Racial Histories
The Impact of School Desegregation on White Individuals' Racial Attitudes and Politics in Adulthood
Mark Chin
Education Finance and Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this paper I study how school desegregation by race following Brown v. Board of Education affected White individuals' racial attitudes and politics in adulthood. I use geocoded nationwide data from the General Social Survey and difference-in-differences to identify causal impacts. Integration significantly reduced White individuals' political conservatism as adults in the U.S. South but not elsewhere. I observe similar effect heterogeneity for attitudes towards Black individuals and policies promoting racial equity, but (positive) impacts and geographic variation are smaller in magnitude relative to those observed for conservatism. Investigations into mechanisms suggest that this heterogeneity may depend on the effectiveness of integration policies. In the south, White-Black exposure was greater following desegregation, and White disenrollment was lower. Finally, I demonstrate that results are robust to concerns of bias resulting from potential non-random in- and out-mobility of individuals into integrating contexts. My study provides the first causal evidence on how theories concerning intergroup contact and racial attitudes (i.e., the contact hypothesis) may have applied to school contexts following historic court mandates to desegregate.
Family Tree Branches and Southern Roots: Contemporary Racial Differences in Marriage in Intergenerational and Contextual Perspective
Deirdre Bloome & Garrett Pace
American Journal of Sociology, January 2024, Pages 1084-1135
Abstract:
Individuals' life outcomes are rooted in their parents' and grandparents' experiences, which, in turn, are rooted in the places where they grew up. In the United States, Black (grand)parents were more likely than White (grand)parents to grow up in the South. Intergenerational theories predict that this racial difference in southern family lineages will shape racial differences in many life outcomes. The authors test this hypothesis using marriage as a case study. Linking Panel Study of Income Dynamics' data to external sources, they document that southern family lineages positively predict marriage, they trace the implications of this prediction for marriage inequalities, and they provide some insights into the factors driving this prediction. Within each birth cohort, greater exposure to southern lineage's marriage pressures among Black than White people is associated with smaller marriage inequalities. Across cohorts, larger declines in this exposure among Black than White people, due to the Great Migration out of the South, are associated with larger marriage inequalities. The authors show how family dynamics channel historical place-based inequalities into contemporary racial inequalities, by combining intergenerational and contextual approaches. Other researchers could employ this combined intergenerational-contextual approach to further illuminate how the past shapes the present.
Reevaluating the Spatial Scale of Residential Segregation: Racial Change Within and Between Neighborhoods
Daniel Lichter et al.
Demography, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study evaluates the extent to which metropolitan racial segregation occurs between neighborhoods -- from tract to tract -- and within neighborhoods -- from block to block -- and is framed theoretically by Putnam's (2007) "hunkering down" hypothesis. Analyses are based on complete-count block, tract, and metropolitan data from the last four U.S. decennial censuses. We document recent patterns of block-to-block segregation between Whites and racial and ethnic minorities (Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics) and between different minority pairs. For example, roughly 40% of all metro Black-White segregation is due to segregation from block to block within neighborhoods. Among Asians, the between-neighborhood component of metropolitan segregation has increased over time but was largely compensated by declines in the within-neighborhood (or block) component. Metropolitan fixed-effects models show that trends and racial and ethnic differences in segregation -- overall and within and between neighborhoods -- are broadly observed across metro areas but are most evident in the largest, oldest, and most highly segregated metro areas. The results are robust to alternative estimates that adjust for differential privacy, metropolitan reclassification, and neighborhood boundary changes. Analyses of neighborhood change in Atlanta, Georgia, further reinforce the generality of our multiscale approach.
Disparate racial impacts of Shelby County v. Holder on voter turnout
Stephen Billings et al.
Journal of Public Economics, February 2024
Abstract:
In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down a core provision of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) that enabled federal electoral oversight in select jurisdictions. We study whether this decision disproportionately impacted ballot access for Black and Hispanic registered voters. We use a rich dataset on voter behavior for the universe of registered voters combined with Census block-level sociodemographic attributes to document a decrease in turnout for Black, relative to white, individuals. We observe suggestive but less robust evidence of decreases in Hispanic turnout. These effects are concentrated in counties with larger Black and Hispanic populations, consistent with strategic targeting of voter suppression.
Redistricting and Representation: The Paradox of Minority Power
Thomas Groll & Sharyn O'Halloran
Columbia University Working Paper, March 2024
Abstract:
We present a model of optimal redistricting that promotes minority representation. After districting, candidates from majority and minority groups run for office; each candidate has a fixed position on an ideological dimension and offers a platform of redistributive benefits to each group; legislators then determine distributive policies. The results show that minorities with little political power prefer concentrating their voters in a few districts. In contrast, more powerful minorities do best by distributing their voters evenly across districts. Majority voters' willingness to crossover and vote for minorities has two effects: it helps minorities gain office, but it may also hurt them by making majority voters more influential, increasing their relative power at minorities' expense. Paradoxically, the impact of adding minority voters to a given district is non-monotonic and, in some cases, can have the perverse effect of electing a candidate less favored by the minority community.
Schooling and Political Activism in the Early Civil Rights Era
Daniel Aaronson et al.
Federal Reserve Working Paper, February 2024
Abstract:
Does education lead to political engagement? The empirical literature is mixed. Theory suggests economic context matters. Individuals unable to take advantage of education in the labor market are more likely to engage in political activity. We find support for this channel during the rapid expansion of NAACP branches in the South around WWII. Branch growth was stronger where Black workers were denied returns to schooling due to Jim Crow occupational discrimination. We further show that a pre-1931 large-scale school construction program caused greater NAACP activity during the 1940s and 1950s when many former students were in their prime working years.
Africans in China, Western/White Supremacy and the Ambivalence of Chinese Racial Identity
Binxin Zhang
China Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article seeks to provide further insights into understanding the construction of Chinese identity by bringing the West/white into the picture of Afro-Sino racial relationships. It contends that the Chinese have internalized Western/white superiority through a long historical process, starting with the Western invasion in the 19th century and continuing with the construction of the contemporary historical narrative of the "century of humiliation." This internalization and its ramifications can be observed in Chinese public discourses as well as diplomatic practices. Together with Western/white superiority, the Chinese also adopted a social Darwinist, competitive world view, using Western modernity as the yardstick by which to rank different peoples and societies in a racial hierarchy. Chinese racism against Africans is thus a projection of a harsh self-judgement. Unlike white supremacy in Western racial thinking, "Chinese supremacy" is often coupled with an inferiority complex.
The Carried-Off and the Constitution: How British Harboring of Fugitives from American Slavery Led to the Constitution of 1787
Timothy Messer-Kruse
Law and History Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Accounts of the factors that led to the drafting of the U.S. Constitutional Convention have focused on Congress' failures to levy taxes, regulate commerce, and provide security against internal unrest and foreign encroachments. Left out from history are the attempts of the founders to force Britain to return thousands of escapees from slavery they sheltered. Patriot state leaders tried to coerce the return of all fugitives from slavery evacuated with the British army by blocking payment of debts to England in violation of the Treaty of Paris. Such actions ultimately caused the breakdown of the agreement and exposed the structural inability of the Congress to enforce the terms of a duly ratified treaty over intransigent states. Ultimately, the issue of the "carried off" and with it the nation's ability to conduct foreign policy, was the paramount issue that could only be resolved by a fundamental restructuring of the federal structure of government.