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Problems in black economic attainment: Racial discrimination or class subordination?
Abstract
This study examined the relative effects of socioeconomic class position and racial discrimination on young male black workers' occupational prestige and earnings attainment in the 1970's and 1980's. The data used in the present study were taken from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The sample contained young black (N = 831) and white (N = 5882) workers who graduated from high school in 1972. Racial differences in occupational prestige and earnings attainment in 1973, 1976, 1979 and 1986 were decomposed into two portions, one reflecting the effect of class and the other reflecting the effect of race, by the method of regression standardization. The results indicated that racial disparities both in occupational prestige and in annual earnings had constantly widened over the years examined in the study, and that factors associated with race played a more important role than factors associated with class in creating the widening racial disparity in occupational prestige and in earnings. The results, however, did not totally invalidate William J. Wilson's argument that economic class position is more important than race in determining a black person's economic life changes. When economic class position is conceived as the position attained by the respondent, rather than the position he inherits from his family of orientation, the results indicated that class is more important than race in creating the racial disparity in earnings and occupational prestige. It is suggested that clearer definition/conceptualization of class as well as race (racial discrimination) is crucial in fostering a productive debate on "the declining significance of race."
Subject Area
Ethnic studies|Black studies|Social structure
Recommended Citation
Son, In Soo, "Problems in black economic attainment: Racial discrimination or class subordination?" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9035405.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9035405