although many neighbor- struction is Puerto Rico. The homes in these neighborhoods with a considerable Birmingham, hoods were manufactured on a large scale, number of European immi- A l a b a m a ’ s using an assembly line model of produc- grants were redlined, virtu- interstate high- tion, and were arranged in carefully engi- ally all black neighborhoods way system, neered suburban neighborhoods that were excluded. Homebuyers which curved included many public amenities, such as hoping to purchase a home and twisted to shopping centers and space for public in a redlined neighborhood were univer- bisect several schools. These neighborhoods represented sally denied mortgages, regardless of their black neighborhoods rather than taking a an ideal alternative for people who were financial qualifications. This severely more direct route through some predomi- seeking to escape cramped city apart- restricted opportunities for building or nantly white neighborhoods. The highway ments, and were often touted as “utopian even maintaining quality housing in the inner city, which in many ways set the stage for the urban blight that many Amer- Calling for Change in the Child Poverty Rate icans now associate with black neighbor- In 2007, 34 percent of black children under age 18 lived in poverty, compared hoods. This action was clearly motivated with 10 percent of white children and 27 percent of Hispanic children. by racial bias, and it was not until the 1960s that the FHA discontinued mortgage restrictions based on the racial composi- 35 34% tion of the neighborhood.2 Subsequent policy decisions worked to 30 trap blacks in these increasingly unattract- 27% ive inner cities. Beginning in the 1950s, the suburbanization of the middle class, 25 already under way with government- subsidized loans to veterans, was aided 20 further by federal transportation and highway policies that included the building of freeway networks through the hearts of 15 many cities, which had a devastating impact on the neighborhoods of black 11% Percent of Children Percent 10% Americans. These developments not only 10 spurred relocation from the cities to the suburbs among better-off residents, the 5 freeways themselves also “created barriers between the sections of the cities, walling off poor and minority neighborhoods from 0 central business districts.”3 For instance, a White Black Hispanic Asian number of studies have revealed how Race/Ethnicity of Children Richard J. Daley, the former mayor of Chi- SOURCE: A CALL FOR CHANGE, FIGURE 1.9 (DATA FROM KIDSCOUNT; POPULATION REFERENCE BUREAU, cago, used the Interstate Highway Act of ANALYSIS OF DATA FROM THE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, 2008 AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY).

12 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 communities” that enabled people to live policies clearly had racial connotations, urban slums, and therefore was seemingly out the “suburban dream.” Veterans were they also reflected class bias and helped nonracial. However, the public housing able to purchase a Levittown home for a reinforce the exodus of white working- that it created “was now meant to collect few thousand dollars with no money down, class and middle-class families from urban the ghetto residents left homeless by the financed with low-interest mortgages guar- neighborhoods and the growing segrega- urban renewal bulldozers.”11 A new, lower anteed by the Veterans Administration. tion of low-income blacks in inner- income ceiling for public housing resi- However, the Levitts would not initially sell city neighborhoods. to African Americans. The first black family Federal public housing policy con- moved into Levittown, New York, in 1957, tributed to the gradual growth of having purchased a home from a white segregated black ghettos as well. The family,9 and they endured harassment, federal public housing program’s hate mail, and threats for several months policies evolved in two stages that after moving in. Levittown, New York, represented two distinct styles. The remains a predominantly white commu- Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937 nity today. Here, once again, we have a initiated the first stage. Concerned practice that denied African Americans the that the construction of public hous- opportunity to move from segregated ing might depress private rent levels, inner-city neighborhoods. groups such as the U.S. Building and Explicit racial policies in the suburbs Loan League and the National reinforced this segregation by allowing suburbs to separate their financial resources and municipal budgets from those of the cities. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, strong dency was established by the municipal services in cities were Federal Public Housing very attractive to residents of small Authority, and families with towns and suburbs; as a result, cit- incomes above that ceiling ies tended to annex suburbs and were evicted, thereby surrounding areas. But the relations restricting access to public between cities and suburbs in the housing to only the most United States began to change fol- economically disadvan- lowing the Great Depression; the taged segments of the centurylong influx of poor migrants population. who required expensive services and This change in federal paid relatively little in taxes could no housing policy coincided longer be profitably absorbed into the with the Second Great Migration* city economy. Annexation largely of African Americans from the rural South ended in the mid-20th century as sub- Association of Real Estate Boards success- to the cities of the Northeast and Midwest, urbs began to successfully resist incorpora- fully lobbied Congress to require, by law, which lasted 30 years—from 1940 to 1970. tion. Suburban communities also drew that for each new unit of public housing As the black urban population in the North tighter boundaries through the use of zon- erected, one “unsafe or unsanitary” unit of grew, pressure mounted in white commu- ing laws, discriminatory land-use controls, public housing must be destroyed. nities to keep blacks out. Suburban com- and site selection practices that made it dif- The early years of the public housing munities, with their restrictive covenants ficult for inner-city racial minorities to program produced positive results. Ini- and special zoning laws, refused to permit access these areas because these practices tially, the program mainly served intact the construction of public housing. And were effectively used to screen out residents families temporarily displaced by the the federal government acquiesced to on the basis of race. Depression or in need of housing after the opposition to the construction of public As separate political jurisdictions, sub- end of World War II. For many of these housing in the neighborhoods of organized urbs also exercised a great deal of auton- families, public housing was the first step white groups in the city. Thus, units were omy through covenants and deed on the road toward economic recovery. overwhelmingly concentrated in the over- restrictions. In the face of mounting pres- Their stays in the projects were relatively crowded and deteriorating inner-city ghet- sure for integration in the 1960s, “suburbs brief because they were able to accumulate tos—the poorest and least-powerful chose to diversify by race rather than class. sufficient economic resources to move on

They retained zoning and other restrictions to private housing. *This mass movement of African Americans was even that allowed only affluent blacks (and in The passage of the Housing Act of 1949 larger and more sustained than the First Great some instances Jews) to enter, thereby marked the beginning of the second policy Migration, which began at the turn of the 20th century and ended during the Great Depression, and had a intensifying the concentration and isola- stage. It instituted and funded the urban more profound impact on the transformation of the tion of the urban poor.”10 Although these renewal program, designed to eradicate inner city.

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 13 sections of cities and metro- local public works, compensatory politan areas. In short, pub- education, public service jobs, lic housing became a and job training. Many of these federally funded institution programs were designed to help that isolated families by race disadvantaged individuals gain and class, resulting in high some traction in attaining finan- concentrations of poor black cial security.14 It is telling that the families in inner-city federal contribution was 17.5 ghettos.12 percent of the total city budgets In the last quarter of the in 1977, but only 5.4 percent by 20th century, one of the most significant changes in these neighborhoods was the out- migration of middle-income blacks. Before the 1970s, Afri- can American families faced neighborhoods throughout extremely strong barriers when they con- metropolitan areas, including sidered moving into white neighborhoods. white neighborhoods.13 Not only did many experience overt dis- In addition, beginning in crimination in the housing market, some 1980, when Ronald Reagan were violently attacked. Although even became president, sharp today fair-housing audits continue to spending cuts in direct aid to reveal the existence of discrimination in cities dramatically reduced the housing market, fair-housing legisla- budgets for general revenue tion has reduced the strength of these bar- sharing (unrestricted funds riers. At the same time, middle-income that can be used for any pur- African Americans have increased their pose), urban mass transit, economic devel- 2000.15 These cuts were particularly acute for efforts to move from areas with concen- opment assistance, urban development older cities in the East and Midwest that trated black poverty to more desirable action grants, social service block grants, largely depended on federal and state aid to

Demanding and Supporting Success Collective Memories of Great Teaching

BY CHARLES M. PAYNE of dedicated, rooted-in-the-community That said, there is still something educator around whom current nostalgia about the education they received under However ironic it may seem, there is centers. The other is craven, incompetent, these circumstances that many Black considerable nostalgia just now among a servant of the white power structure, as adults now wish they could give to their many Black Americans for the kind of corrupt as the day is long, stealing funds own children, and it clearly has to do education they had during the good old that should have been going to the largely with how they experienced days of legal white supremacy. Nostalgia children. The current longing for the teaching. Nostalgia should not be is necessarily selective. The first chapter of good old days forgets the second type of confused with history, but collective Simple Justice, a history of Brown v. Board Black educator—the people W. E. B. Du memories tell us much about how people of Education by social historian Richard Bois called “ignorant placeholders.”1 understand the limits and possibilities in Kluger, draws portraits of two South Today’s nostalgia also forgets that, at their environment, about what they think Carolina Black principals. One is the kind times and places, the sheer lack of made a difference for them, and that can resources must have overwhelmed good serve as the basis for hypothesizing, at Charles M. Payne is the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished intent. The South, through the first half least, about how teaching matters. Service Professor in the School of Social Service of the 20th century, generally spent on Vanessa Siddle Walker’s rich and Administration at the University of Chicago, and the education of Black children about evocative portrait of North Carolina’s author of numerous books and articles. He was a one-third what it spent on whites. Some Casswell County Training School reflects founder of the Duke Curriculum Project, the John schools were theaters of class antago- the themes one typically finds in these Hope Franklin Scholars, and the Education for nisms, and in others the kind of treat- discussions.3 Walker, a historian of African Liberation Network, as well as the founding director of the Urban Education Project in Orange, New Jersey. ment children got could depend on their American education, sees the school as an This article is adapted with permission from his most complexion; many used a level of physical example of institutionalized caring, recent book, So Much Reform, So Little Change, discipline that is discomfiting to read caring that went beyond how any one published in 2008 by Harvard Education Press. about, even now.2 individual felt about any other individual,

14 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 Calling for Change in the Achievement Gaps In 2009, among fourth-graders, the gaps between the percentage of black boys in large cities scoring at or above proficient and the percentage of white boys in public schools across the nation scoring at or above proficient were 27 percentage points in reading and 39 percentage points in math.

38%

Reading 11% from Mexico—and whites steadily moving to the suburbs. With minorities displacing whites as a growing 53% share of the population, the implications for the urban tax base were profound. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 14% White Males Nationally

Mathematics Black Males in Large Cities 2000, the median annual household income of Latinos was about $14,000 less than that of whites. With a declining tax 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 base and the simultaneous loss of federal Percent Performing At or Above Pro cient funds, municipalities had trouble raising NOTE: LARGE CITIES DATA INCLUDE STUDENTS FROM ALL CITIES IN THE NATION WITH POPULATIONS OF 250,000 OR MORE. enough revenue to cover basic services NATIONAL DATA INCLUDE STUDENTS ATTENDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS ACROSS THE NATION. SOURCE: A CALL FOR CHANGE, FIGURES 2.5 AND 2.23 (DATA FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL ASSESSMENT such as garbage collection, street cleaning, OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 2009 READING AND MATHEMATICS ASSESSMENTS). and police protection. Some even cut such services in order to avoid bankruptcy.16 fund social services for their poor popula- since 1980 coincided with an increase in This financial crisis left many cities ill- tion and to maintain aging infrastructure. the immigration of people from poorer equipped to handle three devastating The decline in federal support for cities countries—mainly low-skilled workers public health problems that emerged in the

caring that was reflected in high expecta- authority of the whole race behind them. academic pressure.6 Researchers with the tions and strict standards—teachers If we were to abstract a teaching Consortium on Chicago School Research “didn’t play,” would “bless you out” if model from this, we might arrive at surveyed 28,000 Chicago sixth- and they caught you wrong. There was a something like the following: eighth-graders and more than 5,000 heavy emphasis on extracurricular activity, teachers in 304 elementary and middle Authoritative-Supportive Teaching with as much as 90 percent of the student schools. To measure social support from •• High level of intellectual/academic body participating in something, as the teachers, students were asked whether demand school recognized students’ need to their English and math teachers: •• High level of social demand “learn to speak, to think, to perform” as •• Holistic concern for children and their •• relate the subject to their personal well as their need for explicit moral future; sense of a larger mission interests (which, of course, implies instruction. They were, as the principal •• Strong sense of teacher efficacy and that teachers know what students are liked to say, “building men and women.”4 legitimacy interested in) Among other things, they took that to •• really listen to what they say require implicitly and explicitly challeng- Calling this model authoritative-support- •• know them very well ing notions of racial inferiority. For them, ive teaching would seem to capture its •• believe they can do well in school “Teaching could not be reduced to a job most salient aspects. If this is the kind of or an occupation; it was a mission.”5 teaching that many Black people To assess support from parents, students Teachers were seen as having a broad remember as having worked for them, is were asked how often their parents or interest in children, in their character and there any reason at all to think it would other adults in their household: in their future. Children felt pressure to transfer to contemporary inner-city •• discuss school events and/or events of succeed; whether or not they were going communities? Actually, there are several interest to the student to take school seriously was a choice that interesting lines of thinking in recent •• help with homework had been made for them by adults. They research to suggest that a model of •• discuss with them things they had felt pushed cognitively and socially. There teaching very close to this can have studied in class is some disagreement about whether unusually large positive impacts, even •• discuss homework with them teachers were warm and friendly, but an among today’s rowdy youth. overwhelming consensus that adults were One very instructive study tried to To assess social support from peers, all on the same page; teachers had the assess the impact of social support and students were asked whether most

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 15 1980s and disproportionately affected Finally, policymakers have indirectly Northeast—the traditional Rust Belt— areas of concentrated poverty: first, the contributed to concentrated poverty in where depopulated, high-poverty areas prevalence of drug trafficking and associ- inner-city neighborhoods with decisions have experienced even greater problems. ated violent crime; second, the acquired that have decreased the attractiveness of immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epi- low-paying jobs and accelerated the relative Economic Forces demic and its escalating public health decline in the wages of low-income workers. Older urban areas were once the hubs of costs; and third, the rise in the homeless In particular, in the absence of an effective economic growth and activity, and were population, including not only individuals, labor market policy, policymakers have therefore major destinations for people in but entire families as well.17 Although drug tolerated industry practices that undermine search of economic opportunity. However, addiction, drug-related violence, AIDS, worker security—including the erosion of the economies of many of these cities have and homelessness are found in many benefits and the rise of involuntary part- since been eroded by complex economic American communities, their impact on time employment. transformations and shifting patterns in the black ghetto is profound. A number of In sum, federal government policies, metropolitan development. These eco- fiscally strapped cities have watched help- even those that are not explicitly racial, nomic forces are typically considered non- lessly as these problems—aggravated by have had a profound impact on inner-city racial—in the sense that their origins are the reduction of citywide social services as neighborhoods. These impacts have been not the direct result of actions, processes, well as high levels of neighborhood job- felt in many cities across the country, but or ideologies that explicitly reflect racial lessness—have reinforced the perception they perhaps have been felt more in the bias. Nevertheless, they have accelerated that cities are dangerous places to live and older central cities of the Midwest and neighborhood decline in the inner city and have perpetuated the exodus of working- widened gaps in race and income and middle-class resi- between cities and suburbs.18 dents. Thus, while poverty and joblessness, and the social problems they gen- erate, remain prominent in ghetto neighborhoods, many cities have fewer and fewer resources with which to combat them.

students in their classes:

•• treat each other with respect •• work together to solve problems •• help each other learn were even more pronounced. While •• think it is very important that they do low-support, low-pressure students Academic pressure7 was measured by well in that class improved 0.63 GEs, high-pressure, both teacher and student reports. The •• encourage them to do extra work high-support students improved an questions asked of teachers included when they don’t understand some- eye-popping 2.39 GEs. The distribution of whether their schools: thing high-pressure, high-support schools is •• set high standards for academic This is very close to the authoritative- very much what one would expect. performance supportive model, capturing elements of Racially integrated schools are three •• organize the school day to maximize social and intellectual demand, of holistic times more likely to exhibit both student learning concern, of adults being on the same characteristics than predominantly •• focus on what is best for student page. The main message from the study minority schools; schools serving the learning when making important is that social support and academic highest-income-level students are four decisions pressure each independently make a times as likely to exhibit both aspects meaningful difference, but when both than schools serving the poorest The questions for assessing student are present at high levels, the results can students. perception of academic pressure asked be striking. In reading, children experi- These would be impressive numbers students whether their English and math encing low levels of both support and under any circumstances, but they are teachers: pressure averaged a gain of 0.56 grade even more impressive considering the •• expect them to do their best all the equivalents (GEs) a year in reading, but population under study—sixth- and time students exposed to high levels of both eighth-graders. That’s a tough crowd. By •• expect them to complete their improved 1.82 GEs, almost two years’ that age, many students have essentially homework every night growth in a year. The numbers in math given up on schools, and schools have

16 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 Since the mid-20th century, the mode of production in the United States has Calling for Change in the College and Prison Populations shifted dramatically from manufacturing In 2008, black males age 18 and older accounted for 5 percent of the to one increasingly fueled by finance, ser- college population, but 36 percent of the prison population. vices, and technology. This shift has accompanied the technological revolu- 50 tion, which has transformed traditional White Males industries and brought about changes that Black Males range from streamlined information tech- 40 36% nology to biomedical engineering.19 In the last several decades, almost all 30% 31% improvements in productivity have been 30 associated with technology and human capital, thereby drastically reducing the importance of physical capital.20 With the 20 increased globalization of economic activity, firms have spread their operations Percent of Population Percent around the world, often relocating their production facilities to developing nations 10 5% that have dramatically lower labor costs.21 These global economic transformations have adversely affected the competitive 0 position of many U.S. Rust Belt cities. For College Population Prison Population example, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, SOURCE: A CALL FOR CHANGE, FIGURE 6.8 (DATA FROM THE BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS, PRISON INMATES AT MIDYEAR, 2008; CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY 2009). Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh perform poorly on employment growth, an important traditional measure of economic 2001, yet job growth in these older central employment in many of the nation’s central performance. Nationally, employment cities did not exceed 3 percent.22 cities, most of the jobs for lower-skilled increased by 25 percent between 1991 and With the decline in manufacturing workers are now in retail and service indus-

given up on many of them. Something high schools where student-teacher trust studied Chicago’s Westside High School, like the traditional model of Black is high (taking that to be an analog for which for a very long time had been teaching—supportive but authoritative— teacher support), students average 2.3 among Chicago’s most disorganized and still seems to work for a great many percent fewer absences per term, dangerous schools.11 At various times, children. One might have expected that essentially one additional week of certain parts of the building were the sheer magnitude of the results would attendance over the school year. In virtually ceded to some of the street have attracted a great deal of attention, schools with the highest levels of gangs that infested the schools (and but this has actually been among the academic pressure, students averaged teachers in bad odor with the principal least requested of the studies done by just under two fewer absences a year.9 might find themselves regularly assigned the Chicago Consortium. At the elementary level, Ronald to hall duty in those parts of the Still, there is a growing research base Ferguson, a scholar focused on racial building). Relationships between the on various aspects of the supportive- achievement gaps, has found a relation- faculty and administration were so authoritative balance problem. For one ship between how supportive the dysfunctional that kids could often do thing, it helps us understand more experience is for children and how they pretty much what they wanted. Talking precisely the nature of African American treat one another.10 If children don’t to students who had been in more educational disadvantage. In Chicago, think the teacher both enjoys helping orderly environments, I found many who students attending predominantly them and holds them to a high stan- preferred more disciplined schools and African American schools are much less dard—what he calls a “high help/high worked harder in them, but once at likely than students in integrated schools perfectionism” classroom—their engage- Westside they found it hard not to yield to be in environments where teachers ment and behavior deteriorate, which to the temptations of being free. trust parents (about 42 percent of includes children treating one another Nonetheless, there were individual teachers in predominantly African poorly. teachers, teachers who had a “rep,” who American schools report strong trust, Clearly, we want to think of support could clear the halls almost anytime they compared with 72 percent of teachers in and demand in tandem, but my guess wanted. Many of these were black integrated schools) and are less likely to would be that demands are especially teachers and some were coaches, both be in places where teachers feel a strong important for Black students and for any groups thought to be less afraid of sense of collective responsibility.8 others who have been branded intellec- students. Another Chicago study shows that in tually inferior. More than 20 years ago, I Part of my work at Westside High

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 17 tries (for example, store cashiers, customer suburbs of many central cities, developed although entry-level workers are concen- service representatives, fast-food servers, originally as bedroom localities for com- trated in inner-city neighborhoods, 80 and custodial work). Whereas jobs in manu- muters to the central business and manu- percent of the entry-level jobs are located facturing industries typically were union- facturing districts, have become in the suburbs,27 and there is little public ized, relatively stable, and carried higher employment centers in themselves. For transportation between these neighbor- wages, those for workers with low to modest example, in Baltimore, Detroit, and Phila- hoods and jobs. levels of education in the retail and service delphia, less than 20 percent of the jobs are In addition to the challenges in learn- industries tend to provide lower wages, be now located within three miles of the city ing about and reaching jobs, there is per- unstable, and lack the benefits and worker center.25 sistent racial discrimination in hiring protections—such as workers’ health insur- Accompanying the rise of suburban and practices, especially for younger and less- ance, medical leave, retirement benefits, exurban economies has been a change in experienced minority workers.28 This and paid vacations—typically offered commuting patterns. Increasingly, workers racial factor affects black males especially through unionization. This means that completely bypass the central city by com- seriously. Today, most of the new jobs for workers relegated to low-wage service and muting from one suburb to another. “In the workers with limited education and expe- retail firms are more likely to experience Cleveland region, for example, less than rience are in the service sector, which hardships as they struggle to make ends one-third of workers commute to a job in includes jobs that tend to be held by meet. In addition, the local economy suffers the central city and over half (55 percent) women, such as waitstaff, sales clerks, and when residents have fewer dollars to spend begin and end in the suburbs.”26 nurse’s aides. Indeed, “employment rates in their neighborhoods.23 Sprawl and economic stagnation reduce of young black women now exceed those Beginning in the mid-1970s, the employ- inner-city residents’ access to meaningful of young black men, even though many of ment balance between central cities and economic opportunities and thereby fuel these women must also care for chil- suburbs shifted markedly to the suburbs. the economic decline of their neighbor- dren.”29 The shift to service jobs has Since 1980, over two-thirds of employment hoods. For example, in Cleveland, resulted in a greater growth has occurred outside the central city: manufacturing is now over 70 percent suburban, and wholesale and retail trade is just under 70 percent.24 The

School involved trying to understand how students there understood their teachers and how that shaped student behavior. Thus, among other questions, I was asking, “What would a teacher have to be like before you said, ‘That’s a really good teacher’? How can you tell if a teacher is really concerned about students learning something in the course?” In response to the “really Noguera, an education professor and concerned” question, students stressed urban sociologist, found the same two things: the really concerned teacher thinking among a group of students in works hard to make the material clear, Berkeley:12 and, less intuitively, the really concerned They look first for people who care.... teacher is demanding. Clarity meant that Second, they respect teachers who the teacher should check notebooks, are strict and hold students account- concerned teacher is demanding, they encourage questions, ask questions to able. Third, they like teachers who meant that the serious teacher will see whether students understand, and teach them something. When they make students walk the straight and provide students with some indication of found a teacher who was caring, narrow, stay on their backs about their progress. This is again a conception strict and challenging, they homework and attendance, stop them of teaching reminiscent of our authorita- responded really well [despite the from fooling around and wasting time tive-supportive model; it sees the good fact that] some of these students had in class. Students talked in some detail criminal records or missed more days teacher as aggressive, as actively making about what made them think a teacher than they attended. sure students are learning, not just was “nice,” but they clearly separated leaving it up to the students. Pedro When students at Westside said that the that from what made a teacher effec-

18 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 lifting and physical labor in a factory, at a Calling for Change in the Unemployment Rate construction site, or on an assembly line. In the second quarter of 2010, among adults age 20 and older, the unem- They did not have to interact with cus- ployment rate of black males was twice as high as that of white males. tomers. Today, they have to search for work in the service sector, and employers 20 17.3% are less likely to hire them because they have to come into contact with the public. Consequently, black male job-seekers 15 face rising rates of rejection. This may well account for the higher dropout rate and lower academic achievement of 10 8.6% black males in comparison with black females. Black males are far less likely than black females to see a strong rela-

Percent Unemployed Percent 5 tionship between their schooling and postschool employment. With the departure of higher-income 0 families, the least upwardly mobile in soci- White Males Black Males ety—mainly low-income people of color—

SOURCE: A CALL FOR CHANGE, FIGURE 6.2 (DATA FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, are left behind in neighborhoods with high U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS). concentrations of poverty and deteriorating physical conditions. These neighbor- demand for workers who can effectively the labor pool for service-sector jobs), hoods offer few jobs and typically lack serve and relate to the consumer. In an inner-city black males lack these quali- basic services and amenities, such as extensive study in Chicago that my col- ties.30 Instead, low-skilled black males are banks, grocery stores and other retail leagues and I conducted, many employers perceived as dangerous or threatening. In establishments, parks, and quality transit.31 indicated they felt that, unlike women and the past, all black men had to demonstrate Typically, these communities also suffer immigrants (who have recently expanded was a strong back and muscles for heavy from substandard schools, many with run-

tive. In fact, when it comes to misbehav- think is the best context for thinking Journal of Negro Education 4, no. 3 (1935): 328–335. ior, students thought that the teachers about this: “The task of achievement ... 2. Adam Fairclough, A Class of Their Own: Black Teachers in the Segregated South (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University who were “too nice” were going to is distinctive for African Americans Press, 2007). catch more than their share of trouble. because doing school requires that you 3. Vanessa Siddle Walker, Their Highest Potential: An African Asked to explain why they cooper- use your mind, and the ideology of the American School Community in the Segregated South (Chapel ated more with some teachers than larger society has always been about Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996). others—worked hard, paid attention in questioning the mental capacity of 4. Walker, Their Highest Potential, 204. class, came to class—about half the African Americans, about questioning 5. Walker, Their Highest Potential, 206. 13 6. Valerie E. Lee, Julia B. Smith, Tamara E. Perry, and Mark A. students said they put out the same Black intellectual competence.” Smylie, Social Support, Academic Press, and Student level of effort in all classes. The other Whatever intellectual demands mean Achievement: A View from the Middle Grades in Chicago students overwhelmingly saw them- to everyone else, they mean something (Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research, 1999). selves as working harder for those more to Black kids and other stigma- 7. Academics often refer to this as “academic press.” For further reading, see Lee et al., Social Support. teachers who were both more serious tized populations because they are in 8. John Q. Easton, presentation to senior Chicago Public about teaching and more insistent on dialogue with a different history. School staff and the Board of Education, Chicago, July 27, appropriate behavior. It was clearly the Demanding behavior, properly couched, 2006. perceived quality of teaching in welcomes you to the table; it signifies 9. Elaine Allensworth and John Q. Easton, What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools combination with demanding behavior your membership in the larger moral (Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research, 2007). that had the most impact on student and intellectual community. Like the rest 10. Nancy Walser, “Recent Research on the Achievement Gap: behavior. When demands were sepa- of us, kids may enjoy an undemanding An Interview with Ronald Ferguson on How Lifestyle Factors rated from good teaching (i.e., when and Classroom Culture Affect Black-White Differences,” environment if they can get it; once Harvard Education Letter 22, no. 6 (November/December poor teachers tried to put pressure on), they get accustomed to it, it can be a 2006). that could be interpreted as a put- real project to change their habits. At 11. Charles M. Payne, Getting What We Ask For: The down. Students may respond to the same time, they can be sophisticated Ambiguity of Success and Failure in Urban Education (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984). demanding teachers, but only if they enough to understand, at some level, 12. Pedro Noguera, “The Racial Achievement Gap: How Can have somehow legitimated their right to that it means somebody thinks they We Assure an Equity of Outcomes?” in Urban Education with be demanding. can’t do better. ☐ an Attitude, ed. Lauri Johnson, Mary E. Finn, and Rebecca Lewis (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2005), 17–18. Theresa Perry, a professor who 13. Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, and Asa Hilliard, Young, studies high achievement among African Endnotes Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement among American youth, has provided what I 1. W. E. B. Du Bois, “Does the Negro Need Separate Schools?” African-American Students (Boston: Beacon, 2003), 5.

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 19 down physical plants. Two of the most patterns of intragroup interaction in set- those that assert the biogenetic inferiority visible indicators of neighborhood decline tings created by discrimination and segre- of blacks—have declined significantly, are abandoned buildings and vacant lots. gation and that reflect collective even though they still may be embedded in According to one recent report, there are experiences within those settings. institutional norms and practices. For 60,000 abandoned and vacant properties Racism has historically been one of the example, school tracking, the practice of in Philadelphia, 40,000 in Detroit, and most prominent American cultural frames grouping students of similar capability for 26,000 in Baltimore.32 and has played a major role in determining instruction, not only tends to segregate how whites perceive and act toward blacks. African American students but often Cultural Forces At its core, racism is an ideology of racial results in placing some black students in In addition to racial and nonracial political domination with two key features: (1) lower-level classes, even though they have and economic forces, cultural forces may beliefs that one race is either biologically the cultural capital—requisite skills for also contribute to or reinforce racial or culturally inferior to another, and (2) the learning—to compete with students in inequality. Two types of cultural forces are use of such beliefs to rationalize or pre- higher-level classes.33 in play: (1) national views and beliefs on scribe the way members of the “inferior” However, there has emerged a form of race, and (2) cultural traits—shared out- race should be treated as well as to explain what some scholars refer to as “laissez faire looks, modes of behavior, traditions, belief their social position as a group and their racism,” a perception that blacks are systems, worldviews, values, skills, prefer- collective accomplishments. Today, there responsible for their own economic pre- ences, styles of self-presentation, etiquette, is no question that the more categorical dicament and therefore are undeserving of and linguistic patterns—that emerge from forms of racist ideology—in particular, special government support.34 The idea that the federal government “has a special obligation to help improve the living stan- Calling for Change in the Income Gap dards of blacks” because they “have been In 2006, black males age 18 and older earned, on average, lower incomes than white discriminated against for so long” was sup- males with similar educational backgrounds. ported by only one in five whites in 2001, and has not exceeded support by more than one in four since 1975. Significantly, $88,427 the lack of white support for this idea is not Master’s Degree related to background factors such as level $64,456 of education or age. The vast majority of social scientists agree that as a national cultural frame, rac- $69,611 ism, in its various forms, has had harmful Bachelor’s effects on African Americans as a group. Degree $50,992 Indeed, considerable research has been devoted to the effects of racism in Ameri- can society. However, there is little research $47,288 and far less awareness of the impact of Associate’s emerging cultural frames in the inner city Degree $37,452 on the social and economic outcomes of poor blacks. Note that distinct cultural frames in the inner city have not only been $39,888 shaped by race and poverty, but in turn Some College or No Degree often shape responses to poverty, includ- $31,455 ing responses that may contribute to the perpetuation of poverty. Moreover, an important research question for social High School Graduate, $35,307 scientists is the following: how much of the Including GED framing of racial beliefs at the national $25,418 level is based on the actual observed cultural traits among the inner-city poor and how much of it is the result of biased media $22,019 Not a High White Males reports and racial stereotypes? School Graduate Black Males In my own earlier work, I have discussed $17,093 at length how several factors determine the extent to which communities, as areas bounded by place, differ in outlook and Average Salary Earned behavior.35 These factors include the degree SOURCE: A CALL FOR CHANGE, FIGURE 6.6 (DATA FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, CENSUS BUREAU, CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY (CPS), OCTOBER, 1967 THROUGH 2008). to which the community is socially isolated

20 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 from the broader society; the material keep them safe in areas of high crime.38 assets or resources controlled by members Street smarts may be an adaptation to of the community; the benefits and privi- living in unsafe neighborhoods. In this leges the community members derive from environment, it is wise to avoid eye these resources; their accumulated cultural contact with strangers and keep to experiences from current as well as histori- yourself. This mindset may also lead cal, political, and economic arrangements; someone to approach new situations and the influence members of the commu- with a certain level of skepticism or nity wield because of these arrangements. mistrust. Although such an approach Culture is closely intertwined with is logical and smart in an unsafe social relations in the sense of pro- viding tools (skills, habits, and styles) and creating constraints (restrictions on behavior or out- looks) in patterns of social interaction.36 These constraints include sonal public behavior cultural frames (shared visions of and regulate violence in human behavior) developed over Philadelphia’s inner-city time through the processes of in- ghetto neighborhoods, group meaning making (shared where crime is high and views on how the world works) police protection is low. and decision making (choices that Anderson argues that the reflect shared definitions of how issue of respect is at the the world works)—for example, in root of the code. In a con- the inner-city ghetto cultural text of limited opportuni- frames define issues of trust/ ties for success, some street smarts and “acting black” or individuals in the com- “acting white”—that lead to munity, most notably observable group characteristics.* young black males, devise One of the effects of living in racially neighborhood, the same behavior can be alternative ways to gain respect that segregated neighborhoods is exposure to interpreted as antisocial in another setting. emphasize manly pride, ranging from sim- group-specific cultural traits (cultural Moreover, this street-smart behavior may, ply wearing brand-name clothing, to hav- frames, orientations, habits, and world- in some cases, prevent individuals from ing the “right look” and talking the right views as well as styles of behavior and performing well on a job interview, creat- way, to developing a predatory attitude particular skills) that emerged from pat- ing a perception that they are not desirable toward neighbors. Anderson points out, terns of racial exclusion and that may not job candidates. however, that no one residing in these be conducive to social mobility. For exam- Other concrete examples from the writ- troubled neighborhoods is unaffected by ple, research has found that some groups ings of sociologists Elijah Anderson and the code of the street—especially young in the inner city put a high value on “street Sudhir Venkatesh on ghetto experiences people, who are drawn into this negative smarts,” the behaviors and actions that might prove to be even more illuminat- culture both on the streets and in the ing.39 Each author reveals the existence of schools, as they must frequently adopt informal rules in the inner-city ghetto that “street” behavior as a form of self-defense. *There is mixed evidence for the outcomes of ‘‘acting govern interactions and shape how people As Anderson puts it, “the code of the street white’’ as it applies to education. One of the most engage one another and make decisions. is actually a cultural adaptation to a pro- well-known studies of this concept was published by Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu in 1986. They This decision making is influenced partly found lack of faith in the police and the studied African American students at a high school in by how people come to view their world judicial system—and in others who would Washington, DC, and concluded that the fear of acting over time—what we call “meaning mak- champion one’s personal security.”40 white was one of the major factors undermining student achievement. In contrast, Prudence Carter’s ing.” It is important to remember that the A related informal but regulated pat- studies have not supported the idea that students who processes of meaning making and decision tern of behavior was described by Ven- avoided ‘‘acting white’’ held lower educational making evolve in situations imposed by katesh in his study of the underground aspirations. Roland Fryer presents yet another perspective. He found that a high grade point average poverty and racial segregation—situations economy in ghetto neighborhoods. Ven- (GPA) presents a social disadvantage for Hispanics and that place severe constraints on social katesh points out that “the underground blacks in integrated schools and public schools, but he mobility. Over time, these processes lead arena is not simply a place to buy goods saw no such effect in schools that were segregated (80 percent or more black) or private. He also noticed a to the development of informal codes that and services. It is also a field of social rela- marked difference in this effect among black boys and regulate behavior. tionships that enable off-the-books trad- black girls; black boys in public, integrated schools were First of all, Anderson talks about the ing to occur in an ordered and predictable particularly susceptible to social ostracism as their GPAs 41 increased, and were penalized seven times more than “code of the street,” an informal but explicit manner.” This trading often results in black students (including both genders) overall.37 set of rules developed to govern interper- disagreements or breaches because there

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 21 are no laws on the books, but “in situations ostensibly criminal and often threatening to personal security, there is still a structure in place that shapes how people make decisions and engage one another.”42 In other words, informal rules actually govern what would appear on the surface to be random underground activity. These rules stipulate what is expected of those involved in these informal exchanges and where they should meet. Just as Anderson describes a “code of the street,” Venkatesh talks about a “code of shady dealings.” Like Anderson in his effort to explain the emergence of the code of the street, Venkatesh argues that the code of shady dealings is a response to circumstances in inner-city ghetto neighborhoods, where joblessness is high and opportunities for advancement are severely limited. Fur- tural attributes—its distinctive attitudes, thermore, both Anderson and Venkatesh values and tendencies, and the resulting clearly argue that these cultural codes ulti- behavior of its members—and the mately hinder integration into the boarder relentless preference for relying on society and are therefore dysfunctional. In structural factors like low incomes, other words, they contribute to the per- joblessness, poor schools and bad petuation of poverty. housing.”44 Anderson finds that for some young Patterson claims that social scien- men, the draw of the street is so powerful tists have shied away from cultural that they cannot avail themselves of explanations of race and poverty legitimate employment opportunities because of the widespread belief that when they become available. Likewise, such explanations are tantamount to Venkatesh maintains that adherence to blaming the victim; that is, they support to fully account for such the code of shady dealings impedes the conclusion that the poor themselves, behavior and outcomes. And I think it is social mobility. The “underground econ- and not the social environment, are equally important to acknowledge that omy enables people to survive but can responsible for their own poverty and recognizing the important role of cultural lead to alienation from the wider world,” negative social outcomes. He colorfully influences in creating different racial group he states.43 For example, none of the work contends that it is “utterly bogus” to argue, outcomes does not require us to ignore or experience accrued in the informal as do by many academics, that cultural play down the much greater role of social, economy can be listed on a resume for explanations necessarily blame the victim political, and economic forces that are job searches in the formal labor market, for poor social outcomes. To hold an indi- clearly racial, as well as those that are and time invested in underground work vidual responsible for his behavior is not to ostensibly nonracial. reduces time devoted to accumulating rule out any consideration of the environ- I also strongly agree with Patterson that skills or contacts for legitimate mental factors that may have evoked the an adequate explanation of cultural attri- employment. questionable behavior to begin with. butes in the black community must explore However, many liberal scholars are “Many victims of child abuse end up the origins and changing nature of atti- reluctant to discuss or research the role behaving in self-destructive ways,” Patter- tudes and practices going back decades, that culture plays in the negative outcomes son states. “To point out the link between even centuries. Unfortunately such analy- found in the inner city. It is possible that their behavior and the destructive acts is in ses are complex and difficult.46 For exam- they fear being criticized for reinforcing the no way to deny the causal role of their ear- ple, sociologist Kathryn Neckerman had to popular view that negative social out- lier victimization and the need to address conduct years of research to provide the comes—poverty, unemployment, drug it.”45 Patterson also contends that a cultural historical evidence to explain why so many addiction, crime—are due to the short- explanation of human behavior not only black youngsters and their parents lose comings of the people themselves. Indeed, examines the immediate relationship faith in the public schools. She shows in sociologist Orlando Patterson maintains between attitudes and behavior but also her book, Schools Betrayed, that a century that there is “a deep-seated dogma that has looks at the past to investigate the origins ago, when African American children in prevailed in social science and policy cir- and changing nature of these attitudes. most northern cities attended schools cles since the mid-1960s: the rejection of I agree with Patterson that cultural alongside white children, the problems any explanation that invokes a group’s cul- explanations should be part of any attempt commonly associated with inner-city

22 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 schools—low achievement and dropping produce a tight labor market—that is, one Princeton University Press, 1993), 293–333. 3. Katz, “Reframing the ‘Underclass’ Debate,” 462. Also see out—were not nearly as pervasive as they in which there are ample jobs for all appli- Bartelt, “Housing the ‘Underclass’”; Sugrue, “The Structure are today.47 cants. More than any other group, low- of Urban Poverty”; and Martin Anderson, The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal, 1949–1962 Neckerman carefully documents how skilled workers depend upon a strong (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1964). city officials responded to increases in the economy, particularly a sustained tight 4. Raymond A. Mohl, “Planned Destruction: The Interstates and Central City Housing,” in From Tenements to the Taylor African American student population: by labor market. Homes: In Search of an Urban Housing Policy in Twentieth- introducing and enforcing segregation This new agenda should also include an Century America, ed. John F. Bauman, Roger Biles, and Kristin M. Szylvian (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State between black and white children in the even sharper focus on traditional efforts to University Press, 2000), 226–245; Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor, American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley; city schools. And she discusses at length fight poverty, to ensure that the benefits His Battle for Chicago and the Nation (Boston: Little, Brown, how poor white immigrant children— from any economic upturn are widely 2000); and Arnold R. Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960 (Cambridge, MA: whose family circumstances were at least shared among the poor and that they Cambridge University Press, 1983). as impoverished as their black counter- become less vulnerable to downward 5. Cohen and Taylor, American Pharaoh. parts—received more and better resources swings in the economy. I refer especially to 6. Charles E. Connerly, “From Racial Zoning to Community Empowerment: The Interstate Highway System and the for their education. “The roots of classroom the following: African American Community in Birmingham, Alabama,” alienation, antagonism, and disorder can Journal of Planning Education and Research 22, no. 2 • combating racial discrimination in (December 2002): 99–114. be found in school policy deci- employment, which is especially devas- 7. Robert J. Sampson and William Julius Wilson, “Toward a sions made long before the prob- Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality,” in Crime and tating during slack labor markets; Inequality, ed. John Hagan and Ruth D. Peterson (Stanford, lems of inner-city schools CA: Stanford University Press, 1995), 37–54. attracted public attention,” states • revitalizing poor urban neighborhoods, 8. Katz, “Reframing the ‘Underclass’ Debate.” Neckerman.48 Clearly, we can including eliminating abandoned build- 9. Rosalyn Baxandall and Elizabeth Ewen, Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened (New York: Basic Books, 1999). more fully understand the frus- ings and vacant lots to make them more 10. Katz, “Reframing the ‘Underclass’ Debate,” 461–462. tration and current cultural attractive for economic investment that On the history of suburbs in America, see Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the dynamics in inner-city neighbor- would help improve the quality of life United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). For hoods, in this case with reference and create jobs in the neighborhood; a good discussion of the effects of housing discrimination on the living conditions, education, and employment of to public schools, if we understand • promoting job training programs to urban minorities, see John Yinger, Closed Doors, the history that work like Necker- Opportunities Lost: The Continuing Costs of Housing enhance employment opportunities for Discrimination (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1995). man’s uncovers. ghetto residents; 11. Mark Condon, “Public Housing, Crime and the Urban Finally, although culture “partly Labor Market: A Study of Black Youth in Chicago,” Working Paper Series (Cambridge, MA: Malcolm Wiener Center, John determines behavior, it also enables • improving public education to prepare F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, people to change behavior.”49 Cul- inner-city youngsters for higher-paying 1991), 4. 12. Sampson and Wilson, “Toward a Theory of Race.” Also ture provides a frame for individu- and stable jobs in the new economy; see Bartelt, “Housing the ‘Underclass’”; Kelley, “The Black als to understand their world. By and Poor and the Politics of Opposition”; Sugrue, “The Structure of Urban Poverty”; Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto; and ignoring or only investigating cul- • strengthening unions to provide the John F. Bauman, Norman P. Hummon, and Edward K. ture at a superficial level, social scientists Muller, “Public Housing, Isolation, and the Urban higher wages, worker protections, and Underclass,” Journal of Urban History 17, no. 3 (May 1991): miss an opportunity to help people under- 264–292. benefits typically absent from low-skilled stand and then reframe attitudes in a way 13. Lincoln Quillian, “Migration Patterns and the Growth of jobs in retail and service industries. High-Poverty Neighborhoods, 1970–1990,” American that promotes desirable behavior and out- Journal of Sociology 105, no. 1 (July 1999): 1–37. 50 comes. However, attitudes must be In short, this new agenda would reflect 14. See Demetrios Caraley, “Washington Abandons the Cities,” Political Science Quarterly 107, no. 1 (Spring 1992): reframed in conjunction with programs a multipronged approach that attacks 1–30. that address structural inequities. inner-city poverty on various levels, an 15. Bruce A. Wallin, Budgeting for Basics: The Changing approach that recognizes the complex Landscape of City Finances (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, August 2005). or those committed to fighting array of factors that have contributed to the 16. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, inequality, especially those crystallization of concentrated urban pov- The State of the Cities, 1999 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1999). involved in multiracial coalition erty and limited the life chances of so many 17. Caraley, “Washington Abandons the Cities.” politics, the lesson from this dis- inner-city residents. ☐ 18. Radhika K. Fox and Sarah Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity, Fcussion of key social, political, economic, Stronger Regions: An Agenda for Rebuilding America’s Older Core Cities (Oakland, CA: PolicyLink, 2006). and cultural forces is to fashion a new Endnotes 19. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity; and Bill Joy, “Why 1. Paul A. Jargowsky, “Ghetto Poverty among Blacks in the the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” Wired (April 2000): 238–262. agenda that gives more scrutiny to both 1980s,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 13, no. racial and nonracial policies. Given our 2 (Spring 1994): 288–310. 20. William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2. Michael B. Katz, “Reframing the ‘Underclass’ Debate,” in devastating recent recession and slow, job- 1996). The “Underclass” Debate: Views from History, ed. Michael B. less recovery, it is especially important to Katz (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), 21. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity. 440–478; David W. Bartelt, “Housing the ‘Underclass,’” in 22. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity. scrutinize fiscal, monetary, and trade poli- The “Underclass” Debate: Views from History, ed. Michael B. cies that may have long-term conse- Katz (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), 23. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity; and Wilson, When 118–157; Thomas J. Sugrue, “The Structure of Urban Work Disappears. quences for our national and regional Poverty: The Reorganization of Space and Work in Three 24. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, economies. We must ameliorate the pri- Periods of American History,” in The “Underclass” Debate: The State of the Cities. Views from History, ed. Michael B. Katz (Princeton, NJ: 25. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity. mary problem feeding concentrated pov- Princeton University Press, 1993), 85–117; and Robin D. G. erty: inner-city joblessness. The ideal Kelley, “The Black Poor and the Politics of Opposition in a 26. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity, 32. New South City, 1929–1970,” in The “Underclass” Debate: solution would be economic policies that Views from History, ed. Michael B. Katz (Princeton, NJ: (Continued on page 46)

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2011 23 Being Poor and Black (Continued from page 23)

27. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity. 28. See, for example, Wilson, When Work Disappears; Joleen Kirschenman and Kathryn M. Neckerman, “‘We’d Love to Hire Them, But…’: The Meaning of Race for Employers,” in The Urban Underclass, ed. Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1991), 203–234; Kathryn M. Neckerman and Joleen Kirschenman, “Hiring Strategies, Racial Bias, and Inner-City Workers,” Social Problems 38, no. 4 (November 1991): 433–447; and Harry J. Holzer, What Employers Want: Job Prospects for Less-Educated Workers (New York: Russell Sage, 1995). 29. Harry J. Holzer, Paul Offner, and Elaine Sorensen, “What Explains the Continuing Decline in Labor Force Activity among Young Black Men?” (paper presented for Color Lines Conference, Harvard University, August 30, 2003). 30. Wilson, When Work Disappears. 31. William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); Wilson, When Work Disappears; and Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity. 32. Fox and Treuhaft, Shared Prosperity. 33. For a review of the literature on school tracking, see Janese Free, “Race and School Tracking: From a Social Psychological Perspective” (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 14, 2004). 34. Lawrence Bobo, James R. Kluegel, and Ryan A. Smith, “Laissez-Faire Racism: The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology,” in Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change, ed. Steven A. Tuch and Jack K. Martin (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997), 15–44. 35. Wilson, When Work Disappears. 36. Charles Tilly, Durable Inequality (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998). 37. Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu, “Black Students’ School Success: Coping with the Burden of ‘Acting White,’” Urban Journal 18, no. 3 (1986): 176–206; Prudence L. Carter, “‘Black’ Cultural Capital, Status Positioning, and INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Schooling Conflicts for Low-Income African American Youth,” Social Problems 50, no. 1 (2003): 136–155; Prudence L. Carter, Keepin’ It Real: School Success beyond Black and White (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); and Roland G. Fryer, “‘Acting White’: The Social Price Paid by the Best and Brightest Minority Students,” Education Next 6, no. 1 (Winter 2006), 53–59. 38. Elijah Anderson, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999). 39. Anderson, Code of the Street; and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006). 40. Anderson, Code of the Street, 34. 41. Venkatesh, Off the Books, 381. 42. Venkatesh, Off the Books, 377. 43. Venkatesh, Off the Books, 385. For another excellent study of how activities in the underground economy can adversely affect inner-city residents, see Loïc Wacquant, “Inside the Zone: The Art of the Hustler in the Black American Ghetto,” Theory, Culture, and Society 15, no. 2 (1998): 1–36. 44. Orlando Patterson, “A Poverty of the Mind,” New York Times, March 26, 2006, section 4, page 13. 45. Patterson, “A Poverty of the Mind.” 46. William Julius Wilson, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (New York: W. W. Norton, 2009); and Orlando Patterson, “Taking Culture Seriously: A Framework and an Afro-American Illustration,” in Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, ed. Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 202–218. 47. Kathryn M. Neckerman, Schools Betrayed: Roots of Failure in Inner-City Education (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). 48. Neckerman, Schools Betrayed, 174. 49. Patterson, “A Poverty of the Mind.” 50. Patterson, “A Poverty of the Mind.”

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