Racial Discrimination Keeps Popping Up as the Likely Culprit

. . . Behind the Low Wages of Black Workers

Whiter jobs, higher wages: Occupational segregation and the lower wages of black men

In 2008, the year of the election of the nation’s first black president, black men earned only 71% of what white men earned. In this report we examine how occupational segregation based on race is related to this disparity. We find that even after taking educational attainment into account, black men are overrepresented in low-wage jobs and underrepresented in high-wage jobs. Neither hard skills, soft skills, nor black men’s occupational interests provide convincing explanations for black male sorting into low-wage occupations.

The most plausible explanation we find is that labor market discrimination excludes many black men from high- wage jobs. Therefore, effectively combating employment discrimination will contribute significantly to closing the racial earnings gap and improving the socioeconomic position of black families and black communities.

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The low wages of black immigrants: Wage penalties for U.S.-born and foreign-born black workers

The popular discussion of black immigrants often exaggerates their achievements and denigrates U.S.-born blacks. One regularly hears asked, “Why do black immigrants do better than native blacks?” (Coates 2009). In these discussions, black immigrants usually are presented as hard working, valuing education, entrepreneurial, and family-oriented. U.S.-born blacks are often presented as lacking all of these characteristics, and sometimes even described as carrying “victimhood baggage” (Coates 2009; Marshall 2006). Many such discussions are driven by anecdotes, and even when these issues are explored using actual data, rarely are comparisons based on more than one measure; rarer still is there a comparison of how black immigrants fare in comparison with native whites.

This report aims to deepen the public discussion by conducting a broader, more careful examination of the socio-economic standing of black immigrants relative to U.S.-born blacks and whites.

[From the Conclusion]

The fact that black immigrant groups—who are said to be hardworking, valuing education, entrepreneurial, and family-oriented—do relatively poorly in finding work, obtaining a good wage, and staying out of poverty suggests that the playing field is not as level as popularly believed. The fact that all of these groups are black may contribute to their hardships in the United States.

[Read more]

A Good Set of Charts Showing Black Progress

From USA Today: "A time to reflect: Charting the quality of life for black Americans."

EEOC to Examine Treatment of Unemployed Job Seekers

Dr. Austin's testimony is here.

Black America's Unrequited Love [re-post from Feb. 2010]

The conventional wisdom is that because of a rise in interracial relationships, all Americans will be brown in the future. Henry Louis Gates Jr., for example, recently stated, "I'm looking forward to the time when we all look like Polynesians." Current data, however, suggests that the most we might see in the future is the beige-ing--not the browning--of the white population. Additionally, we can expect to see a phenotypic black population into the foreseeable future because while blacks seem somewhat open to interracial relationships, non-blacks prefer whites over blacks. In the American "melting pot," blacks are the least loved group.

While blacks appear to be the most racially tolerant Americans, they are the least tolerated racial group. These are the conclusions suggested by a recent Pew Research Center survey on racial attitudes. Blacks are more likely to accept an interracial marriage by a family member than are whites and Hispanics. But whites and Hispanics view blacks as the least desirable group for interracial marriage.

Given a choice between an Asian or a black person as a relative, whites choose Asians. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of all whites are "fine" with a family member marrying an Asian, but only 64 percent are comfortable with a family member marrying a black person.

Hispanics are more positive toward interracial marriage and toward blacks than whites. The highest rate of acceptance of interracial marriage whites express is 73 percent. The lowest rate of acceptance for Hispanics is 73 percent for a family member marrying a black person. The highest rate of acceptance for Hispanics is 81 percent for a family member marrying a white person. While Hispanics are more accepting of blacks than whites, they still express a greater rate of support for a white person joining the family than a black person.

Interestingly, when one examines blacks' preferences for specific groups, blacks show no favoritism toward any group. Among blacks, the acceptance rate for whites and Asians is 80 percent and 81 percent for Hispanics.

The Pew Research Center data is an attitude survey. It records what people say they would do which may be different from what they actually do. It also asks about a family member and not about the interviewee. A person might accept a family member marrying someone of another race while they think that interracial marriage is unacceptable for themselves.

There is data that provides some insight into people's actual racial preferences for love and marriage. The dating website OkCupid conducted an analysis of response rates to first-contact messages from potential male and female suitors. The analysis took account of compatibility, attractiveness and height. The OkCupid analyst found that white, Hispanic and Asian women on average revealed strong preferences for white men. Black women had the lowest response rates. In the interracial online dating world, white men have a distinct advantage. Blacks are disadvantaged and especially black women.

Interracial marriage data from the 2000 Census paints a picture similar to OkCupid's findings. Asian and Hispanic women have higher rates of intermarriage than white and black women. More than one-in-five married Asian women (22 percent) were married to non-Asian men. Eighteen of the 22 percent of Asian women were married to white men. The overall out-marriage rate for Hispanics was a little lower, 18 percent, with 15 percent of Hispanic women married to white men. Only 4 percent of married black women were married to non-blacks, and only 2 percent were married to white men. Asian and Hispanic women are much more likely to marry outside of their race than black women and when they do marry outside of their racial group in the vast majority of cases it is to white men.

The picture for married men of color differed from that of women. While Asian women were the most likely to be married to someone of another race, among men, Hispanic men were the most likely to marry outside of their group. Fifteen percent of Hispanic men married non-Hispanics with the vast majority (13 out of the 15 percent) marrying white women. Black and Asian men were equally likely to marry outside of their race with an out-marriage rate of 9 percent for both. Six percent of black men married white women and 7 percent of Asian men did the same.

The attitudinal data shows non-blacks less accepting of interracial marriage with blacks compared to other groups. The online dating data shows that blacks, and particularly black women, are seen as less desirable for romantic relationships. The marriage data shows that black women have very low marriage rates to non-blacks and to white men specifically.

If there is a mixed-race future for America, at present, it looks like it will largely exclude blacks.

A First Take on the President's Budget

from the New York Times

Cool budget tool here.


from the Congressional Black Caucus: Eight Budget Cuts to Note

Number 1: President Obama is proposing to cut $2.5 billion in heating assistance for low-income people (LIHEAP). About 8.3 million households in the U.S. used the program in 2010.

Number 8: The House GOP is proposing a cut of $210 million from Maternal and Child Health Block Grants. This would chop the program by 30%. Like the WIC program, the grants assist low-income pregnant women and their children in accessing health care.

[Read more]

EPI Event: Understanding the Low Wages of Black Workers

The election of Barack Obama, in 2008, stands as the high-water mark for the achievement of a black male in the United States. Yet in that same year, black men earned only 71% of what white men earned. Such disparities are popularly attributed to deficiencies among American-born black men.

On February 28, 2011, the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy will conduct a detailed exploration of the low wages of black workers by examining the noncollege labor market, the wages of black immigrants, and the wages of black men in different occupations. The Program’s director, Algernon Austin, will moderate this forum, which will unveil the findings of two new studies that hold popular perceptions about blacks in the low-wage labor market up to vigorous analysis.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Registration begins at 9:45 am
10:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Economic Policy Institute
1333 H St., NW, Washington, DC 20005
Refreshments will be served.

RSVP here

Featured Speakers:

Pamela J. Loprest, Urban Institute
Co-author of Working for Cents on the Dollar: Race and Ethnic Wage Gaps in the Noncollege Labor Market

Patrick L. Mason, Florida State University
Co-author of The Low Wages of Black Immigrants: Wage Penalties for U.S.-Born and Foreign-Born Black Workers

Darrick Hamilton, Milano: The New School for Management and Urban Policy
Co-author of Occupational Segregation and the Lower Wages of Black Men

RSVP here