Downward Mobility of Women from White-Collar Employment: Determinants and Timing by Race

This study uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to assess the minority vulnerability thesis, which maintains there are racial differences among women in the determinants of, and timing to, downward mobility from white-collar employment. In accord with the theory, a racialized continuum emerges along both issues. The route to downward mobility for African Americans is relatively broad based and unstructured by traditional stratification-based causal factors, that is, human capital, background socioeconomic status, and job/labor-market characteristics, and they are quickest to experience downward movement. The route to downward mobility for whites is relatively narrow and structured by stratification-based causal actors, and they are the slowest to experience downward movement. Along both issues, Latinas occupy an intermediate position between African Americans and whites. Implications of the findings for understanding of racial inequality in white-collar employment are discussed.     

Race and Loss of Privilege: African American/White Differences in the Determinants of Job Layoffs From Upper-Tier Occupations

Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics supports predictions from the minority vulnerability thesis concerning the determinants of job layoffs among African Americans and Whites who work in upper-middle-class occupations. Specifically, after controlling for seniority, layoffs for African Americans are relatively unstructured by traditional stratification-based causal factors, namely, background socioeconomic status, human-capital credentials, and job/labor market characteristics. Analyses also indicate that racial differences in the determinants of layoffs are more pronounced in nonservice-based than service-based firms in the private sector and in the private sector relative to the public sector.     

The Determinants of Racial Disparities in Perceived Job Insecurity: A Test of Three Perspectives

Why do African Americans report higher levels of perceived job insecurity than whites? We analyze data from the 1996 and 1998 General Social Survey to test alternative predictions from the compositional, inclusive‐discrimination, and dispositional perspectives concerning the sources of the racial gap in perceived insecurity. Results from ordered probit regressions provide most support for the inclusive‐discrimination perspective, which maintains that employment practices associated with “modern racial prejudice” induce perceived insecurity on a widespread and generalized basis among African Americans. Accordingly, compared to whites, African Americans experience perceived insecurity net of human capital credentials and job/labor market characteristics. Additional analyses provide one qualification to these findings: dynamics associated with the inclusive‐discrimination perspective are more pronounced in the private sector than the public sector.     

Man Up,Man Down: Race–Ethnicity and the Hierarchy of Men in Female‐Dominated Work

Scholars have largely overlooked the significance of race and socioeconomic status in determining which men traverse gender boundaries into female‐dominated, typically devalued, work. Examining the gender composition of the jobs that racial minority men occupy provides critical insights into mechanisms of broader racial disparities in the labor market—in addition to stalled occupational desegregation trends between men and women. Using nationally representative data from the three‐year American Community Survey (2010–2012), we examine racial/ethnic and educational differences in which men occupy gender‐typed jobs. We find that racial minority men are more likely than white men to occupy female‐dominated jobs at all levels of education—except highly educated Asian/Pacific Islander men—and that these patterns are more pronounced at lower levels of education. These findings have implications for broader occupational inequality patterns among men as well as between men and women.     

Different Game,Different Frame?: Black Counterdiscourses and Depictions of Immigration in Atlanta's African‐American and Mainstream Press

This article compares the discourse on immigration found in Atlanta's African‐American press (Atlanta Daily World) to that found in Atlanta's mainstream press (Atlanta Journal‐Constitution). The Daily World's black counterdiscourse situates immigration within a racial frame, discussing Latinos and immigrants interchangeably and casting African Americans as deserving yet excluded citizens. Immigrants appear in the Daily World as either allies in the struggle for civil rights or as competitors for jobs. Although the Daily World crime frames focus on concerns about racial profiling, the Journal‐Constitution often depicts immigrants as criminals or discusses immigration in terms of legal status and policy.     

The status of race in public sector work: Implications for emotion management and job satisfaction

ABSTRACT

African Americans consistently report lower levels of job satisfaction relative to whites. Using survey data from 1,456 public service employees, we examine whether racial disparities in job satisfaction are related to how African Americans and whites manage their emotions while at work. We contend that race acts as a master status within the workplace that locates African Americans in a subordinate social position to whites and may contribute to greater emotion management effort and greater work-related consequences. The results indicate that, together with traditional indicators of job satisfaction, extensive emotion management efforts of African Americans explain their lower levels of job satisfaction relative to whites.     

Racial/Ethnic Composition and Violence: Size‐of‐Place Variations in Percent Black and Percent Latino Effects on Violence Rates

According to racial invariance positions and mainstream sociological perspectives on race and crime, race differences in structural conditions should account for most if not all of the racial composition (or percent black) effect on aggregate‐level violence rates. However, prior research (mostly conducted prior to 1990) generally provides mixed or contrary evidence for this position, showing instead that greater concentrations of blacks are linked to increased violence even after accounting for racial differences in socioeconomic conditions. The current study uses recent data and a novel unit of analysis to go beyond extant research in two ways. First, we include percent Latino in our examination of the extent to which both racial and ethnic composition effects on violent crime rates are mediated by racial/ethnic disparities in socioeconomic disadvantage. Second, we test whether racial/ethnic composition effects are conditioned by size of place, through the use of census places as a uniquely varying unit of analysis. We find that both black and Latino composition effects are partly explained by controlling for structural conditions (especially structural disadvantage), but this characterizes smaller places much more than the largest, most urbanized places.     

Is Social Work Really Being Recognized? Problems with Social Work Employment Opportunities in Mainland China

Since social work education was reintroduced in Chinese universities in the 1980s, there are 303 bachelor of social work programs and 62 master of social work programs. Yet, the development of social work positions has lagged behind. This study aimed to study the current development of social work employment opportunities in Mainland China through an empirical lens. Data on social work positions were collected from three employment websites over a 30-day period. Data on 248 social work job postings were analyzed using content analysis and ArcGIS spatial distribution analysis. We identified three problems in the current development of social work profession in China: inconsistency between government policy, social work education, and available jobs; geographic disparities of the distribution of social work jobs; and mismatch between social work education and social work employment opportunities. We provided implications to address each problem.     

Second-generation Central Americans and the formation of an ethnoracial identity in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT

Whether Latinos in the United States are an ethnic or racial group is extensively debated. Some propose Latinos are an ethnic group on their way to becoming white, others contend Latinos are a racialised group, and an alternate perspective posits Latinos are an ethnoracial group. This study intervenes in this debate by examining the identities of second- and 1.5-generation Central Americans in Los Angeles, California. Drawing on 27 in-depth interviews, I show Central Americans have an identity repertoire, which includes national origin, panethnic, racial, and minority identities. I also capture the situations and reference groups that influence the deployment of ethnic and racial identities. These results suggest Central Americans develop an ethnoracial identity. I argue Central Americans’ ethnoracial identity emerges from agency – subjective understandings of themselves and resisting invisibility in Mexican Los Angeles – and from structure – a racialised society, institutionally-created panethnic categories, and racially-based experiences.     

Race,Supervisorial Change,and Job Outcomes: Employability Resilience in NCAA Division I College Basketball Coaching

We examine how race affects the employment status of subordinates following a job change by their immediate supervisors. We test whether racial homophily between a subordinate and a supervisor affects the odds of being let go. We also consider whether a racial match between an incoming head coach and assistant affects whether assistants retain their assistant coaching position. Data for these analyses come from a unique data set that explores what happens to 704 NCAA Division I college basketball assistant coaches after the head coach leaves the school. Logistic regression analyses confirm the benefit of working for a white head coach as this decreases the likelihood of being let go, compared to more positive outcomes such as following the coach to a new school, being internally promoted or retained after the head coach's departure. Furthermore, racial homophily with incoming head coaches insulates subordinates from having to search for new employment by increasing the likelihood of assistants being retained.     

Horace Cayton: Reflections on an unfulfilled sociological career

This article examines the abbreviated sociological career of Horace Cayton, the co-author of Black Metropolis and one of the most talented young black sociologists in the 1930s-1940s. In seeking to explain why Cayton failed to continue his promising sociological career, this article focuses on: his feelings of racial alienation; his inability to locate a theoretical paradigm in mainstream sociology through which he could express his anger about American racism; the narrow range of job opportunities open to blacks in sociology; his desire to become a novelist and, thereby, attain the intellectual freedom not afforded by mainstream sociology to protest American race relations; and, finally, his failure to comprehend the psychological perils of assimilation. He is presently doing research on the role of activist churches in Kenyan politics, attitudes toward skin color among African Americans and Africans, and normative accommodations of deviant survival strategies in Kenyan cities.     

The Continuing Significance of Race in the Occupational Attainment of Whites and Blacks: A Segmented Labor Market Analysis*

In this article we posit that racial discrimination is not uniform across the U.S. labor market. While it is likely that patterns of racial discrimination occur in some types of jobs more than others, little empirical research has examined the effect of race across segmented labor markets. Incorporating two decades of comparable General Social Survey data, this article revisits William J. Wilson's hypothesis that the significance of race in determining labor market outcomes is declining. We examine the effect of race within two dissimilar labor segments over time, dividing the labor market into technique‐versus social‐skills‐oriented segments. Using this theoretically useful dichotomy, we examine if the net effect of race (African American and white men) on occupational prestige has declined from the 1970s to the 1990s. Our multivariate analysis shows that the net effect of race is different in each labor market. This suggests that racial discrimination against African Americans is not uniform across the entire labor market, but instead is differentiately manifested within various labor market segments. Overall, our findings partially support Wilson's thesis indicating that while the effect of race is no longer a significant indicator of occupational prestige by the 1990s in a technique‐oriented job segment, it remains a significant predictive variable within a social‐skills‐oriented job segment, even when controlling for a range of social class and structural variables.     

Race Lessons in Black and White: How White Adoptive Parents Socialize Black Adoptees in Predominately White Communities

This article examines the approaches, strategies, and perspectives that White adoptive parents use to teach their adopted Black children about coping with race-based discrimination and the development of a positive racial identity. Using qualitative methods and the theoretical construct of White racial framing, the authors identify and critically analyze themes in the parents' race lessons. The central aim of this article is to uncover how these race lessons position family members to either challenge or perpetuate historical, racial inequities and mistreatment faced by African Americans and other communities of color within US society.     

Enclaves and Entrepreneurs: Assessing the Payoff for Immigrants and Minorities1

Self‐employment and work in sectors with high concentrations of owners and workers of the same ethnicity have been identified as potential routes of economic success for immigrants. This study uses 1990 census data to assess the effects of self‐employment, ethnic employment, and their interaction on the odds of being at work, on number of hours worked, and on earnings of individual members of several representative groups. These groups include Cubans in Miami; African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Koreans, Chinese and Dominicans in New York; and African Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Mexicans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Work in ethnic sectors of the economy has no consistent effects, although work in their niche in the public sector offers greater rewards than any other type of employment for African Americans and Puerto Ricans. Findings are mixed for self‐employment, and its estimated effect on earnings depends on model specification. We conclude that the self‐employed work longer hours but in many cases at lower hourly rates. The effects of self‐employment are the same in ethnic sectors as in the mainstream economy.     

A Comparison of Sanctions in African American and White TANF Leavers

In this study the authors explore racial disparities in the uses of sanctions and the different impact of sanctions on the economic well-being of African American and White TANF leavers. The study analyzed 907 African American and 1,336 White welfare leavers from the 1999 and 2002 data of the NSAF. Chi-square results show that sanctions are more significantly imposed to African Americans than Whites. On the other hand, regression results show that the impact of sanctions on the employment and family income of African Americans and Whites are comparable. Implications suggest that states need to have an appropriate sanction process, training programs for caseworkers, or other policy changes to reduce the racial disparities.     

Influences of Race and Family Environment on Child Hyperactivity and Antisocial Behavior

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, latent growth curve modeling was used to examine relationships between trajectories of child hyperactivity and antisocial behavior symptoms for African Americans (n= 680), European Americans (n= 1195), and Hispanics (n= 432). A systematic examination of predictors of, and interrelationships between, these trajectories was tested based on two distinct models of family influences in the development of child behavior problems. Overall, child hyperactivity mediated the effects of family environment on child antisocial behavior, but with key racial differences. The results indicate the importance of conceptualizing patterns of family interaction as adaptive responses to the environment, rather than individual developmental interactions.     

Racial Differences in Exposure and Reactivity to Daily Family Stressors

Using data from the National Study of Daily Experiences, the authors examined racial differences in exposure and reactivity to daily stressors involving family members. Respondents included African American and European American adults age 34 to 84 (N = 1,931) who participated in 8 days of daily interviews during which they reported on daily stressors, affect, and physical health symptoms. The results revealed racial similarities in family stressor exposure. Both races were also emotionally reactive to family arguments and family network events (i.e., events that happen to a family member), whereas African Americans were more physically reactive to family arguments. For African Americans, reactivity to family arguments endured; the increased negative affect and physical symptoms associated with family arguments lasted into the next day. The findings provide evidence for racial similarities and differences, suggesting that family relationships are universally stressful, whereas the negative effects of family stressors are more enduring among African Americans.     

Responding to Black Political Interests in the Post-Civil Rights Era: The Substantive Results of Black Political Incorporation

This article analyzes political responsiveness to minority communities through a case study of municipal employment opportunities in Richmond, Virginia. Using equal employment opportunity reports, it analyzes racial exclusion (the representation of minority workers within occupations) and racial subordination (the distribution of minority and nonminority workers across occupations) among Richmond's public sector workers. Additionally, it looks at percentage point changes in the representation of minority and nonminority workers in municipal jobs, to provide a more detailed analysis of the quality of opportunities that are made available as the city's dominant council coalitions changed from a White conservative coalition to a Black liberal regime to a multiracial conservative coalition. Qualitative data from interviews with the city's political actors clarify and support the patterns found in the employment data. The analysis demonstrates that the substantive resources Blacks are likely to gain differ significantly by political regime.     

Guinea Pig Kids: Myths or Modern Tuskegees?

The Tuskegee syphilis study represents a nadir in health research in the U.S., when individuals' bodies were used to satisfy researchers' curiosity with no anticipated clinical benefit. The study is often used as a teaching case, in research methods and biomedical ethics training, symbolizing the past, before the federal government intervened and created human protections regulations to protect participants. The Tuskegee study continues to have other ripple effects, contributing to African Americans' distrust of health research. This paper analyzes three medical studies from the 1990s that involved African American children. We examine the institutional actors that implemented these studies, and the community members of color who protested against them, and compare the tone of media accounts in African American and mainstream publications. We find that powerful governmental and medical institutions collaborated to implement these problematic studies, and that both mainstream and African American news outlets conveyed protestors' concerns about the ethics of the studies, resulting in federal investigations. Our hypothesis that African American outlets provided more negative coverage was not supported, suggesting distrust of biomedicine regarding race is more widespread. The unethical practices reported here raise key questions about the inclusion of both minority populations and children in medical research.     

Recent trends in job security and stability

In recent years, the popular press has led us to believe that downsizing and mergers are throwing unprecedented numbers of Americans out of secure jobs. In this paper, we survey current research that addresses these concerns, reconciling the sometimes disparate results of papers examining job tenure and separations, exploring the consequences of involuntary job loss, and reviewing research on trends in part-time, temporary, and contingent employment. There is no evidence of a dramatic change in job security over the last two decades. The various studies do not point to consistent losses in job security for any particular demographic group. Gina Franco, Noah Hochman, Charles Kaljian, Leah McKelvie and Christopher Thompson provided exceptional research assistance. The authors thank Robert Krol, Alec Levenson, and Elaine Reardon for their suggestions. Shirley V. Svorny is also an affiliated scholar at the Milken Institute.