Effects of Segregation on Labor Market Inequality - Research Paper Example

Effects of Segregation on Labor Market Inequality Introduction Chicago is one of the citiesin the US that still faces the same sort of racial issues it used to face more than 75 years back. It has hindered progress in the labor market. African Americans face the same types of work and disparity in income problems, and it does not seem that anything has changed regarding the racial issues in this part of the US. The population of African-Americans has increased but so has the poverty level and unemployment for them in Chicago. They were a few thousand people when they came in the city compared to more than a million in present day but the condition is more or less still the same (Reich 9). An increase in population still kept African-Americans and the whites in separate neighborhoods. These separate neighborhoods deprived African-Americans of receiving quality education and competing with the whites in the labor market. Segregation also created a feeling of hostility between the two communities who still fail to interact and comprehend the behavior of each other. Research Discussion and Analysis This research paper will investigate the ways in which segregation among different communities, namely African American and the whites, creates inequality in the labor market. For this reason, this paper will examine three very important elements to understand why the problem of income disparity exists in one of the largest metropolitan cities of the USA. The three important elements identified by research are demographics, education and unemployment. Demographics Demographics play a critical role in understanding the labor market of Chicago. Chicago is one of the densely populated cities of the US with a population of over 2.5 million people out of which about 32% are African Americans while 45% are white (Reich 17). However, Chicago is highly segregated. The major ethnic groups like to live among themselves in what they call their neighborhood. Jobs are highly dependent upon the neighborhood where people live. In order to understand the labor market of Chicago, it is critical to look at some of the details in history. The Second World War gave opportunity for the masses to work in factories as the US prepared for war. The Chicago Defender broke the news to African-Americans living in the South that there were plenty of jobs in the city of Chicago and ensured African-Americans would live a much happier life there (Ellen 261-277). It worked for most private firms, who were looking for cheap labor and also for Africans American, who found it difficult to find jobs at that time. There were nearly 3,000 African Americans traveling daily to the city of Chicago in the 1940s in order to find jobs (Ellen 261-277). It is how the population of African-Americans started to rise in the city. They were offered jobs in the factories, but at that time were paid less than even 50% of what whites were paid. In some places in Chicago, African Americans were even paid less than 25% of what the white population was paid (Ellen 261-277). Disparities in income existed between African-Americans and white from the start when they moved in the city. Chicago was not a very cheap place to find accommodation and the African Americans started to find places in the Southern side. They started living in shared buildings and flats (Ellen 261-277). Between 1980 and 1990, the population of Chicago was roughly 3 million and about 30% of the population comprised of African Americans. The African Americans earned at least 50% money less than the whites in almost every field. They did not find many opportunities in a white neighborhood. When they found opportunities there, they were paid even less than half. When a white person was paid $3 an hour, an African American received less than a dollar at times (Dickerson 393-411). In the 1980s and 1990s, about 75% of African Americans lived in neighborhoods that were comprised of 95% of black people. It was because they were not welcome in white neighborhoods, which was too expensive for them (Reich 78). About 30% of the African Americans lived in poverty compared to just 7% of whites in the 1980s. It is because the African Americans were still paid 50% less than the whites in most part of Chicago. They only lived in 9 of the communities out of the total of 76 found in the city during the period. They had fewer opportunities in these communities as their population was growing at a steady rate, and the communities could not provide enough jobs. When they went out of the community to seek jobs, they were either ignored or paid very less (Reich 83). The average income for the African Americans was $6,000 per annum compared to $12,500 for the whites. About 8% of the African American population was unemployed between the periods while only 2% o the population of the whites was unemployed. It had mainly to do with the lack of jobs in the nine black communities. Plus there were very few jobs for the African Americans in the white society (Blalock 37). The case of African Americans is still the same in Chicago. Although their population has increased in the city, so have unemployment and poverty for them. The average income of the African Americans was investigated to be around $38,000 per annum in 2010. The average is not based on the absolute average rule where the high percentage of poverty is considered in the average income earners. The data are gained to keep the gap between the African Americans and whites as fair as possible. Compared to the African-Americans, the whites earned an average income of $60,000 per annum (Reich 164). It has to be understood that the culture of Chicago has remained the same even after 75 years. The African Americans came to find jobs in Chicago and lived in shared flats. Although they do not live in shared flats anymore, but the majority of the population lives in the same neighborhood where they had settled down. From 1940s to 1980s their population had grown from South to West, and it is still in the same areas that moist African Americans are found (Massey 118). (Reich 26) The map shows the neighborhood in which the African Americans make on average $45,000 or more. Austin is one of the most popular neighborhoods for the African American. However, it consists of many people and mainly middle-class income earners. Jobs are scarce because of the number of people that live in Austin (Reich 27). The darkest blue area, Calumet Heights and Roseland and West Pullman are the areas that stand out. The average income for African Americans is over $45,000 in these areas. These are the business areas and so they tend to pay the workers in good. These places in the West are not also overcrowded making less disparity in income for the African Americans (Reich 27). Currently, the poverty rate for the African Americans has risen up to 40% compared to the 30% it was during the 1980s and 1990s (Reich 76). It means that the poverty level has been increasing despite the growing population and business in the USA. The poverty has also been growing at a very steady rate. The poverty rate for the whites was 7% and increased to only 10% in the past 20 to 30 years (Reich 76). The rate at which the poverty rate is rising for the African Americans is astonishing. It has increased by 10% in the past 20 to 30 years compared to only 3% for whites in Chicago. It is expected that the difference in poverty rates will expand even more as the African Americans have shown very less to no progress in the past. Education When the African Americans migrated to Chicago from different parts of the country, they were encouraged by the government and were themselves willing to educate their children. During the 1940s, the number of African Americans that went to schools was 20%. However, during the 1980s and 1990s, the number of African American and white students were the same in schools. It was a remarkable effort made by the African American families to educate their children (Wilson 121). The schools were completely segregated. The African Americans had their schools in their neighborhood while the whites had their schools in their neighborhood. There was a big difference between the schools found in the African American neighborhood compared to the ones found in white neighborhoods (Bobo, Johnson and Oliver 151-179). The African American schools did not have certified teachers, a large collection of books in their libraries nor did they have auditoriums. The size of the school and classrooms were also small compared to the schools and classroom sizes of the white neighborhood schools. It hugely affected the standard of education and the perception of people who started differentiating the types of education found in the two schools. The schooling system was the same until the 1980s, but there were many differences drawn between them (Farley, Howard and Bianchi 319-44 ). The upper class African-Americans tried to receive the best kind of education and in order to do, so they looked to acquire admission in the white neighborhoods. They were either not accepted, or the whites started to leave schools when more blacks were seeking admissions in them. It made private schools more popular from 1980s onwards. The whites did not have an option but to study with African Americans in public schools. In private schools, they did not have to do so. Private schools were exclusively for the whites in the 1980s and 1990s. There was a clear difference drawn between these private schools where the whites went and the public schools where the African Americans went in Chicago. The education system also became the basis for the job market. It was noted that the whites received superior lessons in private schools compared to the blacks. Automatically the white members were regarded more intellectual than the African Americans in Chicago. Not all whites went to private schools and even the local public school in a white neighborhood was much better than the public schools in the black neighborhood. White educated people were preferred as their schooling system was considered more advanced in the 1980s and 1990s (Dickerson 393-411). It is still the case even in modern times. The whites get jobs or are preferred over blacks as it is believed that their education is superior in the limits of Chicago. The white neighborhood has better and more diverse jobs, but they hesitate to give the jobs to African Americans. The perception is still the same and still the same type of stereo typing still exists in Chicago. Whites living in Chicago still do not highly regard the education system where African American children go and do not like giving them jobs based on the difference of the standard in education. (Dickerson 393-411). About 85% of the African Americans still attend all black schools in the city. Those schools are not highly regarded nor do they pay off like schools in the white neighborhood do. There is no guarantee that educating oneself from an all-black public school would get a job or admission to one of the better colleges in the future (Dickerson 393-411). It seems that people in the private schools are more likely to get admission in the better colleges and universities in Chicago in the future. The scope is very limited for an African American in Chicago who graduates from an all black school. They do not get jobs in a white neighborhood because of their education (Dickerson 393-411). African Americans are not hired in white neighborhoods, but it is because of the schooling they receive in their schools. The African Americans have a more casual style of speaking especially in Chicago. The teachers in the schools themselves are not very educated compared to the teachers that teach in all-white schools. The type of English that African Americans speak in Chicago is not accepted and in some cases is considered abusive. This is not always the case but whites normally stereotype them this way. It is the reason the whites do not try to hire the African Americans in the city (Dickerson 393-411). Other than the types of English African Americans speak, the accent is also misunderstood by most of the communities including the whites. The schools do not correctly teach the Africans Americans to speak effectively. The African American schools have their culture and students grow up in that particular culture. They only learn to use words and in the accent others around them do (Dickerson 393-411). The teachers are at times not qualified and do not make any efforts to improve their accent. It creates problems for them when they go to find jobs. Majority of the communities are non-black or African American in Chicago. Only about 11 of the communities are related to their ethnicity. The scope becomes very limited for them. It becomes very difficult for Non-African Americans to give jobs to the African Americans because of the way they communicate with people. In Chicago, the white community still faces problems in comprehending them and so the interaction is very low between the two racial groups (Ellen 261-277). The quality in education has been the same over the years in Chicago. African-Americans are finding it hard to find jobs outside their communities, and this is creating more segregation among African-Americans and white communities in Chicago (Ellen 261-277). If the same level of education exists then there is no room for this problem to get better. With time, better teachers have been employed to teach, and more books have been added in the libraries but still this is insufficient. There are two things that are of extreme importance. Firstly, the culture of African-American schools needs to change. The teachers and students must communicate in a more formal manner as their informal language is not accepted in parts of Chicago. Secondly, an effort has to be made to change the perception of people especially the white members of the society as they feel the education level in all black schools is destitute (Ellen 261-277). Employment The unemployment rate in the 1980s and 1990s in Chicago averaged 30% for the African Americans while only about 7% for the whites (Reich 78). There were many reasons for the unemployment of the African Americans. The most obvious reason was that between the 1980s and 1990s there were more than 60 communities and various neighborhoods in Chicago (Reich 78). Most of these neighborhoods belonged to the whites. Plus majority of the jobs existed in white neighborhoods. The white people opened a business (factory, retail store or anything else) and then hired people from their community. There were various reasons to hire people from within the same community for example familiarity, lack of threat for stolen goods and safety issues (Reich 78). During the 1980s and 1990s, crimes were rising in Chicago as poverty levels were rising especially in African American folks. For this reason, the majority of the white communities only tried to hire a white person. There was a conception, rather misconceptions, that African American people committed all the crimes in the city. Chicago was gaining an appalling reputation during the 1980s and 1990s as the crimes were rising. Tension and segregation between the white and the African American communities were increasing. Both the communities were advised to stay away from each other (Reich 83). The African Americans were mostly subjected to their areas and not accepted in public places at large. They could not wander too freely like people in the modern times. There were places where they could work, and there were places they could not. African Americans were in demand in restaurants and cafes in Chicago, but they were not accepted in every restaurant and café. In some of the restaurants and cafes, they were subjected to many humilities that forced them to leave the jobs. It is the reason for such a high number of unemployment for the African Americans compared to the white people in Chicago (Reich 83). Things have only got worse for the African Americans in the current labor market. The statistics show that although unemployment has increased for the whites as well but for the African Americans it has increased at a very rapid pace. About 40% of the African Americans were found unemployed in Chicago in 2010. It is a massive figure. It means about half of the working population in Chicago among African Americans are unemployed. There is no racial disparity in Chicago like there used to be in the 1980s and the 1990s. However, the culture has not changed in so many years (Reich 119). Although the African Americans can freely walk and roam in the neighborhood of white communities and people, they still find it hard to find jobs there. There were altogether 8 to 9 African-American communities in the 1980s and 1990s, and that number of communities has increased only to about 11. The total number of communities has gone up in number meaning that there are much more job opportunities outside African-American neighborhood (Reich 79). Segregation has also affected the standard of education in the schools where the African Americans go to attain education. The African American students are restricted to their localities with limited resources. It was true in the past, and the same scenario exists in the present. The quality of the limited kind of educations they receive is noticeable. Although African American student graduating from schools can be called graduates but it is quite different in Chicago. Appearance of the individual and the manner in which they talk is critical. It is because Chicago is the home to some of the biggest businesses in the country and world. Communication is critical when it comes to dealing on a diurnal basis. The whites and African Americans find it hard to converse with one another. It is because they have different speaking styles. Some of the big jobs openings are not even offered to the African Americans as the white people in the society feel that they lack in communication skills. Some clients of big businesses still feel comfortable from conversing with people belonging to their community. Big businesses belong in a white neighborhood and are run by white people. Some organizations also like white members of the society to converse with foreign clients as they feel it would create communication problems if African American takes that responsibility (Kirschenman and Neckerman 143-187). Normally in Chicago, African-Americans are not given jobs in which they have to make many interactions with clients or suppliers. Most of the top managerial and the secretariats jobs are offered to white people in Chicago. Mostly middle management and operational work is given to the African Americans who are willing to work outside their communities. It is one of the reasons why they fail to get many jobs that for which there is a vacancy, but not offered to them (Parks 129). One other big reason for the lack of employment is the attitude both the racial communities have for each other. Even to this day there is a lot of hatred among the African Americans and the whites. Chicago is one of the places in the US where crimes against the opposite ethnic group are committed in large numbers. The African American would commit a crime against the whites, and the whites would do it against them. It has kept both the communities segregated from one another and have also kept them hostile to one another (Parks 156). It is still not possible for the whites and the African Americans to work in harmony and an equal number in the workplace. Places where white business exists are always dominated by the white workers. Years of staying apart in a different neighborhood have created a stern behavior against the other community. The whites and the African Americans resent each other. Both the communities are not comfortable in working with each other in Chicago (Parks 156). Job Segregation and the Type of Jobs for the African Americans in Chicago The only jobs for blacks in Chicago were working in factories, building canals and constructions of roads and bridges when they came first time to Chicago. They were only hired as laborers. It was inconceivable for the African American to own a business even a shop when they came and settled in Chicago. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that a few African Americans collected money to open retail shops to sell grocery. However, these shops were only opened in black neighborhood and were targeted to sell products to only African Americans. They were not opened with the intention to compete with whites in Chicago (Ellen 261-277). The history of African Americans is very candid in the region of Chicago. They started as laborers and prospered as retailers but only very small in terms of size compared to whites in the society. Today there are more shops, parlors, bakeries and pharmacies in Chicago that are owned by the African Americans but they are still very small compared to the size of some of the stores and parlors owned by the white people. The shops still target the African Americans and are only found in black neighborhood. When the US came out of the war, there were a lot of African Americans in Chicago. Their neighborhood also grew in size. From the South, the African Americans started to spread to the West side. By the 1980s, the African Americans had found their way to Austin on the West side and Auburn Gresham and Roseland in the West. These neighborhoods accommodated a lot of African Americans (Dickerson 393-411). 70% of the laborers in Chicago are still African Americans that are responsible for all the work in factories and construction work required for other projects like building and roads in the city. In the 1970s and 1980s the percentage was nearly 90% (Dickerson 393-411). The percentage of African Americans has gone down but they are still in majority together with other groups like Asians and Hispanics. Whites make less than 10% of the total laborers in Chicago. This suggests that there is still a great amount of disparity as it leaves the majority of African Americans with low income generating jobs where whites are found in less numbers (Dickerson 393-411). The rest 30% of African Americans are retailers, teachers, small business men and job holders. Only 1% of the total population of African Americans in Chicago has a job that earns them more than $100,000 per annum. Most of the people who earn above $100,000 are estate dealers, work in the stock exchange or grew out from small and medium sized business into larger ones (Dickerson 393-411). The case of African American women is quite different to African American men and also the whites in Chicago. African American women are mostly hired in banks but as secretaries or departments that handle clients. They get about 70% of the income what is earned by their male African American counter parts (Dickerson 393-411).. This is not always the case and some African American women have attained big jobs in banks but generally they are given less important jobs. A large percentage of women in Chicago are teachers and they it is one of the best paid jobs for them (Dickerson 393-411). The labor market is still segmented after nearly 75 years since the African American arrived in Chicago to find jobs. They came as laborers and managed only a little more than that. Whites in Chicago always retained their firm position. They always had better jobs and better salaries and even today it is the same case (Dickerson 393-411). While majority of the African American still do the labor work in Chicago, whites enjoy working in local and multinational companies (Dickerson 393-411). Conclusion The labor market in Chicago suffers from disparity. It is because of the segregation between the African Americans and the whites that have existed since the Second World War. Segregation has totally made the two communities live in hostility with each other in one of the largest cities of the USA. Lack of quality education has made the African Americans suffer in this part of the country where the whites are not yet ready to change their perception about the African Americans schooling. This perception has led to unemployment in the city like never seen before in its history. Things are only expected to get worse if drastic changes are not made in the education system for the schools in which the African American. Efforts by the government would also need to be made to change the perception of the whites in society. An awareness program would be good for a start. Works Cited Blalock, Hubert. Race and Ethnic Relations Englewood. New Jersey : Prentice Hall, 1982. Bobo, Lawrence, James Johnson and Melvin Oliver. "Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality." Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (2000): 151-179. Dickerson, N. "Occupational and residential segregation." Labor Studies Journal (2008): 393-411. Ellen, Ingrid Gould. "Continuing Isolation: Segregation in America Today." Taylor and Francis Group (2008): 261--277. Farley, Reynolds, et al. "Chocolate City, Vanilla Suburbs: Will the Trend toward Racially Separate Communities Continue?" Social Science Research (1978): 319-44 . Kirschenman, Joleen and Kathryn M. Neckerman. 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