ARCHIVE - September, 2001

Arguing for Diversity
Tom Mayer, Department of Sociology

Early this summer I encountered one of my few conservative friends who had read in the Daily Camera about charges of institutional racism leveled against the Department of Sociology. In that discussion and in subsequent e-mails my friend vigorously lampooned what he deemed the ineffectual and guilt stricken manner our Department defended itself against these charges. He challenged the very concept of institutional racism and attacked the emphasis on diversity in many academic institutions including – or so he thinks – the University of Colorado. This emphasis, my friend believes, undermines individual merit and is unnecessary to boot because racial discrimination no longer constitutes a major problem in American society.

Unfortunately such convictions are not an eccentricity of my conservative friend. Opposition to diversity enhancing initiatives is common, and the existence of institutional racism is widely denied. The latter refers to a process in which social institutions (e.g. family, school, work, law, government) perpetuate discriminatory outcomes even without discriminatory intent. For example, the gross under-funding of many schools located in African-American or Latino neighborhoods constitutes institutional racism. So is reliance upon standardized tests for determining admission to higher education. Such tests are weak predictors of either academic or occupational success, but strong discriminators against both African-Americans and Latinos.

Institutional racism is alive and well in the United States. Indeed, it goes a long way towards explaining why minorities are seriously under represented in higher education, and why the median family incomes of blacks and Hispanics are, year after year, less than two-thirds that of whites. Institutional racism also illuminates how it happens that non-whites make up well over half of the two million plus combined jail and prison population.

Concern for diversity in American colleges and universities does nothing to undermine individual merit. Interacting with culturally and racially disparate classmates and faculty provides an invaluable educational experience for our students. Conversely, cultural and racial homogeneity enervates both academic learning and emotional maturation. Individual merit is not a simple thing. Far from subverting merit, the existence of diversity challenges any one-sided and insular notion of excellence. Evidence suggests that great intellectual leaps often occur at the periphery (not the center) of a knowledge producing establishment where traditional ideas of distinction are less firmly entrenched.

My conservative friend vastly underestimates the barriers that many people of color must overcome to achieve educational and occupational success. These obstacles are legion, and I can only mention a few. Consider working hours. In 1998 (the last year for which reliable data is available) the typical African-American family had to work twelve weeks more than the average white family to achieve middle income status. Consider the distribution of wealth. Many families use their accumulated possessions to support the higher education of their children, yet racial disparities in wealth are simply enormous. According to Survey of Consumer Finance data, the median wealth of white families was 8.2 times greater than the median wealth of black families in 1998, while the median financial wealth (stocks and bonds) of the former was 31.3 times greater than that of the latter. These astounding inequalities speak volumes about educational opportunity and its absence.

Nor is education, as presently constituted, the royal road to success for Americans of color. Studies of social mobility show that middle and upper middle class African-American families have far more difficulty transmitting class advantages to their children than do comparable white families. In terms of expected income, a year of additional education is considerably less valuable to a black or Latino student than to a white one. Income disparities between whites and people of color actually increase at higher educational levels. The median income of full time black workers with professional degrees is only 55% that of white counterparts. A recent University of Wisconsin study of private-sector employees shows that “racial disparities increase in both absolute and percentage terms as one moves up the occupational earnings hierarchy” (Grodsky and Pager, American Sociological Review, August 2001).

Of all modern capitalist societies, the United States exhibits the greatest economic inequality. Whatever opportunity for individual advancement exists within this highly unequal structure, depends heavily (though not exclusively) on our educational system. The latter functions rather poorly for working class people, and especially badly for working class people of color. Contrary to the arguments of my conservative friend, the University of Colorado should devote much more energy to achieving meaningful diversity.

IN THIS ISSUE:

The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors, and do not represent those of the Boulder Faculty Assembly, CU faculty at large, or the University of Colorado.

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