Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage
Daria Roithmayr
Language: English
Pages: 205
ISBN: 0814777120
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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“phase transitions.” In a phase transition, change occurs suddenly and dramatically, after long periods of steady or uniform behavior. After a long period of heating peacefully, water suddenly boils and then escapes into steamy vapor. After a period of building in value, the real estate market unexpectedly crashes. The racial composition of neighborhoods changes quickly once the numbers reach a certain threshold or “tipping point.” Often, these phase transition patterns are created by something
times as many black children remain in the bottom decile as at the top. In contrast, twice as many white children remain at the top decile as remain at the bottom. Only 17 percent of white children born to the poorest 10 percent of the population stay in that bottom bracket, compared to 42 percent for black children. These statistics help to explain why racial poverty persists even though average black and white incomes have converged slightly in past years. A note of caution is in order here.
generated from such significant taxes could be used to finance society-based transmission of wealth, like baby bonds or children’s trust funds. Likewise, policy makers could limit feedback loops in job referrals. To limit the impact of network benefits to whites, policy makers could ban informal network hiring in all-white institutions, at least until the institution had amassed a critical mass of workers of color on site. Once the institution had a critical mass, it could begin again to use
enjoyed for years—a head start on accumulating wealth. As detailed in Chapter 2, historically government provided middle-class whites with help in buying suburban homes, via FHA and VA home loans, and excluded people of color from participating in such loan programs. Generating parallel niche networks also offers a promising possibility. Economist James Rauch has suggested that minority retailers make use of independent buying companies that match retailers with vendors, other retailers, and
the same situational circumstances—unemployment, substandard schooling—as do their parents. Third, critics argued that many of the so-called pathological practices described by experts were in fact rational responses to poverty. Take for example the common choice by families of color to insulate themselves and their family members from outside networks and institutions. Sociologist William Julius Wilson has pointed out that for people who live in violent neighborhoods, being isolated makes a