On the Job: White Employers,Workers of Color,and Racial Triangulation Theory

This article offers that Claire Jean Kim's theory of racial triangulation provides an ideal framework to study workers of color, the racialization of their labor and the ways in which actual and potential employers neglect and discriminate against these workers. Specifically, the piece determines that racial triangulation theory bolsters analysis of race‐based power that employers exert in the construction and maintenance of racial inequality in regard to management of labor and employment possibilities for workers of color. A triangulated approach allows for a sharp focus on employer engineered labor market inequality as they oversee, hire, and refuse to be racially inclusive in hiring practices. Most significantly, racial triangulation theory addresses the forces of racial inequity within the meso‐level of U.S. social structure when applied to study of organizational dynamics such as workplaces. I open the article by assaying historical and contemporary studies on workers of color to illustrate white employer domination and the ways in which workers of color are referenced to each other as inferior and superior workers. Subsequently, the article looks to fresh analytical directions in which sociologists can evaluate racism as a triangulated, multidimensional social force in the workplace and other social contexts.     

Unauthorized workers and immigration reform: what can we ascertain from employers?

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 attempts to curb unauthorized migration by requiring employers to screen the authorizing documents of all workers. Many different documents may be used, with employers required to simply attest to the face validity of workers' documents upon an I-9 form. The authors report findings from their study estimating the unauthorized US labor force and exploring employers' initial reactions to the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. The findings are based upon hiring practices information supplied by a sample of businesses in an evaluation of the IRCA impact. A selectivity correction model is used to impute 2.6 million unauthorized workers in the entire sample. The estimate, which compares favorably with other estimates, is tabulated by questions about IRCA. Findings suggest that a large proportion of the unauthorized labor force uses fraudulent documents, many without the knowledge of their employer. It appears that Immigration and Naturalization Service-targeted establishments hire 20% of unauthorized workers and that the employers of unauthorized workers are no more likely than other employers to believe that they can be sanctioned under IRCA. This may be associated with the apparent lack of marked change in patterns of unauthorized hiring in the period immediately following IRCA passage. There was some change in hiring behaviors in establishments hiring unauthorized workers, affecting wage offers and documentation, but US employers do not seem to perceive changes in the supply or availability of authorized workers. Study findings indicate only marginal IRCA-related changes in the characteristics of unauthorized hires during the very initial phase of IRCA's implementation. The combination of readily available fraudulent documents, the difficulty in detecting such documents, and the steady demand for low-skilled workers creates conditions which are not conducive to markedly changed hiring behavior.     

Attitudes of Mexican Americans toward irregular immigration

This inquiry focuses on the attitudes of 314 Mexican Americans toward issues relating to current US immigration policy. Telephone and personal interviews were conducted in Hidalgo and Travis counties, Texas, with Mexican-Americans. Virtually all respondent groups oppose an increased rate of immigration, consider illegal immigration to be an important problem, support stricter enforcement of immigration laws, and believe that undocumented workers take jobs no one else wants. Half of the respondents identify illegal immigration as a regional rather than a personal problem. At the same time, the data suggest significant differences in both direction and intensity of attitudes between Mexican Americans of different generations, income, occupational levels, and region. There is general opposition to the requirement of a national identity card, but widespread support for penalizing employers of undocumented workers and for granting amnesty to undocumented workers. These findings allow an examination of the extent to which the Mexican American leadership, which has been overwhelmingly opposed to the Simpson-Mazzoli bill, accurately reflects the views of the Mexican American people. The leadership and the population at large agree on 2 of the 3 issues, amnesty and the national identity card, but disagree on employer sanctions. 1st, it may be that the leadership holds the kinds of jobs for which undocumented workers are unlikely to compete, so they may not feel threatened. 2nd, they may feel that instituting employer sanctions will create incentives for employers to discriminate in their hiring practices against all Latino-looking job applicants. Non-elite Mexican Americans who support employer sanctions may believe that the only way they can compete for jobs is to make it impossible for elites to be hired. Both groups appear to fear that, regardless of the specifics of immigration reform, Mexican Americans are likely to encounter increased discrimination in the job market.     

Racial Ideology and Hiring Decisions in Silicon Valley

This article examines the hiring practices of assembly workers in the high technology industry in Silicon Valley. While recent works have viewed the significance of race question with empirical analysis of the labor force, this study focuses on the employers and their subjectivity in making recruitment and hiring decisions. The ethnographic data reveals the central role of racial ideology in the recruitment and hiring process. Furthermore, the data demonstrates how racial ideology can have both an exclusionary and an inclusionary function in shaping the composition of the workforce. Based on the findings, I propose a greater sensitivity to employer racial bias in recruitment and hiring decision making and call for a more nuanced approach to examining racial inequality.     

Employers’ and employment counselors’ perceptions of desirable skills for entry-level positions for adolescents: how does it differ for youth with disabilities?

Today’s youth face high unemployment and other labor-market challenges; these challenges are often worse for youth with disabilities. This paper explores what employers and employment counselors look for when hiring youth into entry-level jobs and whether they believe youth with disabilities have fewer skills than those without. This study used a qualitative design with a purposive sample of 19 youth employers and employment counselors. Our findings show that youth employers and employment counselors identify the following traits as enhancing young workers’ employability: a well-prepared job applicant; job fit and a good attitude; and soft skills. We find youth with disabilities are perceived to be at a disadvantage. Consistent with a rising body of research, the emphasis on soft skills, and pliability, opens the door for employment discrimination.     

Black/immigrant competition re-assessed: new evidence from Los Angeles

Findings are presented from a survey of employers conducted to assess the impact of immigration and employer practices upon the chances of Blacks finding employment in Los Angeles. The highest ranking person involved in the hiring process at each of 44 restaurants, 46 printers, 41 hotels, and 39 furniture manufacturers was interviewed. The hiring of new employees drawn from the network of current employees seems to have the dual function of bringing immigrant communities into the workplace, while detaching vacancies from the open market, thereby reducing the number of employment opportunities for Blacks. Employers also perceived immigrants to be far more desirable employees than Blacks, partly because they believe that immigrants will work more productively. Immigrants are also seen as the more tractable laborers. Any managerial propensity to favor immigrants over Blacks will probably be reinforced by the attitudes of the mainly Latino work force, for placing a Black worker in a mainly Latino work crew may frustrate productivity given the animosity between the two ethnic groups. Blacks also appear to opt out of the low-level labor market in response to rising expectations, on the one hand, and the anticipation of encountering employment difficulties on the other.     

The battle over SNS privacy for US employees and job applicants: an analysis of 2012–2013 state legislation

This study examines US legislation designed to prohibit employer access to employee and job applicant personal social networking sites (SNSs) between 2012 and 2013. It asks if the legislation addressed how employers could use SNSs in the hiring process by requesting SNS passwords, if there were consequences for violators, if employer retaliation was prohibited, if third-party access was allowed, if employee SNS monitoring was prohibited, if SNS friend requests by employers was allowed and if employer requested changes in privacy settings were prohibited. In addition, the study also examined the interest groups and political party-affiliated sponsors that were active in the creation of the legislation. The results discover important inconsistencies between the states’ legislation, which question the ability to protect worker and applicant online privacy. US policy recommendations and transnational implications follow.     

The immigrant experience: Houstonians’ family attitudes and behaviors

ABSTRACT

Although there is extensive scholarship that examines differences in family behaviors and attitudes between whites and blacks, there are very few studies that examine these differences across whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians in the United States. In the current study, we do so by examining data from the 2011 Houston Area Survey. We explore Houstonians’ likelihood of engaging in interracial relationships, attitudes toward working mothers, and attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Houston was selected as the target of the study given its rise as the most racially and ethnically diverse metropolitan area in the nation. Non-white Houstonians are more likely to date members of other racial/ethnic groups. With regard to attitudes toward working mothers, only Latino and Asian immigrants hold less accepting views than whites. Finally, the results with regard to same-sex marriage equality suggest that increased migration and diversity within Houston could hasten social change and acceptance.     

Race and Job Satisfaction in the Military*

This paper questions the validity of past studies of job satisfaction for minority groups. Past studies relegate the racial issue to the initial determinant of status attainment deficiencies which indirectly influence job satisfaction. On a sample of over 9,000 military men, including almost 1,500 blacks, three questions are examined: (1) Do past findings on job satisfaction apply to the military setting? (2) Are the conditions contributing to job satisfaction for blacks qualitatively different from the conditions contributing to white job satisfaction? (3) What are the implications of the emergence of separatist attitudes among blacks for work experiences in an integrated setting? The black-white differences uncovered are traced from the historical development in race relation in America, pivoting on the intense racial experience of the 1960s. Implications for other minority groups are discussed.     

COMMUNITY INFLUENCES ON WHITE RACIAL ATTITUDES: What Matters and Why?

Tracing the roots of racial attitudes in historical events and individual biographies has been a long-standing goal of race relations scholars. Recent years have seen a new development in racial attitude research: Local community context has entered the spotlight as a potential influence on racial views. The race composition of the locality has been the most common focus; evidence from earlier decades suggests that white Americans are more likely to hold anti-black attitudes if they live in areas where the African-American population is relatively large. However, an influential 2000 article argued that the socioeconomic composition of the white community is a more powerful influence on white attitudes: In low-socioeconomic status (SES) locales, “stress-inducing” deprivations and hardships in whites' own lives purportedly lead them to disparage blacks. The study reported here reassesses this “scapegoating” claim, using data from the 1998 to 2002 General Social Surveys linked to 2000 census information about communities. Across many dimensions of racial attitudes, there is pronounced influence of both local racial proportions and college completion rates among white residents. However, the economic dimension of SES exerts negligible influence on white racial attitudes, suggesting that local processes other than scapegoating must be at work.     

THE POLITICS OF PROTECTION:

This article examines the factors influencing the enactment of protective legislation for women, specifically maximum hours and minimum wage laws, by state lawmakers in the United States between 1870 and 1930. Traditional class theories of the state argue that employers are generally able to shape state policies to suit their interests. Yet, although employers staunchly opposed protective laws, most states enacted such laws. This article seeks to understand the conditions under which social groups, such as the women's reform groups who supported protective laws, are able to win legislative reforms in the face of employer resistance. Four conditions are found that allowed a gendered movement to counter the economic interests of employers: the women's groups' ability to form organizations and coalitions with powerful political actors, their use of a legitimating ideology, historically specific circumstances that reduced employer opposition, and the nature of the particular form of legislation being demanded.     

Work place issues surrounding healthcare professionals with disabilities in the current labor market

Healthcare professionals, nurses with and without disabilities, administrators and personnel directors were surveyed to explore hiring practices and attitudes towards working with nurses with disabilities employed in clinical settings. Specifically the purpose of the study was to gather and analyze data regarding the perceptions of two groups towards nurses with disabilities: 1) employers and 2) other nurses (with and without a disability). The study defined a nurse with a disability as an RN who has an activity limitation, specifically an altered activity capability which limits mobility, ambulation, strength, coordination, or equilibrium. Findings suggest that nurses are more likely to be willing to work with an RN with a disability if they had worked with one in the past. However, overall acceptance of RNs with disabilities was not broad.     

The Role of Contact and Information in Racial Attitude Change among White College Students*

While much research has been done on the determinants of change in prejudice among whites, relatively little is known about the process of change in contemporary racial attitudes, variously described as symbolic racism, laissez‐faire racism, or color‐blind racism. This article uses data from a sample of white college students to examine the impact of intergroup contact and exposure to information about racial issues on changes in contemporary racial attitudes and feelings toward blacks (a key component of prejudice), using Pettigrew's (1998) model of the process by which contact produces change in racial attitudes. Results provide support for Pettigrew's model, showing while contact is important in changing whites’ feelings about blacks, both contact and exposure to information about race are important predictors of changes in contemporary racial attitudes. A comparison of longitudinal and cross‐sectional models of contemporary racial attitudes suggests that contact, especially in setting with “friendship potential,” has an impact on attitudes both directly and indirectly, through providing avenues through which racial information can be obtained as well as by providing motivation to pay attention to it.     

Private health insurance exchanges and defined contribution health plans: is it déjà vu all over again?

This issue brief examines issues related to private health insurance exchanges, possible structures of an exchange, funding, as well as the pros, cons, and uncertainties to employers of adopting them. A summary of recent surveys on employer attitudes are examined, as are some changes that employers have made to other benefits that might serve as historical precedents for a move to some type of defined contribution health benefits approach.     

Ambivalence Toward Integration: the Sequence of Response to Six Interracial Situations*

White liberals (N=204) believing in integration and living in Los Angeles County expressed their attitudes toward six interracial situations: (1) busing in the schools for the purpose of ending de facto segregation; (2) the entrance of blacks into the respondents' occupational fields; (3) blacks moving into the respondents' neighborhoods; (4) the quota system as the basis for college admission for minorities; (5) rentals to blacks in white-occupied apartment buildings; and (6) hiring of blacks. A scalogram analysis indicates that the attitudes common to white liberals as a group form a systematic ordering of adherence to or retreat from anti-discriminatory principles, with the underlying dimension being the degree of attitudinal favorableness toward the situations and integration in general. We found a predictable pattern of complexity of attitudes toward the situations, with progression from the most difficult to the least difficult situation as follows: quota, busing, residence, apartment, hiring, and occupation. We reject a situational, direct threat hypothesis in favor of a general attitude hypothesis since retreats from anti-discriminatory beliefs follow a cumulative sequence, irrespective of the respondents' particular life circumstances or the nature of the specific situation. We conclude that the cultural definitions of the situations and the degree of clarity of emergent norms are primary factors determining attitudinal expressions which are consistent or inconsistent with a general belief in integration.     

Race and Wealth: A Demographic Analysis of Black Homeownership*

Historically, the rate of black homeownership has been low compared to nonblacks. The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which levels of black homeownership are determined by selected social factors and racial discrimination. The findings reveal that blacks are less likely to be homeowners in nearly every sociodemographic category. The one exception is the finding that elderly blacks are more likely than blacks and nonblacks in all other age categories to be homeowners.     

Probing the Opposition to Affirmative Action

People's attitudes toward affirmative action are explored by means of a survey instrument that presents respondents with a scenario of a firm that has several hundred well-paying jobs that only require skills learned on the job. The instrument comes in two versions: one that explores people's reaction to a history of the complete exclusion of blacks, and the other to the complete exclusion of women. Respondents are given a menu of possible actions the firm might take, and asked which they favor. In addition they are asked to react to a number of statements that explore their thoughts as to the reasons for the exclusions, how fair the company's decision processes seem, and how much importance should be attached to remedying the situation. By an overwhelming margin, a group of mainly white college students refused to endorse the idea that the exclusion of blacks or women was explained by their inability or unwillingness to do the jobs in question. Respondents split about evenly on the desirability of taking special hiring actions to repair exclusions. Those rejecting such actions tended to reject also the idea that the country would be better off if occupational segregation by race and sex were eased.     

Why Third World urban employers usually prefer men

Males outnumber female employees by 3 to 1 in the modern sector of developing countries; moreover, women tend to be concentrated in a limited number of occupations. This underrepresentation of women in employment in Third World countries is generally attributed to the restricted supply of qualified women willing and able to work away from home in modern sector occupations. However, this approach pays insufficient attention to the demand for labor and the recruitment policy of employers. Employer concerns and perceptions that limit the overall demand for women workers and thereby reduce their employment opportunities include the need for pregnancy and maternity leave and protection, absenteeism, turnover, and cultural restrictions. Among the factors that contribute to the sexual segmentation of the labor market are protective legislation that excludes women from certain sectors of the labor market, sex-typing of jobs, and employer perceptions that women lack muscular strength, are not effective supervisors, and cannot work well with men. At the same time, women are preferred for certain jobs because of their greater docility, acceptance of lower wages, household-type skills, and sex appeal. The general factor limiting employment opportunities for women is the employer's perception that women are more costly and less productive than male employees. This perception is directly related to women's role in childbearing and rearing, and is reinforced by legislation that places the costs of maternity leave, nursing breaks, and child care directly on the employer. Thus, women's childbearing and family responsibilities not only limit their availability for work but also discourage employers from hiring them.     

EMPLOYERS' USE OF JOB HISTORY DATA FOR MAKING HIRING DECISIONS:

Most research on occupational assignment has concentrated on characteristics of job seekers that presumable signal positive labor market information to employers. Foremost among these have been educational credentials and years and type of work experience. In many cases, though, employers seek indicators that can provide them with negative information about a candidate's prospects for successful job performance; they frequently construct screens that enable them to easily disqualify candidates. Case studies of six Chicago organizations identified six components of "job history data' used by many employers to screen out otherwise acceptable candidates: job hopping, absences from work, latenesses to work, periods of unfilled time, reasons for leaving past employers, and past wage rates. One or more of these items are often consequential in employer hiring decisions. The implications of these findings for a more detailed understanding of status attainment and job assignment are discussed, as well as how research in this area might proceed.     

“To Hell with Them All!”: Perceived Discrimination,Interracial Contact,and Racial Attitudes

Can experiencing interracial hostility perpetuate interracial hostility? This article considers this possibility by examining the link between interpersonal discrimination and racial attitudes. Further, I situate discrimination into one’s totality of interracial exposure by analyzing whether other forms of interracial contact (friends, neighbors, or coworkers) condition the discrimination–attitudes association. Using representative data from the Chicago Area Study, I find that black, Hispanic, and white adults express greater feelings of racial threat and ingroup closeness when they report discrimination. The conditional effects vary across race/ethnicity. Among Hispanics, friendship mitigates these attitudinal consequences. For blacks, friendship is beneficial only for those not experiencing discrimination. Among whites, discrimination’s attitudinal consequences grow more extreme with greater neighborhood contact. Overall, the results suggest that (1) racial attitudes should be added to the list of interpersonal racial discrimination consequences and (2) discrimination is often a primary form of contact contributing to the development of racial attitudes.