"Place-not-race"?: The inadequacy of geography to address racial disparities

Review of Black Political Economy

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 54-60

  De Oliver, Miguel ^a   Dawson Muñoz, Teresa ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0005155882     PISSN: 00346446     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/bf02690067     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. There are a wealth of data on the subject matter. For the mechanics of affirmative action, see Weldon J. Rougeau, "Enforcing a clear national mandate," The Journal of Intergroup Relations, vol. 8 (1979), pp. 4-12.
2. For data on the results of affirmative action policies on minorities, see Jonathan Leonard, "The Impact of Affirmative Action on Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 2 (1984), pp. 439-463;
3. Jonathan Leonard, "Employment and Occupational Advance Under Affirmative Action," The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 66 (1984), pp. 377-85;
4. Orley Ashenfelter and James Heckman, "Measuring the Effect of an Anti-discrimination Program," ed. Orley Ashenfelter and James Blum, Estimating the Labor Market of Social Programs. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton, 1976), pp. 46-89;
5. James Heckman and Kenneth Wolpin, "Does the Contract Compliance Program Work? An Analysis of Chicago Data." Industrial and Labor Relations Review, vol. 29 (1976), pp. 544-64;
6. Morris Goldstein and Robert Smith, "The Estimated Impact of Anti-discrimination Laws Aimed at Federal Contractors," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, vol. 29 (1976), pp. 523-43;
7. John Donohue and James Heckman, "Continuous versus Episodic Change: The Impact of Federal Civil Rights Policy on the Economic Status of Blacks," Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 29 (1991), pp. 1603-43;
8. Jonathan Leonard, "The Impact of Affirmative Action Regulations and Equal Employment Law on Black Employment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 4 (1990), pp. 47-64.
9. Steven Shulman, "A Critique of the Declining Discrimination Hypothesis," ed. Steven Shulman and William Darity, Jr., The Question of Discrimination: Racial Inequality in the U.S. Labor Market. (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1989), p. 128.
10. See Editorial Research Reports, "Affirmative Action: Does it Work?" vol. 1, 14 (April 14, 1989), p. 201. The City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469 (1989) case concerned the city's setting aside of 30 percent of public work contracts for minority-owned firms. Dinesh D'Souza, formerly a domestic policy analyst in the Reagan Administration, articulated the colloquial expression of much of the conservative resistance to race-based policies when stating his perception of affirmative action doctrine as "Listen, you owe me something because of what your ancestor did to mine."
11. Dinesh D'Souza and Christopher Edley, Jr., "Affirmative Action Debate: Should Race-based Affirmative Action be Abandoned as a National Policy?", Albany Law Review, vol. 60, 2 (1996), p. 460. Pat Buchanan, former Reagan Administration speech writer, presidential candidate, and conservative columnist, furthers this notion when stating "What the black poor need more than anything today is a dose of the truth. Slums are the product of the people who live there . . . The first step to progress for any group, lies in the admission that its failures are, by and large, its own fault . . ."
12. See Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall, "Race," The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 267, 5 (May 1981), pp. 77-78.
13. S. Bill 26 1st session, 104th Congress, "Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1995."
14. Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978) involved University of California, Davis Medical School set-aside of 16 percent of admissions for minorities; Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 115 S. Ct. 2097 (1995) involved contract terms providing that the prime contractor would receive additional compensation from the government for hiring small businesses controlled by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals."
15. Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 116 S. Ct. 2581 (1996) ruled that the law school may not use race as a factor in law school admissions.
16. Steven Shulman, "A Critique of the Declining Discrimination Hypothesis," ed. Steven Shulman and William Darity, Jr., The Question of Discrimination. Racial Inequality in the U.S. Labor Market. (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1989), p. 134.
17. William Julius Wilson, The Declining Significance of Race. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 153-154.
18. C.A. Doxiadis, Urban Renewal and the Future of the American City. (Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1978);
19. National Council for Urban Economic Development, Coordinated Urban Economic Development: A Case Study Analysis - Executive Summary. (Washington, D.C., 1978);
20. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community Development Block Grant Program, a Provisional Report. (Washington, D.C.: Office of Evaluation, 1975);
21. Nicholas Lehman, "The Myth of Community Development." New York Times Magazine, (January 9, 1994);
22. Marilyn Marks Rubin, "Can Reorchestration of Historical Themes Reinvest Government? A Case Study of the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Act of 1993." Public Administration Review 54 (March-April, 1994);
23. Also see note 36 in Glenda Glover. "Enterprise Zones: Incentives Are Not Attracting Minority Firms." The Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 22, 1 (1993), pp. 73-99.
24. H.R. 1414 and H.R. 1282 1st session, 104th Congress.
25. UC Admissions Proposal by Rodolfo Alvarez and Richard Flacks, "Toward Increasing Fairness in UC Admissions: Guaranteeing Admission to the Best Public School Students." Chicano Studies Research Center Publications, UCLA (1997).
26. Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), "Programs to Support School-To-Career FY 1997-2000," City of Los Angeles Community Development Department Youth and Employment Services Division (1997).
27. Remarks by the President on Affirmative Action. The White House: Office of the Press Secretary, July 19, 1995.
28. Place-based approaches can vary in the character of incentives offered to the target zone. Some place-based programs target individuals within the target zone - some target community infrastructure, and some combine the two, like the Empowerment Zone Job Creation Act of 1995 which encourages "assistance to non-profit employers and public agencies to employ [individual] participants in projects designed to address community needs [authors' underline], such as projects to enhance neighborhood infrastructure, to modernize public housing, and to provide other community services." H.R. 1414, Section, 51st session, 104th Congress. Whether individually-based or community-based incentives, both employ geography as the principal targeting mechanism.
29. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. State Enterprise Zone Update. (Washington, D.C.: H.U.D., 1995).
30. H.R. 1282 "Neighborhood Infrastructure Improvement and Inner City Job Creation Act" 1st session, 104th Congress; See Section 1 of H.R. 2460 1st session, 104th Congress.
31. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1990).
32. Sar A. Levitan and Elizabeth I. Miller, "Enterprise Zones are No Solution for our Blighted Areas," Challenge, vol. 35, 3 (1992), pp. 4-8;
33. Barry Rubin, "Enterprise Zones: Cure for Urban Ills?" Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, vol. 10, 4 (1995), pp. 101-106.
34. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1990).
35. National Public Radio 1996. Interview with William Julius Wilson. Talk of the Nation, (October 22).
36. Charles Schwarz, "Zone Defense," State Government News, vol. 37, 4 (1994), p. 22.
37. Sar A. Levitan and Elizabeth I. Miller, "Enterprise Zones are No Solution for our Blighted Areas," Challenge, vol. 35, 3 (1992), pp. 4-8.
38. Glenda Glover, "Enterprise Zones: Incentives Are Not Attracting Minority Firms," The Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 22, 1 (1993), pp. 81-98.
39. Sar A. Levitan and Elizabeth I. Miller, "Enterprise Zones are No Solution for our Blighted Areas," Challenge, vol. 35, 3 (1992), pp. 4-8.;
40. National Economic Development and Law Center, "Enterprise Zones: Not Perfect, But Full of Potential," Clearinghouse Review, vol. 27, 9 (1994), pp. 1016-1024.
41. San Antonio contains the state's 1st, 2nd, 13th, 17th, 32nd, 36th, and 49th highest rated tourist attractions. Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Auto Visitor Survey: 1993 Winter Report. (Austin, Texas Department of Transportation, 1993), p. 9.
42. Glenda Glover, "Enterprise Zones: Incentives Are Not Attracting Minority Firms," The Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 22, 1 (1993), pp. 81-98.
43. Race/ethnicity was determined by surname. Property ownership is defined as being either the direct property owner or the Latino\non-Latino predominance of the property's board of directors ranging back to a maximum depth of control to the third-layer holding company. While utilizing surname is an effective approach with respect to classifying Latinos, it is not with respect to Blacks. Thus, the designation of "non-Latino" properties in figure 3 does not definitively indicate Anglo ownership. But, it must be said, that given the small percentage of Blacks in San Antonio (7 percent) and the overall humble economic circumstance of this community (per capita income of $8,730, or 60.5 percent of the national average), it is extremely unlikely that the designation of "non-Latino" property is appreciably altered by black ownership. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1990. Admittedly, the San Antonio tourist industry is hardly a monolith of Anglo control; Latinos are represented, but not proportionately, at all levels of management, and certainly not in terms of property ownership.
44. Glenda Glover, "Enterprise Zones: Incentives Are Not Attracting Minority Firms," The Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 22, 1 (1993), pp. 81-98.
45. Report to the President, "The State of Small Business," 1993, pp. 214-215;
46. Glenda Glover, "Enterprise Zones: Incentives Are Not Attracting Minority Firms," The Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 22, 1 (1993), p. 93.
47. Additional issues that arise from using place-based programs as a solution for poverty in non-Anglo communities relate to general concepts regarding the overall potential of spatially-focussed economic packages to be effective for any particular group in poverty. The establishment of a viable local economy is critical to the objective of place-based programs. Up to the present, the fledgling array of place-based programs has been predominantly oriented to commercial stimulation as opposed to the advancement and reinforcement of social institutions like child care, education, drug rehabilitation, et cetera that are often relevant to the individual resident. But it has been shown that the criteria used by businesses to move to a given location such as: presence of a skilled labor force, proximity to transportation and markets, good local amenities, and the physical security of sites, have proven far more important than place-based economic incentives in contributing to entrepreneurial choices. See Carl Horowitz, "Putting Enterprise into Federal Enterprise Zones," The Real Estate Finance Journal, vol. 7, 4 (1992), p. 63
48. Sar A. Levitan and Elizabeth I. Miller, "Enterprise Zones are No Solution for our Blighted Areas," Challenge, vol. 35, 3 (1992), p. 4. Thus, despite the incentives offered in a place-based target zone, other (non-race) incentives that are often absent in the target poverty-stricken area tend to inhibit private enterprise migrating to, and prospering within it. Moreover, Glenda Glover reports that, when place-based development programs do attract firms, they are usually small, offer low-wage jobs, have fewer employees, are less technologically equipped, have lower gross sales, and fewer hierarchical levels, and thus require less developed employee skills and training.
49. See Glenda Glover, "Enterprise Zones: Incentives Are Not Attracting Minority Firms," The Review of Black Political Economy, vol. 22, 1 (1993), pp. 93, 84, 91. The failure of economically-focussed place-based programs to promote and enhance a diverse array of labor skills amongst the community's employees ultimately facilitates further economic and racial segregation, by limiting the potential of the labor force to advance. Even when minority employees can migrate out of the community to other employment, there is declining federal support for the mass transit which traditionally facilitates the movement of those non-Anglos who need to commute out of the inner city.
50. See Susan B. Hansen. "Comparing Enterprise Zones to Other Economic Development Techniques," ed. Roy E. Green. Enterprise Zones: New Directions in Economic Development. (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991).
51. For example, see Cornel West, Race Matters. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993)
52. lames Blaut's "The Theory of Cultural Racism," Antipode, vol. 24, 4 (1992), pp. 289-299.
53. See Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, "Trends in Residential Segregation of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians: 1970-1980," American Sociological Review, vol. 52 (1987), pp. 802-825;
54. Norval D. Glenn, "The Role of White Resistance and Facilitation in the Negro Struggle for Equality." In Power and the Black Community. (New York: Random House, 1970), pp. 411-422;
55. Karl Taeuber, "Racial Residential Segregation, 28 Cities, 1970-1980." Working paper 83-12. (University of Wisconsin, Madison: Center for Demography and. Ecology, 1983);
56. R. Farley, H. Schuman, S. Bianchi, D. Colosanto and S. Hatchett, "Chocolate City, Vanilla Suburbs: Will the Trend toward Racially Separate Communities Continue?" Social Science Research, vol. 7 (1978), pp. 319-344;
57. R. Farley, S. Bianchi and D. Colosanto, "Barriers to the Racial Integration of Neighborhoods: The Detroit Case," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 441 (1979), pp. 97-113;
58. D.G. Taylor, "Housing, Neighborhood, and Race Relations: Recent Survey Evidence," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 441 (1979), pp. 26-40;
59. H. Schuman and L. Bobo, "Survey-based Experiments on White Racial Attitudes Towards Residential Integration." American Journal of Sociology, vol. 94 (1988), pp. 273-99;
60. Douglas S. Massey and Andrew B. Gross, "Explaining Trends in Racial Segregation, 1970-1980," Urban Affairs Quarterly, vol. 27, 1 (1991), pp. 13-35.
61. Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, "Good For Business: Making Full Use of the Nation's Human Capital." (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, March, 1995).