The Hidden Rules of Race
Barriers to an Inclusive Economy

This book explores the racial rules that are often hidden but perpetuate vast racial inequities in the United States.

Andrea Flynn (Author), Dorian T. Warren (Author), Felicia J. Wong (Author), Susan R. Holmberg (Author)

9781108417549, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 September 2017

232 pages, 7 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.47 kg

'This book draws on a variety of data sources and methods to demonstrate how the racial rules affecting wealth, income, education, criminal justice, health, and democratic participation continue to produce suboptimal outcomes in the largest economy in the world. It identifies not only rules that exclude large numbers of people from participating fully in the economy and in society, it also provides examples of rules that have minimized inequality and that produce greater equity. To say that The Hidden Rules of Race gives timely clarity to one of the most pressing and fundamental issues in our society today would be a vast understatement. This is essential reading for economists, policymakers, corporate leaders, and all participants in our modern economy and society who would like to see [black Americans] achieve their maximum potential.' Lisa D. Cook, Associate Professor of Economics and International Relations, Michigan State University

Why do black families own less than white families? Why does school segregation persist decades after Brown v. Board of Education? Why is it harder for black adults to vote than for white adults? Will addressing economic inequality solve racial and gender inequality as well? This book answers all of these questions and more by revealing the hidden rules of race that create barriers to inclusion today. While many Americans are familiar with the histories of slavery and Jim Crow, we often don't understand how the rules of those eras undergird today's economy, reproducing the same racial inequities 150 years after the end of slavery and 50 years after the banning of Jim Crow segregation laws. This book shows how the fight for racial equity has been one of progress and retrenchment, a constant push and pull for inclusion over exclusion. By understanding how our economic and racial rules work together, we can write better rules to finally address inequality in America.

Introduction: rewriting the rules of racial inequality
1. American politics and economic outcomes for African Americans: a brief historical overview
2. Stratification economics: a general theory of intergroup inequality
3. Creating structural changes: the role of targeted universalism
4. The racial rules of wealth
5. The racial rules of income
6. The racial rules of education
7. The racial rules of criminal justice
8. The racial rules of health
9. The racial rules of democratic participation
10. What will it take to rewrite the hidden rules of race?

Subject Areas: Economics [KC], Politics & government [JP], Philosophy & theory of education [JNA], Sociology & anthropology [JH]