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Discrimination Paper National Poverty Center Working Paper Series #06‐11 June, 2006 The Dynamics of Discrimination Devah Pager, Princeton University This paper is available online at the National Poverty Center Working Paper Series index at: http://www.npc.umich.edu/publications/working_papers/ Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the National Poverty Center or any sponsoring agency. The Dynamics of Discrimination Devah Pager — Princeton University In 1927, a New York clothing manufacturer advertised for help with a notice typical of that time period: “White workers $24: Colored Workers $20.”1 At the time, ads like these were common, with the explicit understanding that whites were to be paid more than people of color. Today, of course, such overt forms of discrimination have all but vanished. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, rendering previously common forms of unequal treatment illegal. With the shifting legal context, the social context of discrimination has transformed dramatically as well. Today the vast majority of Americans endorses the principle of racial equality and repudiates acts of racial discrimination. And yet, despite these progressive developments, a range of social science evidence indicates that significant discrimination persists in contemporary society. Whether conscious or unconscious, exposed or covert, among individuals or institutions, systematic differences in the treatment of whites and minorities contribute to the economic marginalization of minority groups. This chapter examines the ways in which discrimination continues to operate by asking four basic questions: (1) What is discrimination? (2) How can we identify discrimination when it takes place? (3) What causes discrimination? (4) How can we reduce the incidence of discrimination? In answering these questions, we will examine the range of evidence available from social science research, as well as considering the factors that are not adequately captured by existing measures of discrimination. WHAT IS DISCRIMINATION? 1 This is example is taken from Schiller, 2004:190. See also Table 1 in Darity & Mason, 1998. 1 Racial discrimination, according to its most simple definition, refers to unequal treatment of persons or groups on the basis of their race or ethnicity. In defining racial discrimination, the National Research Council differentiates between differential treatment and differential effects, creating a two-part definition: “(1) differential treatment on the basis of race that disadvantages a racial group and (2) treatment on the basis of inadequately justified factors other than race that disadvantages a racial group (differential effect)” (NRC, 2004:39-40). The second component of this definition broadens its scope to include decisions and processes that may not themselves be racially motivated, but have the ultimate consequence of systematically disadvantaging minority groups. Beyond more conventional forms of intentional discrimination, institutional processes such as these are important to consider in assessing how valued opportunities are conditioned by race. HOW CAN WE IDENTIFY DISCRIMINATION WHEN IT TAKES PLACE? Discrimination has long been a fascinating and frustrating subject for social science. Fascinating because it is a powerful mechanism underlying many historical and contemporary patterns of inequality; frustrating because it is elusive and difficult to measure. Over a century of social science interest in the question of discrimination has resulted in numerous techniques aimed to isolate and identify its presence, and to document its effects. Below I consider some of the dominant methods used to study discrimination, examining their primary contributions as well as their possible limitations. In thinking about each of these methods, the primary question we seek to answer is: How do we really know when or where discrimination is at work? “I know it when I see it.” Perceptions of Discrimination in Everyday Settings 2 To some, discrimination is as easy to spot as a train wreck in daylight. We notice subtle cues in the ways others are treated around us, or in the ways we ourselves are treated. The curt exchange with the shop clerk, the security guard who keeps a watchful eye, the cab driver who doesn’t stop. Whether due to age, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, or any other stigmatized identity, most of us can think of at least one instance in which we, or someone close to us, was treated unfairly on the basis of a single status distinction. In these instances, it doesn’t take a social scientist to certify the case as discrimination. Social scientists have capitalized on the insights and interpretations individuals have of their own lived experiences by asking people about their own encounters with discrimination. Numerous surveys have asked African Americans and other racial minorities about their experiences with discrimination in the workplace, in their search for housing, and in other everyday social settings (Smith, 2001; Schuman et al., 2001). One startling conclusion from this line of research is the frequency with which discrimination is reported. A recent Gallup poll, for example, found that nearly half of all black respondents reported having experienced discrimination at least once in one of five common situations in the past month.2 Further, the frequency with which discrimination is reported does not decline among blacks higher in the social hierarchy; in fact, middle class blacks are as likely to perceive discrimination as are working class blacks, if not more (Feagin & Sykes, 1994; Kessler et al., 1990). Likewise, a 2001 survey found that more than a third of blacks, and nearly twenty percent of Hispanics and Asians, reported that they had personally been passed over for a job or promotion because of their race or ethnicity (Schiller, 2004). What can we make of these findings? One important conclusion is that African Americans and other minority groups perceive discrimination to be pervasive in their lives. This 2 These situations include: shopping, at work, dining out, using public transportation, with police. 3 is an important finding in its own right. Research shows that those who perceive high levels of discrimination are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, and other negative health outcomes (Kessler et al., 1990). But what we don’t know from this line of research is to what extent these trends represent merely perceptions versus an accurate depiction of reality. While some instances of discrimination leave little room for doubt, many others can be subject to misinterpretation or distortion. A curt shop clerk might have been having a bad day; the security guard may be vigilant with all passersby; the cab driver may simply not have seen the pedestrian waving him down. What may be blatant evidence of discrimination from one vantage point could be a simple misunderstanding from another. The problem with relying on perceptions for our measure of discrimination is not only that some cases may be blown out of proportion. The opposite can be just as much of an issue— acts of discrimination are often imperceptible to the victim. Due to social norms and legal sanctions, contemporary forms of discrimination are rarely overt, leaving countless instances of discriminatory action entirely invisible to the very individuals who have been targeted.3 While highly relevant to the concrete lived experiences of individuals, the use of perceptions can only provide one incomplete account of the prevalence of discrimination. In order to get closer to the source of discriminatory action, researchers have turned their attention to the potential discriminators themselves. “I’m not racist, but….” Self-Reports and Attitude Research on Discrimination Rather than relying on the perceptions of victims, another line of social science research focuses on the general attitudes of dominant groups for insights into when and how racial considerations 3 Likewise, research suggests that individuals may underestimate and/or suppress the incidence of discrimination in their own lives, even when conscious of high levels of discrimination against their group (Crosby, 1984; Taylor et al., 1990) 4 come into play. The most well-developed line of work in this area is the long tradition of survey research on racial attitudes. Similar questions have been asked for several decades on national polls such as Gallup, the General Social Survey, among others, gauging white Americans’ views on issues of race relations and racial inequality. Because the same questions have been asked over many years, we are able to chart changes in the expressed racial attitudes of Americans over time. And indeed, according to these items, much has changed in race relations since the times of Jim Crow. In the 1940s and 1950s, for example, fewer than half of whites on surveys believed that white students should go to school with black students or that black and white job applicants should have an equal chance at getting a job. By the 1990s, by contrast, more than 90% of white survey respondents would endorse the principle that white and black students and job applicants should be treated equally by schools and employers (Schuman et al., 2001). These changes in attitudes over time indeed suggest a substantial decline in prejudice, and imply that overt forms of racial hostility and
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