Do Families Play an Important Role in Explaining Racial Inequality? Positive Effects of Families –Colin Powell –Oprah Winfrey –Shorris: role of families in education Adverse Effects of Families –Yvette (Anderson: Code of the Street) –Shorris: downside of familia, familism

A Central Concern: Single Parent Families Are single parent families more prevalent among racial and ethnic minority groups? What are some of the differences in life chances associated with growing up in a single parent family?

Table 1: Percentage of children aged 0-17, by family living arrangements: ArrangementsGroup TotalWhiteBlackLatinoAsianAmerican Indian Both Parents72% Father Mother Relatives Other Total Source: Hogan and Lichter, 1996, Table 3.2, p. 105.

Table 2: Percentage of children aged 0-17 below the poverty line, by family living arrangements: ArrangementsPercentage Poor TotalWhiteBlackLatinoAsianAmerican Indian Overall Both Parents Father Mother Relatives Source: Hogan and Lichter, 1996, Table 3.3, p. 107.

Problems Low Incomes of Single-Mother Families Absentee Fathers and Child Support Teen Pregnancy Out-of-wedlock childbearing

Discrimination and Affirmative Action Introductory Questions Definition and Examples Judicial Decisions Proposition 209 Pros and cons Evidence The Future?

Some References Thernstrom, Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible. New York: Simon and Schuster Bowen, William G. and Derek Bok The Shape of the River. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

References, continued Dworkin, Ronald, “Is Affirmative Action Doomed?” New York Review of Books.

Introductory Questions What is affirmative action? What are its goals? What are some arguments against it or in favor of it?

Definition and Examples “the positive effort to recruit subordinate group members including women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities.” Examples: 1) efforts to recruit in HBCU’s; 2) race as a factor in employment decisions for police positions; 3) race in college admissions

Judicial Decisions 1978: Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (5-4) 1979: United Steelworkers of America v. Weber (5-2) 1987: Johnson v. Transportation agency, Santa Clara, CA (6-3) 1996 Hopwood v. Texas (Croson decision as precedent) Recent University of Michigan decisions

Dworkin Moral Arguments in favor of and against affirmative action a. Any racial distinctions are dangerous b. Diversity in higher education c. Diversity in society’s leadership

Proposition 209 The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.

Cons and Pros Cons Reverse Discrimination Unworthy Beneficiaries Does not address real problems A sham Pros Race must be used to overcome past Racial balance is real goal Is not designed to solve all problems Difficult and slow

Evidence Median Incomes (1997 workers) White Men: $36,118 Black Men 26,897 White Women 26,470 Black Women 22,764 Hispanic Men 21,799 Hispanic Women 19,676

Evidence Increased minority representation on college campuses Increased minority representation among faculty Increased employment in firms and positions where women and minorities were not historically represented

Evidence While most whites oppose preferential affirmative action such as quotas, hiring preferences, or equal outcomes, most whites support compensatory affirmative action such as special job training and special recruitment efforts (Wilson, WHEN WORK DISAPPEARS, pp )

The Future of Affirmative Action What do you think will happen in the next few years? In the long run? Other states (Washington, Florida) Efforts in California –block recruitment and outreach efforts –admit students who graduate in the top 4% of their class to UC system –ACLU law suit regarding AP classes in predominantly minority high schools