LESSON 6: Laissez Faire Racism
and The Mark of a Criminal Record
Ethnic Relations, ROBERT WONSER
1
Laissez-Faire Racism
• Laissez-Faire Racism (a.k.a. symbolic
racism) is closely related to color
blindness and covert racism, and is
theorized to encompass an ideology
that blames minorities for their poorer
economic situations, viewing it as the
result of cultural inferiority
2
• Bobo and Ryan Smith use this term to represent how
the racial outlooks of white Americans have shifted
from the more overtly racist Jim Crow attitudes—
which endorsed school segregation, advocated for
governmentally imposed discrimination, and
embraced the idea that minorities were biologically
inferior to whites—to a more subtle form of racism
that continues to rationalize the ongoing problem
of racial oppression in the United States.
• Laissez-faire racists claim to support equality while
maintaining negative, stereotypical beliefs about
minorities.
3
• Katherine Tarca writes that laissez-faire racism is the
belief, stated or implied through actions, that one can
end racial inequality and discrimination by refusing to
acknowledge that race and racial discrimination exists.
• Laissez-faire racism has two main ideas:
• the belief in the melting pot and America’s assertion
of ideas of equal opportunity, regardless of race.
• laissez-faire racism encompasses the ideology of how
individual deficiencies explain the problems of entire
social groups.
• Tarca explains that Whites tend to view laissez-faire
racism as being beneficial to people of color, while
many minorities believe that these ideologies contrast
and ignore the realities facing many minorities in
America.
4
• Eduardo Bonilla Silva suggests that all groups of people in
power construct these ideologies in order to justify social
inequalities.
• For example, most racial ideologies today are more inclined to
omit unfashionable racist language, which protects racial privilege
by employing certain philosophies of liberalism in a more
conceptual and decontextualized approach.
• These ideologies help to reinforce the existing condition of
affairs by concentrating on cultural distinctions as the cause of
the inferior accomplishments of minorities in education and
employment.
• These ideas are primarily focused on the more darker-skinned
minorities, such as, African-Americans, Asians and Latinos.
• Ideologies like these refuse to acknowledge the systematic
oppression, such as the continuing school segregation or
persistent negative racial stereotypes that continue to occur
in American society.
5
Trends in Incarceration
• Over 2 million persons currently incarcerated in
U.S., highest rate in world
• Numbers reflect trend of longer sentences & more
incarceration for greater range of offenses
• Little planning or provision for individuals’
eventual return to community
• About half a million released annually
• 12 million ex-felons total or about 8% of workingage population
• Recidivism high, with nearly 2/3 charged with new
crimes & 40% return to prison within 3 years of
release
6
• At least one contributing factor is that
incarceration is associated with limited future
employment and earnings
• Incarceration rate for black men in 2000 was 10%
versus 1% for whites
• Young black males: 28% likelihood of
incarceration during lifetime – a probability that
increases to over 50% for young black high
school dropouts
• Translates into large & increasing population of
black ex-offenders returning to communities
• Black ex-offenders goal of reaching economic
self-sufficiency are compounded by stigma of
race along with criminal record
7
I. Trends in Incarceration
• Goal of current study is to assess
whether effect of a criminal record
differs for black and white job
applicants
• Little or no previous research has
explored racial differences in effects of
incarceration on such things as
employment
8
INCARCERATION STUDY
• Four 23-year-old male college students
(two black & two white) testers and
matched on physical appearance and
style of self-presentation
• Within each team of same race, one
tester was randomly assigned a‘criminal
record’ for the first week and this was
rotated weekly during period of job
searches
9
A. STUDY DESIGN
• Each team randomly assigned 15 job openings per
week;
• White pair and black pair assigned separate sets
of jobs with same-race testers applying to same
jobs
• A total of 350 employers were audited: 150 by
white team, 200 by black team
• More audits by black team because they
received fewer callbacks and more cases sought
to enable more precise estimates of effects under
investigation
• Tester profiles: criminal record consisted of felony
drug conviction (possession with intent to distribute
cocaine) and 18 months of prison time served
10
Effect of a Criminal Record for
Whites
• Criminal record has a large and
significant effect:
• 34% without records received callbacks,
while only 17% of whites with records
received callbacks
• Finding represents a 50% difference in
outcomes
11
Effects of Race
• The effect of race is huge: only 14% of
blacks without records received
callbacks while a mere 5% with records
received calls
• Blacks without records in other words
received less callbacks (14%) than
whites with records (17%) and
compared to 34% of whites without
records
12
Racial Differences in the Effects of
a Criminal Record
•Ratio of callbacks for non-offenders
relative to ex-offenders for whites is 2:1
•Ratio of callbacks for non-offenders
relative to ex-offenders for blacks is 3:1
•The effect of a criminal record is 40%
larger for blacks than for whites
13
Discussion
• There can be doubt of the powerful,
negative effects of a criminal record
on employment outcomes:
• Chances for employment decreased
by 50% to 33%
• With millions of ex-offenders, the policy
consequences are profound
14
• Persistent effect of race on
employment also clear from this study:
• While incarceration is a strong barrier
to employment, race is even a
bigger one
• The combination of race and a record
severely limits employment
opportunities for blacks thereby
leaving many without viable legal
alternatives of livelihood
15
REVIEW QUESTIONS
• Why is the recidivism rate so high
among criminal offenders and what
can be done to decrease it?
• What effects do race have on the
employability of whites and blacks and
what does it say about racism in
American society?
16