A Framework for
Understanding the Causes
of Racial Inequalities
in 21st Century America
DISPARATE OUTCOMES
DISPARATE OUTCOMES
Source: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. 2006. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr2/slides/today/Equality_today.pdf
DISPARATE OUTCOMES
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Educational Attainment in the United States: 2007. January 2009
DISPARATE OUTCOMES
Black males earn 2/3rds of what white males at the same education level earn.
Source: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. 2006. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr2/slides/today/Equality_today.pdf
DISPARATE OUTCOMES
Source: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. 2006. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr2/slides/today/Equality_today.pdf
DISPARATE OUTCOMES
Source: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/pop/poptrends/default.asp and http://www.doc.wa.gov/aboutdoc/statistics.asp
Why are “race” and “racism” such
difficult issues to grasp and deal with?

We are still struggling over the meanings of race and
equality

We are reluctant to acknowledge the legacies of our racial
history and how much race has been a fundamental axis of
social organization

We are proud of our civil rights accomplishments

We think of ourselves as an “equal opportunity” society
where anyone who works hard enough can succeed

We often prefer to address symptoms rather than the
roots of social problems
LEADERS WHO WORK ON
RACIAL EQUITY NEED…

A language to talk about race

A framework for understanding how race and
ethnicity operate in modern America (postcivil rights legislation)

New ideas and strategies for reducing racial
inequities in key opportunity domains and
promoting racial equity
What is race and how do we
understand it?

No biological or scientific basis behind it

Best understood in social and political
terms

Race is a “Social Construct”
New Language – we need to
identify and talk about:

The ongoing
advantages
associated with being
"white” – sometimes
referred to as a
white privilege

The ongoing
disadvantages
associated with being
a person of
“color”— which we
refer to as
structural racism
How is structural racism different?
Common explanations of entrenched racial
and/or ethnic disparity:
Individual
Institutional
Structural
Racism at the individual or
inter-group level:
• Personal prejudice
• Racial slurs, the n-word
• Inter-group tensions
• Diversity and multi-culturalism
• Cultural competence
…these are
important, and
these personal
attitudes and
beliefs color
decision-making
and actions.
Individual Racial Attitudes
“Are racial disparities due to inborn learning ability?”
Source: General Social Surveys: 1972-2006. http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website/
Individual Racial Attitudes
“Are racial disparities due to blacks’ lack of will?”
Source: General Social Surveys: 1972-2006. http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website/
Individual Racial Attitudes
“Would you favor a law against interracial marriage?”
Source: General Social Surveys: 1972-2006. http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website/
Individual Racial Attitudes
“Would you vote for a Black candidate for President?”
Source: General Social Surveys: 1972-2006. http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website/
The bigger problem…
Racism at the
institutional and structural
levels
Institutional Racism
Education
Health
Employment
Criminal
Justice
Housing
Environment
Examples of Institutional Racism

Discriminatory practices, intentional or not

Redlining or “steering”

Occupational segregation

Racial profiling
Does racial profiling still exist?
In 2002, Black and Hispanic
drivers were stopped by police
at the same rate as Whites.
The cover of this report
from the Justice
Department’s Bureau of
Justice Statistics might
make you think that racial
profiling is no longer a
problem…
But the data inside tells a more complex story
Police Traffic Stops, Searches & Outcomes, by
Race/Ethnicity
16.00%
14.00%
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
White
Black
Hispanic
Drivers Stopped Driver or Vehicle Criminal Evidence
by Police
Searched During Found During
Stop
Search
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Contacts
Between Police and the Public: Findings from the 2002 National Survey. April 2005.
Disparities Beneath the Surface
As the cover of the report advertised, police stopped black, white, and
Hispanic drivers at roughly equal rates.
However, among stopped drivers, police searched blacks and Hispanics
roughly three times as often as whites.
Even though black drivers were searched
much more often than whites, searches
of black drivers yielded less criminal
evidence than one quarter as often as
searches of white drivers.
Institutional Racism in Education
Source: The Education Trust. Core Problems: Out-of-Field Teaching in Key Academic Courses and High Poverty Schools.
November 2008. Note: “Out-of-Field Instructors” refers to teachers without either a certification or major in the subject they teach.
Institutional Racism in Employment
The Net Job Loss for Black Workers was disproportionately high compared to
white workers during the recession in the early 1990’s.
Source: Rochelle Sharpe. 1993. “Losing Ground: In Last Recession, Only Blacks Suffered Net Employment Loss” Wall Street Journal, (September).
Institutional Racism in Employment
Changes in New England Civilian Employment Age 16 and Older
2007-2009.
Source: Sum, Andrew, Ishwar Khatiwada, and Joseph McLaughlin. The 2007-2009 Recession’s Impact
on New England's African American Males. Communities and Banking . 2010.
Institutional Racism:
A Systems Perspective
Education
Health
Employment
Criminal
Justice
Housing
Environment
Structural Racism
Education
Health
Employment
Criminal
Justice
Housing
Environment
What is Structural Racism?
It describes the complex ways that
• history
• national values
• cultural representations
• public policies and institutional
practices
interact to maintain racial hierarchy and
inequitable racial group outcomes; so that
privileges associated with “whiteness”
and disadvantages associated with “color”
to endure and adapt.
The Context: Dominant Consensus on Race
Historically
Accumulated
White Privilege
National
Values
Contemporary
Culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that
Maintain Racial
Hierarchy
Racialized Public
Policies, Social
and Historical
Practices, Cultural
Representations
Inequitable Outcomes in Major Opportunity Areas
Heath
Housing
Education
Employment
Environment
Justice
Capacity for Individual and Community Improvement is Undermined
Production and Reproduction of Racial Inequities
The Context: Dominant Consensus on Race
WE
ARE
HERE
Historically
Accumulated
White Privilege
National
Values
Contemporary
Culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that
Maintain Racial
Hierarchy
Racialized Public
Policies, Social
and Historical
Practices, Cultural
Representations
Inequitable Outcomes in Major Opportunity Areas
Heath
Housing
Education
Employment
Environment
Justice
Capacity for Individual and Community Improvement is Undermined
Production and Reproduction of Racial Inequities
Historically Accumulated White Privilege
Whites’ historical and contemporary advantages in access to:
• quality education
• decent jobs
• livable wages
• home ownership
• retirement benefits
… have helped create and sustain
advantages in wealth accumulation.
What is White Privilege?
“As a white person, I had been taught about
racism as something that puts
others at a disadvantage,
but had been taught not to see one of its
corollary aspects, white privilege,
which puts me at an advantage.”
Peggy Macintosh, “White Privilege:
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”
Net Worth by Race
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances Chartbook. May 6, 2009.10
Homeownership Rates by Race
Seattle – Everett Metropolitan Area, 2006
Source: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project:. 2006. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr2/slides/today/Equality_today.pdf
Homeownership Values by Race
Seattle –Everett Metropolitan Area, 2006
Source: Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. 2006. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr2/slides/today/Equality_today.pdf
Parents/Grandparents of
WHITE AMERICANS:

Had higher incomes/earned
salaries

Accumulated retirement
through union membership,
participation in social security,
etc.

Benefited from home
ownership policies and were
able to buy property in rising
neighborhoods.
Parents/Grandparents of
BLACK AMERICANS:
Had lower incomes because
of educational segregation and
discrimination in employment.
 Were denied access to
suburban real estate because
of exclusionary brokering and
community planning


Were denied low-interest
Federal Housing Authority
mortgage loans due to
“redlining”
How do we explain this difference in
wealth accumulation?
Recent Causes of Wealth Disparity
• Wealth disparity is not merely a consequence of
past policies, such as redlining and segregation.
Current practices perpetuate it.
So, for example:
• The recent financial crisis was triggered, in part,
by financial deregulation, which led to an
increase in “subprime” mortgage lending.
• Subprime lending grew from 5 percent of the
mortgage market in 1994 to 20 percent in 2005.
Racial Disparity in Lending
Blacks and
Hispanics
received
these loans
at a much
higher rate
than
whites.
Source: Robert B. Avery et al. “The 2006 HDMA Data.” The Federal Reserve Bulletin. December 21, 2007.
The Racial Remainder
Credit ratings do not fully explain the disparity.
A 2004 study found that black borrowers were
more likely to receive higher-rate home purchase
and refinance loans than whites,
even while controlling for borrower credit score,
loan-to-value ratio, ability to document income,
and other underwriting factors.
Source: Debbie Gruenstein Bocian et al. Unfair Lending: The Affect of Race and Ethnicity
on the Price of Subprime Mortgages. Center for Responsible Lending. May 31, 2006.
Possible Explanations of Disparity
•
Lack of banks in majority-minority communities, which
leads minority borrowers towards higher-cost mortgage
brokers.
•
Prevalence of predatory mortgage brokers, who profit
from selling high-interest loans, in poor minority
communities.
•
Lending criteria that consider the location of the
property, and local delinquency rates, in setting interest
rates.
•
Lack of financial education and historical distrust of
conventional lenders in minority communities, which leads
borrowers to higher-costs brokers.
The Consequences for Minority Wealth
A 2008 report from United for a Fair
Economy estimates that the
total loss of wealth for people of
color from subprime loans taken out
between 2000 and 2008 will be between
$164 and $213 Billion.
Source: Amaad Rivera et al. Foreclosed: State of the Dream, 2008. United for a Fair Economy. January 15, 2008.
Structural Racism in Mortgage Finance
Homeowners in California seek assistance at an event to help
people restructure high-risk loans (Washington Post, Dec 2009
Racially-neutral policy
decisions to deregulate
the financial sector,
and thus enable high-cost,
high-risk lending at
a huge scale, interacted
with existing inequalities
to strip people of color
of their wealth.
The Context: Dominant Consensus on Race
Historically
Accumulated
White Privilege
WE
ARE
HERE
National
Values
Contemporary
Culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that
Maintain Racial
Hierarchy
Racialized Public
Policies, Social
and Historical
Practices, Cultural
Representations
Inequitable Outcomes in Major Opportunity Areas
Heath
Housing
Education
Employment
Environment
Justice
Capacity for Individual and Community Improvement is Undermined
Production and Reproduction of Racial Inequities
National Values
Such as:
Equal opportunity:
• A “level playing field”
Meritocracy:
• Advancement depends on talent and effort
Individualism/ Personal Responsibility:
• Individual choices and behaviors determine
outcomes
National Values
For too many people of color, these national values do not apply:
Negates the material
and psychological
advantages of some
groups
Equal
Opportunity
Reinforces the myth
that individual skills
and effort wholly
determine outcomes
Often implies inherent laziness
and a poor work ethic for
many people of color.
These views can be held
by whites or POC
Race: The Power of an Illusion
25-minute video
The Context: Dominant Consensus on Race
Historically
Accumulated
White Privilege
National
Values
WE
ARE
HERE
Contemporary
Culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
Processes that
Maintain Racial
Hierarchy
Racialized Public
Policies, Social
and Historical
Practices, Cultural
Representations
Inequitable Outcomes in Major Opportunity Areas
Heath
Housing
Education
Employment
Environment
Justice
Capacity for Individual and Community Improvement is Undermined
Production and Reproduction of Racial Inequities
Contemporary Culture
Societal norms, values and practices
reinforce racial stereotypes and emphasize
“innate” capacities of different groups.
The media’s creation and perpetuation of racial
stereotypes has been particularly pernicious. For
example…
Cultural Representations in
Television and Print News

76% of people say they form opinions about
crime from the news

African Americans are over reported as
perpetrators of crime

African Americans are presented as more
threatening than their white counterparts

Paucity of positive information about and
images of young men of color
Effects of Cultural Representations

Perceptions of weapon possession

Beliefs about perpetrators

Attitudes about crime and beliefs about race
Racial Attitudes:Violence
Blacks
Hispanics
Asians
White
Prone
Not Prone
Neutral
47.0
37.4
16.9
21.4
15.5
18.5
36.6
30.7
37.5
44.1
46.5
47.9
Source: 2000 National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey as cited in
Young Men of Color in the Media: Images and Impacts, Robert M. Entman 2006, pg. 7.
Racial Attitudes: Intelligence
Blacks
Hispanics
Asians
White
Unintelligent
Intelligent
21.9
23.9
10.5
6.7
29.6
25.3
49.8
52.4
Source: 2000 National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey as cited in
Young Men of Color in the Media: Images and Impacts, Robert M. Entman 2006, pg. 7.
Neutral
48.5
50.8
39.7
40.9
Racial Attitudes: Hardworking
Lazy
Blacks
Hispanics
Asians
White
34.3
21.9
10.9
10.8
Hardworking Neutral
22.0
37.8
57.2
45.9
Source: 2000 National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey as cited in
Young Men of Color in the Media: Images and Impacts, Robert M. Entman 2006, pg. 7.
43.7
40.3
31.9
43.3
Perceptions of Young Black Men
When people are seen as possessing “deficient” or “deviant”
cultural practices:
• It becomes common sense to deny
public resources, judge them
differently
• People can point to culture as an
individual not structural impediment
to progress.
• These stereotypes are often recycled
and have appeared in the past.
Cultural Perceptions:
“Everything’s in a Name”
Percentage of applicants that received interview requests:
Common WHITE names
Kristen
Carrie
Laurie
Meredith
Sarah
Allison
Jill
Anne
Emily
13.6%
13.1%
10.8%
10.6%
9.8%
9.4%
9.3%
9.0%
8.3%
Average 10.3%
Common BLACK names
Ebony
Latonya
Kenya
Latoya
Tanisha
Lakisha
Tamika
Keisha
Aisha
10.5%
9.1%
9.1%
8.8%
6.3%
5.5%
5.4%
3.8%
2.2%
Average 6.9%
Source: Alan B. Krueger. Economic Scene: sticks and stones can break bones, but the
wrong name can make a job hard to find. The New York Times. (December 1, 2002), C2.
Cultural Perceptions and School Disciplines
Source: U.S. Department of Education. Civil Rights Data Collection: 2006. http://ocrdata.ed.gov/ocr2006rv30/wdsdata.html
Influence of Cultural Perceptions in determining
outcomes in opportunity domains
Source: The Civil Rights Project. “Opportunities Suspended: The Devastating
Consequences of Zero Tolerance and School Discipline.” Harvard University. (2000): P.8
.
Internalized White Privilege
“…an invisible package of
unearned assets which I can
count on cashing in each day,
but about which I was meant
to remain oblivious….”
- Peggy Macintosh, “White Privilege:
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”
Contents of a Knapsack
• I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I
will not be followed or harassed.
• I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and
see people of my race widely represented.
• I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
• I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most
of the time.
• If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be
sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
• I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism
for their own daily physical protection.
Internalized Oppression
by African Americans
“Stereotype Threat”
• African American students perform as well as their
white peers on exams when they are told the test is
merely an exercise
• They perform more poorly than their white peers
when told that the exam
is intended to assess their
competence and intelligence
Source: http://www.ReduceStereotypeThreat.org
A Class Divided
15-minute video
BREAK
The Context: Dominant Consensus on Race
Historically
Accumulated
White Privilege
National
Values
Contemporary
Culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
WE
ARE
HERE
Processes that
Maintain Racial
Hierarchy
Racialized Public
Policies, Social
and Historical
Practices, Cultural
Representations
Inequitable Outcomes in Major Opportunity Areas
Heath
Housing
Education
Employment
Environment
Justice
Capacity for Individual and Community Improvement is Undermined
Production and Reproduction of Racial Inequities
Social Processes that Maintain
Racial Hierarchies
Progress and Retrenchment:
Progress has been made through
major “racial equality” victories
BUT
Gains on some fronts are often challenged,
neutralized or undermined.
Significant backlashes develop in key
public policy areas .
Structural Racism is reconstructed and
preserved through various social processes such as:
Marginalization
Included
but
relegated
Exploitation
Social Isolation
& Exclusion
Not
included
Taken
advantage
of
Sorting
Spatial,
Institutional,
&
Individual
The Context: Dominant Consensus on Race
Historically
Accumulated
White Privilege
National
Values
Contemporary
Culture
Current Manifestations: Social and Institutional Dynamics
WE
ARE
HERE
Processes that
Maintain Racial
Hierarchy
Racialized Public
Policies, Social
and Historical
Practices, Cultural
Representations
Inequitable Outcomes in Major Opportunity Areas
Heath
Housing
Education
Employment
Environment
Justice
Capacity for Individual and Community Improvement is Undermined
Production and Reproduction of Racial Inequities
What does the Structural Racism
Framework mean for people who want
to reduce inequalities?
It means four types of changes in the way we work:
• Internal change
• Policy change
• Practice change
• Cultural/representational change
What does the Structural Racism
Framework mean for people who want
to reduce inequalities?
“Internal” Change
 Accepting and establishing racial equity as a central tenet
and operating principle in our work to improve outcomes
for youth and in our internal work environment.
For example:

Focus not just on improving outcomes for all but also on
reducing racial gaps

Focus not just on diversity in the workplace, but also on racial
equity in opportunities for advancement and leadership
Also…
 We believe it is important to align your internal work policies and practices
with your external work so that the theme of racial equity is consistent.
What does the Structural Racism
Framework mean for people who want
to reduce inequalities?
“Policy” change:
 Working on the fundamental rules of the game
within your organization and your field, and not
shrinking from challenging traditional power
bases and networks.
For example:
• Focus on the fundamental distribution of resources in terms of
money, infrastructure, and opportunities within your organization
and outside your organization by examining its programs and
alliances
What does the Structural Racism
Framework mean for people who want
to reduce inequalities?
“Practice” Change:
 Focusing carefully on all of the ways in which
standard practices reproduce – or fail to
counteract – racially disparate outcomes.

For example:
• Critically examine informal practices within your organization and
their impact on racial and ethnic minorities (e.g. mentoring, access
to positions which lead to leadership opportunities, visibility etc.)
What does the Structural Racism
Framework mean for people who want
to reduce inequalities?
“Cultural” or “representational” change:
 Reframing and changing stereotypical messages,
images and interpretations of information about
people of color.
For Example:
• Challenge assumptions that employees, board members,
policymakers, the citizens of our communities, and other key
actors bring to discussions about people of color because these
assumptions “frame” how problems are perceived and how
solutions are developed.
A Girl Like Me
7-minute video
Thank You
The Aspen Institute
Roundtable on Community Change
281 Park Avenue South, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10010
(212) 677-5510