WHITE CONVICTS IN U.S. HIRED OVER RECORD-FREE BLACK PEOPLE

In this clip, Devah Pager, a former professor of sociology and public policy at Harvard University who passed away in 2018, shared insightful findings on the stark reality of Black people in the US labour market.

In the experiment, part of Pager’s 2002 graduate dissertation, ‘The Mark of a Criminal Record,’ young Black and white men applied for entry-level jobs while varying their criminal histories. She found that having a criminal record significantly reduces employment opportunities for all applicants. However, Black applicants without a criminal record received callbacks at roughly half the rate of equally qualified white applicants. More profoundly, Black applicants without a criminal record received callbacks at slightly lower rates than white convicts.

Thus, her research suggested being born Black in the US was akin to being born with a criminal record, exposing the entrenched nature of systemic bias in hiring practices.

These systemic biases continue to create barriers for Black people in the US today. Moreover, the ripple effects of such discrimination have far-reaching consequences that continue the cycles of poverty and deepen the economic inequality between white and Black people.

Video credit: Stanford Centre On Poverty and Inequality (YouTube)
Sources

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/mark-criminal-record

https://thesociologistdc.com/all-issues/the-legacy-of-devah-pager

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/pager/files/pager_ajs.pdf

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/31/black-workers-views-and-experiences-in-the-us-labor-force-stand-out-in-key-ways

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/african-americans-face-systematic-obstacles-getting-good-jobs

https://theconversation.com/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace-are-under-attack-heres-why-they-matter-more-than-ever-250651