Reducing Intergenerational Poverty (2024) / Chapter Skim
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3 Racial Disparities in Intergenerational Poverty
3 Racial Disparities in Intergenerational Poverty
Pages 61-86
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From page 61... ...
This chapter examines the histories, practices, and contexts that limit the intergenerational mobility of both Black and Native American children. These patterns are also gendered, as is discussed further in Appendix C: Chapter 3.
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From page 62... ...
. HISTORICAL ROOTS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN INTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITY To elaborate on structural racism and its link to intergenerational poverty, the persistent racial and ethnic disparities in upward mobility that are documented in this report can be better understood when placed in historical context.
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From page 63... ...
CONTEMPORARY DRIVERS OF RACIAL DISPARITY IN INTERGENERATIONAL POVERTY The historical context described above and in Appendix C: Chapter 3 sets the stage for understanding contemporary intergenerational poverty in the United States and its relationship to Black and Native American communities. Black and Native American children and families face more challenging conditions rooted in a racialized distribution of resources and social processes of racial exclusion in the United States that have compounded over time.
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From page 64... ...
Racial disparities are also evident in the key life experiences that are relevant for upward mobility, such as exposure to environmental toxins, residence in high-pov erty neighborhoods, and attendance at schools with college-preparatory curricula. The cumulative and intersecting nature of these disparate exposures over the life course partly explains higher rates of intergenerational poverty.
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From page 65... ...
housing and neighborhood resources, child welfare, criminal justice, and income and employment -- that perpetuate racial disparities in intergenerational poverty today. Throughout each section, we discuss the patterns and experiences for both Black and Native American individuals when possible.
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From page 66... ...
Native American children have lower preschool enrollment rates (44%) than White children (49%)
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Lower expectations have harmful effects on actual achievement (Jussim & Harber, 2005) , and White teachers have lower expectations of Black students than they do of White students (Gershenson et al., 2016; Papageorge et al., 2020)
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From page 68... ...
. Most school districts reflect the demographic and socioeconomic compositions of their neighborhoods, and Black and Native American children are more likely than White children to live in high-poverty areas (National Academies, 2019a)
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From page 69... ...
that "Black students lost 103 days per 100 students enrolled, which is 82 more than the 21 days their White peers lost due to out-of-school suspensions." Native American students lost 54 days per 100 students enrolled (Losen & Martinez, 2020) Correlational and quasi-experimental studies show that school discipline is negatively related to standardized test scores and high school and college graduation and is positively correlated with involvement in the criminal legal system (Bacher-Hicks et al., 2019; Chu & Ready, 2018; Mittleman, 2018; Rose et al., 2022; Rosenbaum, 2020; Wolf & Kupchik, 2017)
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From page 70... ...
, lack of access to health care, and differential treatment by health care providers. For example, a study of the desegregation of hospitals after the 1964 Civil Rights Act demonstrated sharp declines in Black infant mortality, demonstrating how the lack of appropriate maternity care to Black women had resulted in the deaths of Black newborns (Almond et al., 2006)
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Native Americans experience very high uninsured rates; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 28.6% of Native Americans under age 65 are uninsured (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 2023)
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. Wages and Employment The persistence of economic immobility has defined Black Americans' relationship to labor and the labor market throughout much of U.S.
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. As is discussed further in Chapter 4, improving education and skills for low-income Black and Native American children is likely to increase their adult wages and decrease their intergenerational poverty.
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During the economy recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment rates have declined, yet racial disparities remain. As of July 2022, the unemployment rate of Black workers was 6.0%, compared with 3.9% for Latino workers and 3.1% for White workers (U.S.
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From page 75... ...
In sum, disparities in both employment and earnings remain between White individuals and Black individuals. Given that persistently low family incomes and employment are an important driver of intergenerational poverty, policies that increase parental incomes and employment may increase intergenerational mobility (and will be discussed in Chapter 6)
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This is an area that has been positively impacted by policy, namely the Clean Air Act of 1970, which has reduced racial disparities in such exposure (Currie, 2023)
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FIGURE 3-1 How air pollution reflects racist policy from the 1930s. SOURCE: Zhong and Popovitch (2022)
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From page 78... ...
. The most recent national audit study using matched pairs of houseseekers found declines in discrimination against Black people compared with previous decades, but it also found continued practices of racial steering of Black testers into neighborhoods with higher poverty rates, lower school test scores, higher rates of violent crime, and greater exposure to air toxins (Christensen & Timmins, 2022; Turner et al., 2013)
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From page 79... ...
. Chapter 9 shows that reducing crime and exposure to violence are important strategies for reducing intergenerational poverty.
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. In other words, racial disparities in criminal offending and criminal justice contact emerge within the broader histories of structural racism and racial inequality in the important domains of education, health, neighborhoods, and labor markets, which is documented in this chapter.
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. In sum, racial inequality in crime, victimization, and criminal justice system involvement contributes to disproportionate rates of intergenerational poverty among Black and Native Americans.
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In sum, these disparities point to the need for policies and programs that can reduce child maltreatment and child welfare system involvement in order to address intergenerational poverty. Such interventions are discussed in Chapter 10.
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Improving outcomes for Black people and Native Americans will likely require some race consciousness in our policies and their implementation to ensure that their impacts are as positive as possible for these marginalized groups. Race consciousness requires marshalling data to understand racial disparities and the policies and practices that contribute to it.
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From page 84... ...
In the chapters that follow, we identify a set of policies and programs for reducing intergenerational poverty that are supported by direct evidence on intergenerational impacts. There are notably few interventions for which there is direct evidence of intergenerational impacts specifically on Black and Latino Americans, and none assessing impacts on Native Americans.
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Because rigorous analysis of structural racism is a fairly recent phenomenon, a great deal remains to be done. Developing more consensus on how to define, measure, and test its effects -- especially in the contemporary context -- is a necessary first step.
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From page 86... ...
Family Income, Employment, and Wealth Work-based income support: State supplements to the Earned Income Tax Credit generate generally positive effects on educational attainment and earnings of Black children. Neighborhood Crime and the Criminal Justice System Juvenile incarceration: Reducing juvenile detentions and incarcerations pro motes school completion and reduces adult crime among Black youth.
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