I have to recommend this amazing data visualization, from the New York Times. According to a new study analyzing 20 million Americans, white boys raised in wealthy households become wealthy adults, but black boys do not.
But what about women, you ask? There is little difference between outcomes of white girls growing up in wealthy households and black girls growing up in wealthy households, according to the graphs in the article.
The article doesn’t say this, but the graphs scream it: White men have a huge privilege that white women, black men and black women do not enjoy. The wealth trajectories of black people and of white women are the about same. White men do way better than everyone else.
I haven’t read the underlying study yet, but the New York Times visualization is outstanding, and filled with information. I only touched on a few of the pieces of information in the article. If you’re at all interested, you should take the time to read the entire thing.
Another tidbit is that it seems that for boys, in order to get their full male privilege they need to have fathers around in the neighborhood. Not necessarily their own father; boys get the male privilege if their neighborhood has a lot of fathers in it. Girls, however, get no advantage no matter how many dads are around.
Honestly, it makes me weep. Also reminds me of Chris Rock’s joke about raising black boys (he has girls) and how as a parent you have to punch them in the face every day because that’s what they will face in real life. UGH! I will add as a side note one of the academics quoted in the article Ibram Kendhi has an excellent book out about race called Stamped From the Beginning. I’m reading it very slowly but it is really eye-opening and offers a different way of thinking about racial issues. We focus too much on individual actors being racists, instead of looking at the racist policies that bring about disparities, like those highlighted in the article.
This argument might have had more validity 20 years ago, but is becoming less convincing each year. Med schools now enroll more female students than men. Law schools now enroll more female students than men. B-schools are more lopsided, but the top 10 b-schools are at least 40% female. Med/Law/top b-schools, those are the gateways to high paying careers.
Racist policies exist because individual actors who are racist happened to make them or influence making them.
“Institutional racism” is not really different from individual racism. Institutions are made of individuals, so racist individuals in the institution (whether in high level policy-making roles or on-the-ground roles where there is some discretion on how policies are applied) can produce “institutional racism”.
@ucbalumnus yes I get what you are saying and yes it’s very complex. Take a look at Stamped From the Beginning - it makes the case for our problems stemming from racist policies vs. people. I haven’t finished it yet but it’s given me a lot of food for thought in thinking about it differently.
So what are we supposed to make of this paragraph?
“The research makes clear that there is something unique about the obstacles black males face. The gap between Hispanics and whites is narrower, and their incomes will converge within a couple of generations if mobility stays the same. Asian-Americans earn more than whites raised at the same income level, or about the same when first-generation immigrants are excluded. Only Native Americans have an income gap comparable to African-Americans. But the disparities are widest for black boys.”
From the article: “Black men raised in the top 1 percent — by millionaires — were as likely to be incarcerated as white men raised in households earning about $36,000.”
I think it’s safe to assume that incarceration impacts future earning potential.
@sherpa and black men get incarcerated far out of proportion to what other data would suggest. For example, there’s no big discrepancy in drug usage, but those arrested and incarcerated are predominantly black males. The overwhelming number of “random” stops creates even more opportunity to inflate those numbers.
Well, all the black males I know are pretty dang successful and I doubt any of them have been incarcerated. Don’t know that they came from wealthy backgrounds or not. People don’t generally bring that up.
@busdriver11 Is it possible that you know certain black males because they are successful? Do you live in a neighborhood or work at a job where you are likely to see unsuccessful black males?
I’m sad to see that not much has changed. As a short, chubby, albeit white, female, I’ve been discriminated a lot in the workplace.
It’s not the admissions policies of schools that discriminate against people who are not white males. It’s what happens once they are out in the workplace, or the opportunities that are available to them in school or when they graduate. Professors and bosses can be racist or misogynistic. There have been studies that show that a resume with a name that sounds like a white male will get an interview much more often than one that doesn’t.
