Colorful history
Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter
Satoshi Kanazawa & Norman Li
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent developments in evolutionary psychology suggest that living among others of the same ethnicity might make individuals happier and further that such an effect of the ethnic composition on life satisfaction may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that White Americans had significantly greater life satisfaction than all other ethnic groups in the US and this was largely due to the fact that they were the majority ethnic group; minority Americans who lived in counties where they were the numerical majority had just as much life satisfaction as White Americans did. Further, the association between ethnic composition and life satisfaction was significantly stronger among less intelligent individuals. The results suggest two important factors underlying life satisfaction and highlight the utility of integrating happiness research and evolutionary psychology.
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Joanna Marie Pinto-Coelho & Tukufu Zuberi
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, forthcoming
Abstract:
As both older and newer immigrant gateway metropolitan areas grow more racially diverse, scholars of neighborhood change want to know whether these areas are also becoming more residentially integrated. While it is logically and mathematically plausible to assume that increasing racial diversity directly leads to increased racial residential integration, this paper argues that the empirical reality may actually be the opposite. To investigate this concept, we use statistical and cartographic methods to analyze tract-level Census data of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, a case study that is both representative and unique. Results indicate that increasing racial diversity in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area between 1990 and 2010 coincided with increased racial residential segregation. We discuss the theoretical and methodological implications of these findings and make recommendations for future research.
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A Culture of Disenfranchisement: How American Slavery Continues to Affect Voting Behavior
Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell & Maya Sen
Harvard Working Paper, July 2015
Abstract:
In Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on the argument that intervening history had attenuated many voting inequalities between blacks and whites. But how, where, and by how much have things changed, and does history still predict voting inequalities today? We show that those parts of the American South where slavery was more prevalent in the 1860s are today areas with lower average black voter turnout, larger numbers of election lawsuits alleging race-related constitutional violations, and more racial polarization in terms of party identification. To explain these findings, we present evidence showing that disfranchisement can linger over time and that the effects of restrictions on voting rights can persist culturally. Our findings also highlight the importance of looking at localized voting patterns as opposed to those at the state level, which can obscure historical relationships.
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Christi Smith
Race and Justice, forthcoming
Abstract:
While historians have documented the criminalization process of Blacks during the Jim Crow and Progressive Eras, few scholars include in their analyses the contemporaneous change in attitudes toward poor Whites. This study examines boundary processes and organizational activism in decriminalizing a particularly virulent and hypervisible series of violent events, the Appalachian feuds of the late 19th century. How are criminal acts committed by Whites rendered less criminal? Not only are Whites less likely to be brought before legal adjudication for criminal behavior, even when there is detailed evidence of their crimes, criminal acts can be made legitimate using redemption narratives that depict White violence as justifiable and even, as in the case here, indicative of a deeper moral worth. The decriminalization of Whites hinges on organized efforts by empowered actors to maintain and police racial boundaries. This article draws on independently collected archival materials including organizational records and financial reports, Board of Trustee records, interorganizational and private correspondence, and 727 newspaper articles.
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The Historical Demography of Racial Segregation
Angelina Grigoryeva & Martin Ruef
American Sociological Review, August 2015, Pages 814-842
Abstract:
Standard measures of residential segregation tend to equate spatial with social proximity. This assumption has been increasingly subject to critique among demographers and ethnographers and becomes especially problematic in historical settings. In the late nineteenth-century United States, standard measures suggest a counterintuitive pattern: southern cities, with their long history of racial inequality, had less residential segregation than urban areas considered to be more racially tolerant. By using census enumeration procedures, we develop a sequence measure that captures a more subtle "backyard" pattern of segregation, where white families dominated front streets and blacks were relegated to alleys. Our analysis of complete household data from the 1880 Census documents how segregation took various forms across the postbellum United States. Whereas northern cities developed segregation via racialized neighborhoods, substituting residential inequality for the status inequality of slavery, southern cities embraced street-front segregation that reproduced the racial inequality that existed under slavery.
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Robert Reece & Heather O'Connell
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, forthcoming
Abstract:
History is centrally involved in place development. Given the historical importance of antebellum slavery, it is little surprise that it profoundly shaped the social and economic future of the United States. What is perhaps more surprising is the link to local, county-level development as it relates to contemporary systems of black disadvantage. Through our focus on one aspect of school segregation in the American South, namely racial disparities in public school enrollment, we contribute to the literature on the legacy of slavery by examining how this local link persists. We use spatial data analysis techniques to assess the relationship between county historical slave concentration and the black-white ratio of public school attendance. Our data originally come from the 1860 Census, 2006-2010 American Community Survey, and National Center for Education Statistics Private School Universe Survey, 2007-2008. Notably, our historical slave concentration estimates incorporate spatially informed refinements to better represent contemporary counties than previously available data. Drawing from our regression analysis, we argue that slavery history shaped the local social structure in a way that facilitates contemporary white disinvestment from public school systems. We examine two potential explanations for this legacy of slavery - the number of private schools and racial threat - particularly their manifestation within the Deep South. Despite evidence of subregional differences rooted in history, neither pathway explains the initial slavery association. We argue that processes tied to the legacy of slavery are a foundational component of black disadvantage and that further examination of this foundation is necessary to stem the tide of recent resegregation.
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Jonathan Daw
American Journal of Sociology, May 2015, Pages 1595-1640
Abstract:
Why do health disparities persist when their previous mechanisms are eliminated? Fundamental-cause theorists argue that social position primarily improves health through two metamechanisms: better access to health information and technology. I argue that the general, cumulative, and embodied consequences of social stratification can produce another metamechanism: an efficiency-equity trade-off. A case in point is kidney transplantation, where the mechanisms previously thought to link race to outcomes - ability to pay and certain factors in the kidney allocation system - have been greatly reduced, yet large disparities persist. I show that these current disparities are rooted in factors that directly influence posttransplant success, placing efficiency and racial/ethnic equity at cross-purposes.
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Khaleeq Lutfi et al.
Social Science & Medicine, September 2015, Pages 95-103
Abstract:
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have disproportionately affected the non-Hispanic black population in the United States. A person's community can affect his or her STI risk by the community's underlying prevalence of STIs, sexual networks, and social influences on individual behaviors. Racial residential segregation-the separation of racial groups in a residential context across physical environments-is a community factor that has been associated with negative health outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine if non-Hispanic blacks living in highly segregated areas were more likely to have risky sexual behavior. Demographic and sexual risk behavior data from non-Hispanic blacks aged 15 - 44 years participating in the National Survey of Family Growth were linked to Core-Based Statistical Area segregation data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Five dimensions measured racial residential segregation, each covering a different concept of spatial variation. Multilevel logistic regressions were performed to test the effect of each dimension on sexual risk behavior controlling for demographics and community poverty. Of the 3,643 participants, 588 (14.5%) reported risky sexual behavior as defined as two or more partners in the last 12 months and no consistent condom use. Multilevel analysis results show that racial residential segregation was associated with risky sexual behavior with the association being stronger for the centralization [aOR (95% CI)][2.07 (2.05 - 2.08)] and concentration [2.05 (2.03 - 2.07)] dimensions. This suggests risky sexual behavior is more strongly associated with neighborhoods with high concentrations of non-Hispanic blacks and an accumulation of non-Hispanic blacks in an urban core. Findings suggest racial residential segregation is associated with risky sexual behavior in non-Hispanic blacks 15 - 44 years of age with magnitudes varying by dimension. Incorporating additional contextual factors may lead to the development of interventions that promote healthier behaviors and lower rates of HIV and other STIs.
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Michael Kramer, Amy Valderrama & Michele Casper
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Against the backdrop of late 20th century declines in heart disease mortality in the United States, race-specific rates diverged because of slower declines among blacks compared with whites. To characterize the temporal dynamics of emerging black-white racial disparities in heart disease mortality, we decomposed race-sex-specific trends in an age-period-cohort (APC) analysis of US mortality data for all diseases of the heart among adults aged ?35 years from 1973 to 2010. The black-white gap was largest among adults aged 35-59 years (rate ratios ranged from 1.2 to 2.7 for men and from 2.3 to 4.0 for women) and widened with successive birth cohorts, particularly for men. APC model estimates suggested strong independent trends across generations ("cohort effects") but only modest period changes. Among men, cohort-specific black-white racial differences emerged in the 1920-1960 birth cohorts. The apparent strength of the cohort trends raises questions about life-course inequalities in the social and health environments experienced by blacks and whites which could have affected their biomedical and behavioral risk factors for heart disease. The APC results suggest that the genesis of racial disparities is neither static nor restricted to a single time scale such as age or period, and they support the importance of equity in life-course exposures for reducing racial disparities in heart disease.
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Margarita Aragon
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article uses archival research to explore important differences in the discursive and institutional positioning of Mexican American and African American men during World War II. Through the focal point of the riots that erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities in the summer of 1943, I examine the ways in which black and Mexican "rioters" were imagined in official and popular discourses. Though both groups of youth were often constructed as deviant and subversive, there were also divergences in the ways in which their supposed racial difference was discursively configured. I also consider the experiences of each group in the World War II military, a subject that has received little attention in previous work on the riots. Though both groups were subject to discrimination and brutality on the home front, only African Americans were segregated in the military - a fact that profoundly influenced the 1943 riots. Examining the very different conditions under which these men served, as well as the distinct ways in which their presence within the military and on the home front was interpreted and given meaning by press, law enforcement, and military officials, helps to illuminate the uneven and complex workings of racism in America, disrupting the common conceptualization of a definitive white/nonwhite color line.
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Segregation as Splitting, Segregation as Joining: Schools, Housing, and the Many Modes of Jim Crow
Andrew Highsmith & Ansley Erickson
American Journal of Education, August 2015, Pages 563-595
Abstract:
Popular understandings of segregation often emphasize the Jim Crow South before the 1954 Brown decision and, in many instances, explain continued segregation in schooling as the result of segregated housing patterns. The case of Flint, Michigan, complicates these views, at once illustrating the depth of governmental commitment to segregation in a northern community and showing how segregated schools and neighborhoods helped construct one another. The Flint case also reveals new modes of segregationist thought. Throughout much of the twentieth century, Flint's city leaders thought of segregation as splitting, and they sought to divide their city along racial lines. But they thought of segregation as joining as well. Drawing on various strands of progressive reform and educational thought, Flint's educational, business, and philanthropic leaders believed community bonds would be stronger in segregated neighborhoods anchored by their schools. Flint's "community schools" program worked toward this end, exemplifying the paired embrace of segregation as joining and splitting, and becoming a model for educators in hundreds of cities nationwide.
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Fertility, Economic Development, and Health in the Early Twentieth-Century U.S. South
Cheryl Elman, Andrew London & Robert McGuire
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Autumn 2015, Pages 185-223
Abstract:
Between 1880 and 1910, fertility among African-American women dropped more precipitously than among white women, although black women's sociodemographic profile generally would not have predicted that trend. According to one perspective, regional differences in the timing of voluntary fertility control accounted for discrepancies by race. According to another, poor southern maternal health disproportionately affected African-American women's fecundity, reducing their fertility. Tests based on the 1910 ipums and the 1916 U.S. Plantation Census show that, during the first three years of marriage, African-American women's probabilities of having at least one birth, compared to white women's probabilities, declined as marital durations increased. However, the probability of having at least one birth was lower for African-American and white tenant-farm women whose counties had more plantation agriculture. Findings support the influence of health-related factors, possibly linked to plantation agricultural development, on the "supply" of children.
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Race, Class, and Gender and the Impact of Racial Segregation on Black-White Income Inequality
Melvin Thomas & Richard Moye
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, forthcoming
Abstract:
African Americans have yet to achieve parity with whites in terms of income. A growing number of studies have identified several factors that have influenced the size of the racial gap, which has been found to vary by social class status and gender as well as across space. While most research has examined these factors separately, they may interact with each other in shaping racial inequality. Using an intersectional approach with a multilevel model, this study focuses on the impact of residential segregation and social class on racial differences in earnings for men and women. Findings indicate that (1) earning differences between African Americans remain after controls for socioeconomic status, gender, and other control variables; (2) racial differences increase with rising social class status; (3) segregation increases the disparity between African American and white males; and (4) among males only, segregation worsens the disparity that increases with rising social class.
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Susan Everson-Rose et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, 1 August 2015, Pages 225-234
Abstract:
Perceived discrimination is positively related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors; its relationship with incident CVD is unknown. Using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a population-based multiethnic cohort study of 6,508 adults aged 45-84 years who were initially free of clinical CVD, we examined lifetime discrimination (experiences of unfair treatment in 6 life domains) and everyday discrimination (frequency of day-to-day occurrences of perceived unfair treatment) in relation to incident CVD. During a median 10.1 years of follow-up (2000-2011), 604 incident events occurred. Persons reporting lifetime discrimination in ?2 domains (versus none) had increased CVD risk, after adjustment for race/ethnicity and sociodemographic factors, behaviors, and traditional CVD risk factors (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09, 1.70) and after control for chronic stress and depressive symptoms (HR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.60). Reported discrimination in 1 domain was unrelated to CVD (HR = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.86, 1.30). There were no differences by race/ethnicity, age, or sex. In contrast, everyday discrimination interacted with sex (P = 0.03). Stratified models showed increased risk only among men (for each 1-standard deviation increase in score, adjusted HR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.27); controlling for chronic stress and depressive symptoms slightly reduced this association (HR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.25). This study suggests that perceived discrimination is adversely related to CVD risk in middle-aged and older adults.