ECONOMIC SEGMENTATION AND RACIAL ATTITUDES

This article explores the potential contributions of the economic segmentation framework in stratification research to the explanation of racial attitudes and beliefs. Employing data from a nationally representative telephone survey, the impact of sectoral location on whites' views about the institutional production of racial inequality is examined. The findings indicate that, unlike the effects of traditional stratification variables, position in the segmented economy exerts no unique influence upon racial orientation.     

RACIAL PREJUDICE AMONG KOREAN MERCHANTS IN AFRICAN AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOODS

Many Korean immigrants in the United States have established small retail businesses in black communities. Relations between these merchants and neighborhood residents and customers have been problematic in a number of cities. Using in-depth interview data on a sample of Korean merchants in Washington, D.C., this article examines merchants' racial attitudes and reported interactions with African Americans. Drawing on middleman minority theory, I show how Koreans' middleman role and immigrant status condition their daily experiences with and attitudes toward African Americans and how constructions of group differences are used to advance middleman interests.     

INDIVIDUAL AND CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES OF WAR ON ETHNIC PREJUDICE IN CROATIA

This article examines what the determinants of ethnic prejudice in Croatia were in the aftermath of the 1991–1995 war. The analysis is based on a nationwide survey (N = 2,202) conducted in March and April 1996, less than a year after the cessation of war activities in Croatia. The main focus of our analysis is on how war influences the ethnic prejudice of individuals. The influences of individual war‐related experiences and the effects of regional differences in the level of war activities are analyzed simultaneously by conducting a multilevel analysis. The main findings are that individual war‐related experiences have little impact on prejudice, but that the contextual influence of war is somewhat stronger. Variables that are not directly related to the conflict—such as education, religiosity and size of the place of residence—have the strongest effect on prejudice. Insofar as our results can be generalized to other large‐scale ethnic conflicts, they indicate that a recent history of conflict is not in itself a major hindrance to the process of ethnic reconciliation.     

THE LONDON BOMBINGS AND RACIAL PREJUDICE: EVIDENCE FROM THE HOUSING AND LABOR MARKET

This paper investigates the impact of the London bombings on attitudes toward ethnic minorities, examining outcomes in housing and labor markets across London boroughs. We use a difference‐in‐differences approach, specifying “treated” boroughs as those with the highest concentration of Asian residents. Our results indicate that house prices in treated boroughs fell by approximately 2% in the 2 years after the bombings relative to other boroughs, with sales declining by almost 6%. Furthermore, we present evidence of a rise in the unemployment rate in treated compared to control boroughs, as well as a rise in racial segregation. (JEL J15, J71, R21)     

RACIAL SEGREGATION AND INSURANCE ENTERPRISE AMONG BLACK AMERICANS IN NORTHERN CITIES

At the turn of the century, many white-owned insurance firms discriminated against blacks by denying them coverage or by charging them extraordinarily high premiums. This discrimination created a void that was successfully filled by black insurance entrepreneurs who built upon an old tradition of self-help. My study adds to this account by showing that, in northern cities during the Great Migration, there was a significant, positive association between the representation of blacks in insurance occupations and the spatial isolation of black populations. This finding suggests that, during the study period, many blacks were drawn into the insurance business by the prospect of serving a geographically based market of co-ethnic consumers. I conclude that residential segregation by race, an ecological factor, played an important role in the development of insurance enterprise among black Americans in the urban North.     

CLASS AND ATTITUDES TOWARD STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES

This article addresses a key issue within radical social science scholarship—the importance of class in modern capitalist society. Two different perspectives on the issue are discussed: the neo-Marxist, which continues to view class as the central structural variable; and the post-Marxist, which contends that other variables such as race, sex, and authority are potentially either additional or alternative structural influences. After developing a model linking structural locations to attitudinal consequences for position incumbents, two hypotheses comparing the perspectives are tested using a national sample of respondents: (1) that structural locations influence the attitudes of position incumbents toward societal inequalities; and (2) that the impact of a particular structural variable depends, at least to some extent, upon the nature of the societal inequality in question. The results provide qualified support for both hypotheses. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

COHORT AND PREJUDICE: WHITES' ATTITUDES TOWARD BLACKS, HISPANICS, JEWS, AND ASIANS

Recent cohorts have been shown to be less prejudiced than theirelders, at least toward blacks. This study addresses two questions:Has this tendency continued among most-recent cohorts of adults?and Does it extend to prejudice toward other ethnic minorities?Using data from a national sample, I focus on stereotype andsocial distance attitudes pertaining to blacks, Hispanics, Asians,and Jews. In general, results indicate that cohorts born alterWorld War II tend to be less prejudiced than prewar cohortstoward each of the four minorities. But most-recent cohortsof Americans show no tendency to be less prejudiced than theirimmediate predecessors born since World War II, and most-recentcohorts residing outside of the South actually tend to be moreprejudiced than their elders.     

UNDERREPORTING OF SUBSTANCE USE IN A NATIONAL LONGITUDINAL YOUTH COHORT: INDIVIDUAL AND INTERVIEWER EFFECTS

The quality of drug data in the 1984 wave of the National LongitudinalSurvey of Youth is explored. Comparisons with other nationalsurveys indicate that underreporting of use of illicit drugsother than marijuana appears to have taken place, and that lightusers of these drugs are underrepresented among the self-acknowledgedusers. Comparison with marijuana use reported four years earlierindicates that experimental marijuana users are much less likelythan extensive users to acknowledge involvement. Even aftercontrolling for frequency of use, underreporting is more commonamong terminal high school dropouts and minorities. Not onlyindividual characteristics but field conditions also contributeto underreporting. Familiarity with the interviewer, as measuredby number of prior interviewing contacts, depresses drug usereporting. We speculate that interviewer familiarity increasessalience of normative standards and that participants respondnot only in terms of their past familiarity but also in termsof their subjective expectations regarding the probability ofa future encounter with the interviewer.     

RACIAL AND ETHNIC INEQUALITY IN HOMEOWNERSHIP AND HOUSING EQUITY

Wealth inequality, particularly in housing, has received increased attention in recent years for its importance to racial and ethnic stratification. Yet, while we know a fair amount about black-white wealth inequality, many questions remain regarding sources of Hispanic asset inequality. This article addresses this gap by examining racial and ethnic inequality in homeownership and housing equity among the pre-retirement population. Results support a stratification perspective of inequality for both blacks and Hispanics; even after accounting for numerous life-cycle, resource, and social-psychological considerations, blacks and Hispanics continue to lag significantly behind whites in housing wealth. While Hispanics initially appear better off than blacks with respect to housing, this is largely a function of their more favorable family structure. Important differences between blacks and Hispanics in the main contributors to housing inequality highlight the need to take a more multiethnic perspective on wealth stratification.     

RACE PREJUDICE AND RACISM: A DISTINCTION

Jusqu'à tout récemment, les auteurs n'essayaient pas de clarifier la difference entre les notions de racisme et de préjudice racial. Les deux expressions sont souvent interchangées. Comme l'ont indiqué certains critiques, les idées de racisme et de préjudice racial ne sont pas les mêmes. Afin de distinguer entre ces deux topiques, l'hypothèse qu'il n'existe pas de relation entre les mesures empiriques des deux idées a été mise a l'épreuve. On s'est servi de mesures autonomes pour définir enfin la dimension affective concernant l'attitude du préjudice racial. Les conclusions suggèrent que les deux idées ne sont pas étroitement reliées quand elles sont mesurées par des questions-type Likert. Toutefois, ces mêmes idées sont étroitement reliées quand elles sont mesurées par des indicateurs autonomes d'éveillement affectif.
Until recently authors have made little attempt at clarifying the differences between the concepts of racism and race prejudice. The two terms have often been used interchangeably. As a few contemporary critics have pointed out, the concepts of racism and race prejudice may not be the same. In order to distinguish between racism and race prejudice, the hypothesis that there is no relationship between empirical measures of the two concepts was tested. Autonomic measures were used to operationally define the affective dimension of the attitude: race prejudice. Findings suggest that the two concepts are not closely associated when measured by Likert-type questions, but closely associated when measured by autonomic indicators of affective arousal.     

UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND RACIAL COMPETITION IN LOCAL LABOR MARKETS

The primary concern in this paper is to analyze the effects of black population concentration on black and white men's relative and absolute underemployment levels in labor market areas while controlling for the degree of occupational segregation by race. We draw hypotheses from two primary bodies of research; one literature focuses on general racial competition and the other considers competition to be more limited. Our findings that racial inequality in underemployment levels increases with blacks' population share are most consistent with the general competition model. However, we also find some support for the limited competition model which holds that not all whites benefit from increased competition with blacks. Finally, we find that occupational segregation helps to determine the form that racial discrimination in employment adequacy takes. Where occupational segregation is high, black men hold relatively more low-wage jobs, but where occupational segregation is low, they experience higher levels of unemployment and more disadvantage relative to whites.     

RACIAL INEQUALITY IN MEN'S EMPLOYMENT AND RETIREMENT EARNINGS

Data from the New Beneficiary Study for currently married men who began receiving social security benefits in 1980–1981 indicate that the racial earnings gap is greater in retirement than it was in employment. Racial differences in employment and pension earnings are specified by education and employment status. There is, however, a significant net racial effect in predicting social security earnings. Furthermore, education interacts with race in predicting asset earnings, which constitute the major source of racial inequality in retirement. This analysis highlights not only the enduring problem of poverty for African Americans and Latinos who are "working off the books,' without social security benefits, but also the possibility of a "glass ceiling' that limits access to assets for highly educated nonwhites.     

MEASURING SELF-PERCEIVED RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN SOCIAL SURVEYS

The aim of this article is to encourage a research agenda that attends to methodological considerations regarding measuring self-perceived racial and ethnic discrimination in social surveys. Toward this end, the author compared validity of alternative measures of discrimination. The first measure asks whether something unfair or bad has happened because of race and ethnicity, whereas the second measure asks about generic unfair events independent of attribution to race or ethnicity. In a probability sample of 586 Black respondents living in the Detroit metropolitan area interviewed in 1995, it was found that the prevalence of self-perceived racial and ethnic discrimination depended on question framing. Moreover, different respondents were likely to respond affirmatively to explicit versus generic measures of discrimination; importantly, the mental health consequences of self-perceived racial and ethnic discrimination varied by question framing. The results confirmed that the prevalence, correlates, and psychological impact of self-perceived discrimination should be evaluated on the basis of measurement sensitivity.     

UNOBSERVABLE INDIVIDUAL EFFECTS, MARRIAGE AND THE EARNINGS OF YOUNG MEN

While there is compelling evidence that married men earn more than unmarried men, the source of this premium remains unsettled. Using panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men, we show that much of the premium normally attributed to marriage is associated with unobservable individual effects that are correlated with marital status and wages. To the extent there is a gain, it is purely an intercept shift and no more than 5% to 7%. Our findings cast doubt on the interpretation that marriage enhances productivity through specialization.     

EAST-WEST DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES ABOUT EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY IN GERMANY

This article examines East-West differences in attitudes toward the traditional gender division of labor among German women and men, using data from the 1991 German Social Survey (ALLBUS). We test hypotheses about the effects of region and gender, and the interaction of both, in shaping gender-role attitudes. The results indicate that the combination of region and gender produces (1) a similar gender gap in attitudes in both regions, with women in East and West voicing stronger opposition to traditional gender roles than their male counterparts and (2) regional differences in attitudes, with East Germans more likely than West Germans to oppose a gender-based division of labor. Thus, this study shows that although state socialism was successful in fostering more progressive attitudes among East Germans, especially women, it did not eliminate the gender gap in attitudes about gender, work, and family.