Colorful past
Formulating Voting Rights Act Remedies to Address Current Conditions
Barry Edwards
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down a key component of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) closes one of the most successful chapters in the history of civil rights enforcement. Our country has changed since 1965 and it is an opportune time to examine current political conditions for minority voters. Based on analysis of congressional elections from 1960 to 2010, I assess the central holding of Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, and other controversial areas of VRA enforcement. My results support the Court’s finding that the Act’s historic coverage formula does not accurately reflect current political conditions. However, my results challenge prevailing views on two points. I conclude that uniform standards are problematic because redistricting guidelines that improve opportunities for African American voters are likely to diminish opportunities for Latino voters (and vice versa). In addition, requiring majority African American districts appears to diminish aggregate African American voting opportunities relative to targeting 45% to 50% African American districts.
----------------------
Decomposing School Resegregation: Social Closure, Racial Imbalance, and Racial Isolation
Jeremy Fiel
American Sociological Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Today’s typical minority student attends school with fewer whites than his counterpart in 1970. This apparent resegregation of U.S. schools has sparked outrage and debate. Some blame a rollback of desegregation policies designed to distribute students more evenly among schools; others blame the changing racial composition of the student population. This study clarifies the link between distributive processes of segregation, population change, and school racial composition by framing school segregation as a mode of social closure. I use a novel decomposition approach to determine the relative contributions of distributive processes and compositional change in the apparent resegregation of schools from 1993 to 2010. For the most part, compositional changes are to blame for the declining presence of whites in minorities’ schools. During this period, whites and minorities actually became more evenly distributed across schools, helping increase minority students’ exposure to whites. Further decompositions reveal the continued success of district-level desegregation efforts, but the greatest barrier to progress appears to be the uneven distribution of students between school districts in the same area. These findings call for new research and new policies to address contemporary school segregation.
----------------------
The National Social Distance Study: Ten Years Later
Vincent Parrillo & Christopher Donoghue
Sociological Forum, September 2013, Pages 597–614
Abstract:
The Bogardus social distance scale, which measures the level of acceptance that Americans feel toward members of the most common ethnic and racial groups in the United States, was administered six times nationally between 1920 and 2001. Replicating the most recent study with its revised list of ethnic and racial groups, the authors of this study analyzed a stratified random sample of 3,166 college students, making it the largest national social distance study ever conducted. The findings indicate an increase since 2001 in the mean level of social distance toward all ethnic groups, as well as in the spread between the groups with the highest and lowest levels of social distance. Further, a consistency between studies in group preferences reaffirms the relevance of the similarity-attraction bond in accepting those who are racially and culturally different. Mean comparisons and analysis of variance tests also showed that gender, birthplace of respondents and/or their parents, race, and year in college are all significant indicators of the level of social distance toward groups.
----------------------
The Political Legacy of American Slavery
Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell & Maya Sen
University of Rochester Working Paper, September 2013
Abstract:
We show that contemporary differences in political attitudes across counties in the American South trace their origins back to the influence of slavery’s prevalence more than 150 years ago. Whites who currently live in Southern counties that had high shares of slaves population in 1860 are less likely to identify as Democrat, more likely to oppose affirmative action policies, and more likely to express racial resentment toward blacks. These results are robust to accounting for a variety of attributes, including contemporary shares of black population, urban-rural differences, and Civil War destruction. Moreover, the results strengthen when we instrument for the prevalence of slavery using measures of the agricultural suitability to grow cotton. To explain our results, we offer a theory in which political and racial attitudes were shaped historically by the incentives of Southern whites to propagate racist institutions and norms in areas like the “Black Belt” that had high shares of recently emancipated slaves in the decades after 1865. We argue that these attitudes have, to some degree, been passed down locally from one generation to the next.
----------------------
Meghan Kuebler & Jacob Rugh
Social Science Research, September 2013, Pages 1357–1374
Abstract:
Using 2001–2010 homeownership data for the United States we analyze changes in racial and ethnic disparities between whites and blacks, Asians, Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics. We employ Integrated Public Use Microdata (IPUMS) combined with local credit scores and house price to income ratios. Controlling for demographic, income, wealth, employment, and housing characteristics, we find no significant differences between whites and Asians, Mexicans, or Cubans. Conversely, blacks and Puerto Ricans remain substantially disadvantaged. We conduct further analysis for the 2001–2003, 2004–2007, and 2008–2010 periods of the housing boom and collapse. Blacks and Puerto Ricans experienced decreased disparities during the peak years of the boom. Puerto Rican parity with whites continued to improve during the crash while gains among blacks eroded. The results suggest the homeownership differences between whites, Asians, Mexicans, and Cubans are apparently explained by socioeconomic status while racial disparities among blacks and Puerto Ricans evolved but continue to persist.
----------------------
Measuring Ethnicity with U.S. Census Data: Implications for Mexicans and Arabs
Jen’nan Ghazal Read
Population Research and Policy Review, August 2013, Pages 611-631
Abstract:
U.S. racial and ethnic populations can be defined by a number of census questions — race/ethnicity, ancestry, place of birth, and/or language — but little is known about how using alternative definitions of identity affect the size and characteristics of different groups. This article examines this question using combined data from the 1 % and 5 % Public Use Microdata Samples in census 2000, using Mexicans and Arabs as case studies. The analysis uses the standard method of classifying these groups (Hispanic origin and Arab ancestry) as a baseline to explore differences across the range of possible permutations of ethnic identity. In the Arab case, persons captured using alternative definitions of identity (Arabic language at home and/or born in an Arab country) are lesser educated, more likely to be in poverty, and more likely to identify as non-white or multi-racial than the Arab population as a whole. In contrast, persons in the Mexican alternative definition group (Mexican ancestry and/or born in Mexico) are more highly educated, less likely to be in poverty, and more likely to identify as white than the Mexican population as a whole. The article concludes with research and policy implications of these findings.
----------------------
Racial Disparities in Short Sleep Duration by Occupation and Industry
Chandra Jackson et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Short sleep duration, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, has been shown to vary by occupation and industry, but few studies have investigated differences between black and white populations. By using data from a nationally representative sample of US adult short sleepers (n = 41,088) in the National Health Interview Survey in 2004–2011, we estimated prevalence ratios for short sleep duration in blacks compared with whites for each of 8 industry categories by using adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance. Participants' mean age was 47 years; 50% were women and 13% were black. Blacks were more likely to report short sleep duration than whites (37% vs. 28%), and the black-white disparity was widest among those who held professional occupations. Adjusted short sleep duration was more prevalent in blacks than whites in the following industry categories: finance/information/real estate (prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.30, 1.59); professional/administrative/management (PR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.44); educational services (PR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.54); public administration/arts/other services (PR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.41); health care/social assistance (PR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.32); and manufacturing/construction (PR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.20). Short sleep generally increased with increasing professional responsibility within a given industry among blacks but decreased with increasing professional roles among whites. Our results suggest the need for further investigation of racial/ethnic differences in the work-sleep relationship.
----------------------
Warren Waren
Population, Space and Place, September/October 2013, Pages 633–643
Abstract:
The persistent finding of a racial gap in residential attainment between African Americans and whites has led to a critique, which argues that spatial assimilation theory does not explain the residential segregation of African Americans, even though it explains segregation for other groups. That critique is typically based on analyses of cross-sectional data, which do not take into account demographic context. In this paper, I examine demographically adjusted exposure scores for educational categories of race and ethnic groups in Houston, Texas, between 1970 and 2000. I find that starting in 1980 higher status African Americans achieved greater spatial assimilation. My findings suggest that analyses that rely on demographically appropriate measures and trend data indicate that spatial assimilation theory is relevant to changes in the residential mobility of African Americans.
----------------------
Return to Being Black, Living in the Red: A Race Gap in Wealth That Goes Beyond Social Origins
Alexandra Killewald
Demography, August 2013, Pages 1177-1195
Abstract:
In the United States, racial disparities in wealth are vast, yet their causes are only partially understood. In Being Black, Living in the Red, Conley (1999) argued that the sociodemographic traits of young blacks and their parents, particularly parental wealth, wholly explain their wealth disadvantage. Using data from the 1980–2009 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I show that this conclusion hinges on the specific sample considered and the treatment of debtors in the sample. I further document that prior research has paid insufficient attention to the possibility of variation in the association between wealth and race at different points of the net worth distribution. Among wealth holders, blacks remain significantly disadvantaged in assets compared with otherwise similar whites. Among debtors, however, young whites hold more debt than otherwise similar blacks. The results suggest that, among young adults, debt may reflect increased access to credit, not simply the absence of assets. The asset disadvantage for black net wealth holders also indicates that research and policy attention should not be focused only on young blacks “living in the red.”
----------------------
An Anatomy Of Racial and Ethnic Trends in Male Earnings in the U.S.
Barry Hirsch & John Winters
Review of Income and Wealth, forthcoming
Abstract:
Progress in narrowing black–white earnings differences has been far from continuous, with some of the apparent progress resulting from labor force withdrawal among lower-skilled African Americans. This paper documents racial and ethnic differences in male earnings from 1950 through 2010 using data from the decennial census and American Community Surveys. Emphasis is given to annual rather than weekly or hourly earnings. We take a quantile approach, providing evidence on medians and other percentiles of the distribution. Treatment of imputed earnings greatly affects measured outcomes. Hispanic men have exhibited earnings growth similar to white men over several decades. Black men have been left behind economically due in large part to increased joblessness, a process exacerbated by weak labor market conditions. By 2010, joblessness had risen to over 40 percent and the median black–white earnings gap was the largest in at least 60 years.
----------------------
Residential Segregation, Spatial Mismatch and Economic Growth across US Metropolitan Areas
Huiping Li, Harrison Campbell & Steven Fernandez
Urban Studies, October 2013, Pages 2642-2660
Abstract:
Numerous studies have demonstrated the detrimental influence of residential segregation on poor inner-city residents. This study examines the impact of residential segregation on the welfare of populations in US metropolitan areas using economic growth as the indicator. Panel data of US metropolitan areas spanning 25 years, 1980–2005, are used to analyse the effect of segregation on economic growth. The results show that both racial and skill segregation have a negative impact on short- and long-term economic growth, which have increased over time. Further, the negative impact of the variables associated with spatial mismatch is also revealed. The results clearly point to the need for mobility policies that favour non-White households and comprehensive strategies that promote economic opportunities in low-resource communities in the US.
----------------------
Marcus Britton & Heeju Shin
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Abstract:
Residential segregation is associated with poor health — including poor birth outcomes — among African Americans in US cities and metropolitan areas. However, the few existing studies of this relationship among Mexican-origin women have produced mixed results. In this study, the relationship between segregation and very preterm birth was examined with National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data on singleton births to African American women (n = 400,718) in 238 metropolitan areas and to Mexican-origin women (n = 552,382) in 170 metropolitan areas. The study evaluated 1) whether residential segregation is positively associated with very preterm birth among both African American and Mexican-origin women and 2) if so, whether exposure to neighborhood poverty accounts for these associations. Results from multi-level analysis indicate that residential segregation is positively associated with very preterm birth among both groups of women. However, this association is robust across different measures of segregation only for African Americans. Conversely, differences across metropolitan areas in average levels of exposure to neighborhood poverty account for the positive association between segregation and very preterm birth among Mexican-origin women, but not among African American women.
----------------------
Nao Hagiwara et al.
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research on the impact of Afrocentric features on health has focused primarily on a single feature, skin color. We explored the effects of two other Afrocentric features (lip thickness, nose width) on Blacks' health status and whether unfair treatment mediates any relationship between these features and health. A secondary analysis of a prior study of Black patients' health was conducted. Patients with strong (high lip and high nose ratios) and weak (low lip and low nose ratios) Afrocentric features (i.e., congruent features) had poorer health than patients with incongruent features. Unlike findings for skin color, congruence of features rather than strength predicted health. Congruence predicted perceived unfair treatment in the same manner. Importantly, perceived unfair treatment mediated the relation between Afrocentric features and health. The study suggests that even subtle differences in Afrocentric features can have serious long-term health consequences among Blacks. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
----------------------
Stress-Induced Inflammatory Responses in Women: Effects of Race and Pregnancy
Lisa Christian et al.
Psychosomatic Medicine, September 2013, Pages 658-669
Objective: African Americans experience preterm birth at nearly twice the rate of whites. Chronic stress associated with minority status is implicated in this disparity. Inflammation is a key biological pathway by which stress may affect birth outcomes. This study examined the effects of race and pregnancy on stress-induced inflammatory responses.
Methods: Thirty-nine women in the second trimester of pregnancy (19 African American, 20 white) and 39 demographically similar nonpregnant women completed an acute stressor (Trier Social Stress Test). Psychosocial characteristics, health behaviors, and affective responses were assessed. Serum interleukin (IL)-6 was measured at baseline, 45 minutes, and 120 minutes poststressor.
Results: IL-6 responses at 120 minutes poststressor were 46% higher in African Americans versus whites (95% confidence interval = 8%–81%, t(72) = 3.51, p = .001). This effect was present in pregnancy and nonpregnancy. IL-6 responses at 120 minutes poststressor tended to be lower (15%) in pregnant versus nonpregnant women (95% confidence interval = −5%–32%, p = .14). Racial differences in inflammatory responses were not accounted for by demographics, psychological characteristics, health behaviors, or differences in salivary cortisol. Pregnant whites showed lower negative affective responses than did nonpregnant women of either race (p values ≤ .007).
Conclusions: This study provides novel evidence that stress-induced inflammatory responses are more robust among African American women versus whites during pregnancy and nonpregnancy. The ultimate impact of stress on health is a function of stressor exposure and physiological responses. Individual differences in stress-induced inflammatory responses represent a clear target for continued research efforts in racial disparities in health during pregnancy and nonpregnancy.
----------------------
Zoua Vang & Irma Elo
Social Science & Medicine, November 2013, Pages 56–65
Abstract:
We examined the association between neighborhood minority diversity and infant birthweight among non-Hispanic US-born black women and foreign-born black women from Sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Spanish speaking Caribbean using 2002-2006 vital statistics birth record data from the state of New Jersey (n=73,907). We used a standardized entropy score to measure the degree of minority diversity (i.e., non-white multiethnic racial heterogeneity) for each census tract where women lived. We distinguished between four levels of minority diversity, with the highest level representing majority-minority neighborhoods. We estimated mean birthweight for singleton births over this 5-year period using linear regression with robust standard errors to correct for clustering of mothers within census tracts. We found significant differences in mean birthweight by mother’s country of origin such that infants of US-born black mothers weighed significantly less than the infants of African and Caribbean immigrants (3130 g vs. 3299 g and 3212 g; p<0.001). Adjustments for neighborhood deprivation, residential instability, individual-level sociodemographics, maternal health behaviors and conditions, and gestational age did not reduce these origin differences. Minority diversity had a protective effect on black infant health. Women living in low and moderately diverse tracts as well as those in majority-minority neighborhoods had heavier babies (β=26.5, 29.8 and 61.2, respectively, p<0.001) on average than women in the least diverse tracts. The results for majority-minority neighborhoods were robust when we controlled for neighborhood- and individual-level covariates.
----------------------
Susan Sprecher, James Brooks & Winfred Avogo
Sex Roles, September 2013, Pages 264-275
Abstract:
The major purpose of this study was to examine the joint effects of race and gender on the self-esteem of young adults. Data came from a large sample of undergraduate students (N = 7,552; 2,785 men and 4,767 women) enrolled at a Midwestern U.S. University over the period 1990–2012. Consistent with prior research, we found that men had higher self-esteem than women and that Blacks had higher self-esteem than Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. The analyses, however, revealed that the gender differences in self-esteem were not found among Blacks and that the higher self-esteem of Blacks relative to other races was greater among women than among men. The effects of race and gender did not change controlling for social class and other demographic variables, did not differ across domains of self-esteem, and were not affected by period of time. This study deepens our knowledge of social group differences in self-esteem, providing evidence that the higher self-esteem of men (relative to women) and of Blacks (relative to other races) persisted across the past two decades.
----------------------
Doctors, Patients and the Racial Mortality Gap
Emilia Simeonova
Journal of Health Economics, September 2013, Pages 895–908
Abstract:
Research in the health sciences reports persistent racial differences in health care access, utilization, and outcomes. This study investigates three potential sources of these disparities – differential quality of care, physician discrimination, and patient response to therapy. It uses a unique panel dataset of physician-patient encounters, the resulting medication therapies and the patients’ adherence to those medical recommendations. Equalizing access to quality health care will not erase the racial differences in mortality among chronically ill patients. Targeted programs aimed at improving adherence with medication therapy among disadvantaged groups must be an integral part of any policy aimed at achieving equality in health outcomes.
----------------------
The Influence of Political Dynamics on Southern Lynch Mob Formation and Lethality
Ryan Hagen, Kinga Makovi & Peter Bearman
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
Existing literature focuses on economic competition as the primary causal factor in Southern lynching. Political drivers have been neglected, as findings on their effects have been inconclusive. We show that these consensus views arise from selection on a contingent outcome variable: whether mobs intent on lynching succeed. We constructed an inventory of averted lynching events in Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina — instances in which lynch mobs formed but were thwarted, primarily by law enforcement. We combined these with an inventory of lynching and analyzed them together to model the dynamics of mob formation, success, and intervention. We found that low Republican vote share is associated with a higher lethality rate for mobs. Lynching is better understood as embedded in a post-conflict political system, wherein all potential lynching events, passing through the prism of intervention, are split into successful and averted cases.
----------------------
Robert Boyd
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
By some accounts, large Black populations in northern cities aided Blacks’ employment in occupations of the “Black Metropolis” at the start of the Great Migration. Yet, the present study, analyzing Census data, refutes these accounts. Blacks’ odds of employment in such occupations – for example, mass media and cultural expression – were often greatest in major northern cities with the smallest Black populations, consistent with the proposition that small and stable minority communities avoid intense discrimination. Overall, however, there is little evidence that Black population size substantially affected Blacks’ employment in Black Metropolis occupations.
----------------------
The Nonmartial Origins of the “Martial Races”: Ethnicity and Military Service in Ex-British Colonies
Subhasish Ray
Armed Forces & Society, July 2013, Pages 560-575
Abstract:
Did colonial rule “construct” the “martial races” or do these groups have an innate cultural disposition toward military service? Despite the centrality of this question for evaluating different military manpower recruitment strategies in postcolonial settings, no study has subjected these hypotheses to systematic empirical testing. This article fills this gap using an original data set on the colonial status of 181 ethnic groups across twenty-nine ex-British colonies to examine the origins of colonial “martialness.” The empirical analysis provides robust evidence in support of the constructivist argument.
----------------------
Isao Takei, Arthur Sakamoto & ChangHwan Kim
Race and Social Problems, September 2013, Pages 198-212
Abstract:
Using recent American Community Survey data, this study investigates socioeconomic attainments of six ethnic groups of Southeast Asian Americans. Findings show that the educational attainment of Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Thai is higher than that of whites, while the educational attainment of Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians is lower than that of whites. Regarding earnings, Southeast Asian American women are generally not disadvantaged relative to white women, but Southeast Asian American men tend to have lower earnings than white men after controlling for education and other demographic factors such as age, metropolitan residence, and region. We conclude that Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians are the most disadvantaged groups among Southeast Asian Americans and that most Southeast Asian American male groups tend to be at least slightly disadvantaged in the labor market at least after controlling for metropolitan residence and region.
----------------------
Stoking the "Abolition Fire in the Capitol": Liberty Party Lobbying and Antislavery in Congress
Corey Brooks
Journal of the Early Republic, Fall 2013, Pages 523-547
Abstract:
One of the most crucial and underappreciated political weapons in the arsenal of antebellum abolitionists was their innovative and influential lobbying strategy. Abolitionist agitators, working independently in the late 1830s and through the Liberty Party in the early 1840s, targeted a small number of sympathetic congressmen who could insert antislavery arguments into debates that would reach a broad northern audience. Though only a small fraction of the electorate, political abolitionists thereby profoundly altered congressional politics. Abolition lobbyists especially encouraged antislavery representatives to provoke proslavery overreactions that could be used to substantiate abolitionist warnings that a southern "Slave Power" controlled the national government. Political abolitionists' Slave Power argument, however, also represented a pointed critique of the Second Party System of Whigs and Democrats. Because both major parties relied on cross-sectional support, abolitionists contended that no genuine antislavery policymaking could be expected from either. Liberty Party leaders thus publicly assailed prominent, ostensibly antislavery Whigs as structurally complicit with the Slave Power, while simultaneously privately beseeching the very same Whig politicians to precipitate new congressional controversies. By skillfully managing these complicated relationships, Liberty partisans were able to exploit Congress as a forum through which they could further popularize their anti-Slave Power message.