Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage

206 Pages·2014·1.697 MB·English

by  Roithmayr, Daria

Reproducing Racism
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Reproducing Racism
How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage
Daria Roithmayr
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2014 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that
may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roithmayr, Daria.
Reproducing Racism : How Everyday Choices Lock In White Advantage / Daria Roithmayr.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8147-7712-1 (hardback)
1.  Racism—United States. 2.  Whites—United States—Economic conditions. 3.  Whites—
United States—Social conditions. 4.  Minorities—United States—Economic conditions.
5.  Minorities—United States—Social conditions. 6.  Racism—United States. 7.  Race
discrimination—United States. 8.  United States—Race relations.  I. Title.
E184.A1R4467 2014
305.800973—dc23
2013029823
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
For my family,
who has always accepted me
just as I am
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 
. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same 
Some (Incomplete and Unsatisfying) Explanations
for Persistent Inequality
. Cheating at the Starting Line 
How White Racial Cartels Gained an Early Unfair
Advantage during Jim Crow
. Racial Cartels in Action 
An In-Depth Look at Historical Racial Cartels
in Housing and Politics
. Oh Dad, Poor Dad 
How Whites’ Early Unfair Advantage in Wealth Became
Self-Reinforcing over Time
. It’s How You Play the Game 
How Whites Created Institutional Rules That Favored Them
over Time
. Not What You Know, but Who You Know 
How Social Networks Reproduce Early Advantage
>> vii
viii << Contents
. Please Won’t You Be My Neighbor? 
How Neighborhood Effects Reproduce Racial Segregation
. Locked In 
How White Advantage May Now Have Become
Hard-Wired into the System
. Reframing Race 
How the Lock-In Model Helps Us to Think in New Ways
about Racial Inequality
. Unlocking Lock-In 
Some General Observations (and One or Two Suggestions)
on Dismantling Lock-In
Conclusion 
Notes 
Index 
About the Author 
Acknowledgments
The reason I got into academia in the first place was the freedom to
think, teach, and write on the issues I care most about. As important if
not moreso has been the opportunity to collaborate, and this book was
the highlight of my professional life in that regard.
Richard Delgado first came to me, now many years ago, with the idea
that I write a book, though he had wanted me to focus on what would
become a very small part of the book—the argument that institutional
rules of distribution, like merit, were defined by the folks who occupied
the institution at the beginning. I had bigger ambitions, however, and
though Richard warned me that I might be biting off too large a piece to
finish quickly, I forged ahead. Finish quickly I did not.
Mary Dudziak was invaluable in helping me to craft a book proposal
that worked, and my agent Jacquelyn Hackett took the proposal the rest
of the way. Debbie Gershenowitz, my editor at NYU, sold me by not only
understanding my original vision but by pushing me to do more than I
had planned, to my great benefit.
Special mention goes to the USC Law and Humanities reading group,
with David Cruz, Ariela Gross, Clyde Spillenger, Hilary Schor, and Nomi
Stolzenberg participating in the critical and careful reads for which this
group is famous.
Faculties at many law schools helped to refine the ideas, among them
Georgetown University Law Center, UCLA, NYU, American, University
of Pretoria, University of Cape Town, University of Witswatersrand, and
>> ix