As I explained earlier, the US was founded primarily with the racial paradigm of white v. non-white. This lens primarily applied to White Europeans and Black slaves for hundreds of years. These two groups are the foundational racial groups in the US. This lesson will focus on how racism leads to negative outcomes for Americans identified as Black and White.
Just like people are unique and dynamic, so is each racial group. The racialization of each group has a unique history and racism affects each group differently. For more info about the history ad racism related to each group, please refer to Racism and Specific Racial Groups, Chapter 17 of Robin DiAngelo's book, What Does It Mean to Be White? And for more information about the language and etymology of racial groups consult UW Madison professor Pamela Oliver's website, continually updated here, but she also posted a PDF version of this essay on SocArXiv.
Racism's Effects on People Racialized as Black
Being Inclusive
- According to a 2022 Pew Research study, a large majority (78%) of Americans who identify as Black say that race is central to their experience. And the Pew details other stats related to Black Americans in this 2023 study.
- About half of Americans who identify as Black prefer the term Black and about half prefer African American. Either of these are generally acceptable terms, but you should defer to the term that the individual prefers. (Gallup 2020)
- Acknowledge the Juneteenth holiday which is June Nineteenth. This was the day that the last slaves finally heard that they were free two years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation! It took that long for the news to spread and for slave owners to acknowledge their freedom. For more info see the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
- Black Lives Matter does not mean that other lives don’t matter. It is not a political statement; it is a humanitarian statement. Black Lives Matter is overwhelmingly supported by Americans who identify as Black and they see it as the most important advocacy for Black Americans in recent years. (Pew 2023). See this post for a detailed history of Black Lives Matter movement.
- Recognize that there is variation within the Black community in the US. Americans who descended from slaves do not know their specific country or culture from Africa. But, recent immigrants from Africa are likely to identify with their specific country or ethnic group from where they emigrated.
Segregation
The 2020 Census shows that the USA is diversifying faster than previously predicted. From USA Facts, this graphic shows the racial makeup of the USA in 2020:The Brookings Institute also explains the increasing diversity in the USA here.Explore where different races live in the U.S. using Justice Map here.What trends can you identify?
1. Did you grow up in a neighborhood that was largely one race? What were the demographics and geography of where you grew up? How do they compare to the nation overall?There is quite a bit of segregation in the U.S.A., even in areas that seem to be diverse (like Chicago) there is a large amount of segregation.Some of the segregation is a result of institutional policies like redlining and sadly, the criminal justice system. Look at this analysis (from Patheos 2018) of the racial dot map.The effects of segregation have long-lasting impact including:
Segregation in rental market This 2018 research by economists Early, Carrillo, and Olsen finds that discrimination causes black renters to pay substantially more than whites for identical homes in identical neighborhoods; the amount of the exploitation is greater the more white the neighborhood.NY's Amsterdam News highlights school segregation in this article: Where School Segregation is Still Happening across the U.S. The article highlights research from U of Southern California's Segregation Index.2. Hypothesize at least one way how segregation might contribute to economic, health or educational disparities.
Economics
As we have mentioned earlier in the semester, there are multiple audit studies that show that race is a factor in preventing some Americans from interviewing for potential jobs.University of Chicago School of Economics and Labor MarketMarianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan published a study of implicit bias and the labor market in The American Economic Review (2004) called Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination?Labor Market and FeloniesFrom the NY Times, When a Dissertation Makes a Difference shows not only how unconscious bias can play a role in hiring in a most inequitable way, but also how sociology can make a difference that influences policy.As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Devah Pager studied the difficulties of former prisoners trying to find work and, in the process, came up with a disturbing finding: it is easier for a white person with a felony conviction to get a job than for a black person whose record is clean.Pager's dissertation is called The Mark of a Criminal Record (2003) was an audit study of the Milwaukee area labor market. She also published in a follow-up study (2010) in the American Sociological Review which was a more qualitative study using fieldwork.
The Economic Policy Institute (2016) found that the wage gap among different races is growing more as the inequality, in general, grows. The report lists key findings as well as policy suggestions.The Guardian analyzes the EPI report here. Some notable findings include: the wage gap is worse than in 1979, and that college graduation does not mitigate the disparity as black college graduates earn 10% less than their white cohorts.Inequality.org published a report on racial inequality showing that the disparity is not just income but also wealth and homeownership.
Health/Medicine
Living with daily racism and microaggressions takes a cumulative toll on one’s health. This study published in the journal of Ethnicity and Disease shows that African-Americans experience worse health outcomes than African immigrants who come to the US. Lower hypertension among 1st gen African immigrants compared to multigenerational Americans who are black shows that the stress of growing up in the United States where racism against Americans who are black has a real effect.
Social factors play an important and well-documented role in health outcomes. Race is especially correlated to health outcomes because racial inequalities are so stark and have persisted for so long. The evidence below shows that race affects health outcomes:
The Annals of Epidemiology (2019) published this meta-analysis of the effects of daily stresses as a result of racism, also known as the "weathering hypothesis." The analysis finds that having to weather the stress of racism has a cumulative effect on individual resulting in lower life expectancies and worse health outcomes.
American Academy of Pediatrics (2019) published this statement about how childrens and teens can be harmed by racism and what doctors and healthcare providers should do to improve health outcomes.Racism Impacts Your Health, a 2018 article from The Conversation documents a literature review of the myriad ways that racism impacts health outcomes for minorities including: higher systolic blood pressure, increased blood pressure and higher rates of hypertension.
NPR reported (2018) on a Center for Disease Control study published in JAMA Pediatrics of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the effects on health. Those identifying as black or Latino and those with less than a high school education or an annual income below $15,000 were more likely to have more ACEs.
This article reported in the NY Times (2018) shows that Black infants in America are now more than twice as likely to die as white infants — a racial disparity that is actually wider than in 1850, 15 years before the end of slavery!
A 2016 report on life expectancy from PBS reveals that Americans who are black have a shorter life expectancy from the moment they are born. The disparity continues throughout life so that African Americans live about 4 years shorter than white Americans on average.
The American Public Health Association study of hypertension/heart disease published a link between racism and heart disease in the American Journal of Public Health (2012)This 2010 fact sheet from the Center for American Progress shows disparities in health for all races including who has health coverage, chronic diseases and causes of death for African Americans/Blacks, Hispanics, Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, Asian Americans.The American Journal of Epidemiology (2007) found a link between racism and breast cancer summarized by the National Institute of Health.
Punishment/Legal System
Institutionally-sanctioned punishment begins in preK!A 2016 Yale University study of discipline disparities in preschool found that implicit bias towards preschool students perceived as black resulted in teachers monitoring their behavior more closely and punishing them more often including in expulsion rates!
And it continues throughout high school:
Vox shows racism at school from preK-12 in 7 charts (2015).https://www.vox.com/2015/10/31/9646504/discipline-race-charts
This article from the Sociology of Education (2017) shows that implicit bias results in black girls being punished harsher for subjective offenses. In other words, when the offense is subjective, school officials are more likely to perceive black girls as being worthy of punishment. You can read the article and use my annotations to answer questions about it. Then see the data source from the article below to look up data on your own.
US Dept of Education just released data on racial disparities in every school and school district in America (from preK-12). Here’s how you use the data to show if/how your school discriminates against black students and other marginalized groups. First, lookup the most recent year of data available for your school and/or school district. Right now that’s data on the 2015-16 school year. Here’s where you go: https://ocrdata.ed.gov/DistrictSchoolSearch#schoolSearchHere's a link to Samual Sinyangwe's tweet about this.Click on the Discipline Report on the right side and you’ll see which groups of students your school is most likely to suspend, expel, and refer to law enforcement. You can also see who’s more likely to be arrested at school using the “school-related arrests” tab.And the Disparity Continues in the Criminal Justice System:
Sociologists like Forest Stuart and Alice Goffman make the case that police target poor communities. And other social scientists (Sentencing Project, Marshall Project, Equal Justice Initiative, Michelle Alexander) explain that the disparity in the criminal justice system which has incarcerated nearly 1/3 of all black males has torn apart families and disenfranchised entire zipcodes (Paul Street's Vicious Circle).
Police Surveillance and Implicit Bias from the Sociologist Toolbox
Part of the privilege of being white and implicit bias of not being perceived as white is the idea of belonging. Similar to Nina Davuluri who was perceived as not American, here are a number of examples (A NY Police Lt., Harvard U. President, State Senator Obama) of Americans who are perceived as black being treated as they don't belong. Sometimes, they are seen as not belonging in the U.S. or not being American, but in other instances, it is that they do not belong within a more micro-sociological context such as living in a certain house or neighborhood. Below are examples of this from 2018.
Have you ever had the cops called on you for doing something that was just your normal life (and not illegal)? If so, what was it? If not, are these examples surprising?
Part of the privilege of being white and implicit bias of not being perceived as white is the idea of belonging. Similar to Nina Davuluri who was perceived as not American, here are a number of examples (A NY Police Lt., Harvard U. President, State Senator Obama) of Americans who are perceived as black being treated as they don't belong. Sometimes, they are seen as not belonging in the U.S. or not being American, but in other instances, it is that they do not belong within a more micro-sociological context such as living in a certain house or neighborhood. Below are examples of this from 2018.
In 2018, police across the United States have been urged to investigate black people for doing all kinds of daily, mundane, noncriminal activities. This year alone, CNN has reported on police being called on African-Americans for:
And these are just the incidents that CNN has reported in 2018! There are no doubt many others.
Have you ever had the cops called on you for doing something that was just your normal life (and not illegal)? If so, what was it? If not, are these examples surprising?
An amazing example of implicit racism (and white privilege) was highlighted on the TV show What Would You Do? You will be astonished at the difference in how the two men are treated. Watch this video (embedded below).
3. Comment on some of the evidence above in the disparities of how Americans are punished based on race. What was compelling/surprising?Disproportionately stopped by police:This 2021 Dept. of Justice brief explains thatIn 2018, based on data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, black people were overrepresented among persons arrested for nonfatal violent crimes (33%) and for serious nonfatal violent crimes (36%) relative to their representation in the U.S. population (13%) (table 1). White people were underrepresented.Disproportionately shot by police:
This 2019 study from the Proceedings of the National Acdemy of Sciences of the United States of America concludes that, "people of color face a higher likelihood of being killed by police than do white men and women, that risk peaks in young adulthood, and that men of color face a nontrivial lifetime risk of being killed by police." African American men and women ... face higher lifetime risk of being killed by police than do their white peers... Risk is highest for black men, who (at current levels of risk) face about a 1 in 1,000 chance of being killed by police over the life course. The average lifetime odds of being killed by police are about 1 in 2,000 for men and about 1 in 33,000 for women. Risk peaks between the ages of 20 y and 35 y for all groups. For young men of color, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.The American Journal of Preventative Medicine explains thatVictims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83%); however, black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8%) victims.So, yes according to this study from 2009-2012, more whites have been killed, but a DISPROPORTIONATE number of blacks have been killed and that disproportionate number was much LESS likely to be armed.This 2021 Washington Post study has detailed every police shooting since 2015.Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White AmericansAlthough half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.Although this is a more anecdotal bit of evidence, I saw this video from Youtube (Watch from 2:30-6:15 and 12:50-18:50) and thought what an amazing contrast to the videos of police stopping Philando Castille, Sandra Bland, Terence Crutcher, Levar Jones and the stopping of black men by police.Disproportionately sentenced:
This 2019 Marshall project study details sentencing disparities in the criminal justice system (2019).The Equal Justice Initiative founded by Bryan Stevenson reports on sentencing disparities (2017) as well.Vox reports (2017) on University of Michigan Law School report on sentencing disparities published by the United States Sentencing Commission. Among the key findings is that, "Black male offenders continued to receive longer sentences than similarly situated White male offenders."For more on policing and racism, see:Focusing 2020 on Protests for George FloydWhose Lives Matter? (A History of Black Lives Matter Movement)A Knee into the Gut of America (Colin Kaepernick)FergusonWhy Don't People Protest When the Violence is Not Because of a Cop? (They Do!)
Racism's Effects on Whites
Surprisingly, however, even whites can be affected negatively by racism towards nonwhites. One person studying the effects of racism on whites is Jonathon Metzel, a sociologist, and a medical doctor at Vanderbilt University.
White Life Expectancy is Decreasing (Even before Covid!)As both a sociologist and a medical doctor, Jonathan Metzel explores the connection between racism and the negative effects on society, especially among whites. In his book, Dying of Whiteness, Dr. Metzel finds that the life expectancy of white Americans has gone DOWN for three years in a row, 2015, 2016 and 2017. (This was even before the Covid-19 pandemic!) The last time that life expectancy went down in the U.S. for three years in a row was one hundred years ago because of World War I and the influenza outbreak of 1919. The reasons that it is going down again now are surprisingly related to race. This has not happened in 100 years and it is almost unheard of in the developed world.! Life expectancy should be going up. Simply put, Metzel's thesis is this:Racial resentment = Deaths of Despair + Anti-Gov + Guns = Lower Life Expectancy
See this post for a detailed discussion of Metzel's work.Many Americans who are White, resent minorities and their resentment toward minorities has led them to: buy guns, choose anti-government policies and use opioids and alcohol. This has resulted in suicide and overdose deaths and policies that lessen their healthcare options. All of these combined have had such an effect that they have lowered the life expectancy for Americans!
4. What is your reaction to Metzel's thesis? Do you find it surprising or upsetting?
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