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Article Excerpt
I. INTRODUCTION
Why has the black unemployment rate in the United States been more than twice that of whites over the past three decades? From 1972 to 2002, the average black unemployment rate was 12.4%, while the average unemployment rate for whites was 5.5% (Figure 1). Gilman (1965), Arrow (1972a, 1972b), Shulman (1987), and Darity and Mason (1998) represent just a few scholars who have sought to explain this conundrum using a discrimination framework. This article builds on those earlier efforts, but refocuses the explanation onto indirect cultural/social phenomena that motivate discrimination. It is hypothesized that media forms that reflect information and entertainment ("infotainment") and highly visible social phenomena interact to produce negative consumption externalities and decreased demand for black labor. This hypothesis is consistent with Loury's (1998) call for the use of social phenomena to explain economic outcomes. The underlying demand-side hypothesis is tested using single equation regression models to determine whether variables representing infotainment and social phenomena explain the black-white unemployment rate gap and the black unemployment rate. In addition, the statistical analysis includes tests for causal and cointegration relationships and simultaneous equation systems to identify the path by which these social phenomena affect economic outcomes.
Section II of this article establishes a theoretical framework as a prelude to the analysis and defines the infotainment and social phenomena that are hypothesized to contribute significantly to black employment outcomes. Sections III and IV present variable consistent analytical models and the results, respectively. Section V provides conclusions.
II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Loury (1998) called on economists to "look beyond what happens within markets" (p. 117) when examining the topic of racial or gender discrimination. This article's key thrust is consistent with Darity, Mason, and Stewart (2006) in that nonblacks may justify their decision to operate as "racialists" when they observe blacks through infotainment in stereotypical and antisocial roles. Further, Darity, Mason, and Stewart (2006) argue that nonblacks may justify the "us" versus "them" mentality that is intrinsic to acts of employment discrimination in a "split labor market" paradigm (Darity 1989). The latter, of course, increases the black-white unemployment rate gap and the black unemployment rate.
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The black-white unemployment rate gap and the black unemployment rate could be viewed through one or all three discrimination theory lenses that Loury (1998) discussed: taste, statistics, and market. In effect, this article has implications for all three theories because the econometric models that are presented permit a discriminator to be interpreted as discriminating based on one or all three motivations. An employer who decides to engage in employment discrimination against a black applicant may be motivated by a taste derived from infotainment, by a statistical framework based on signals observed through infotainment, or by broad market conditions learned while consuming infotainment. Similarly, a discriminator's decision could be based on knowledge or perception of blacks' involvement in crime (especially drug-related crimes), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/ acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), hip-hop culture, or on perceived differences between blacks and unauthorized immigrants; this knowledge is likely to be obtained through consumption of infotainment.
Television, movies, newspaper, popular periodicals, and the Internet are the primary media genres that embody the information and entertainment characteristics that constitute infotainment. How can infotainment sources contribute to black unemployment? This can be accomplished by imprinting adverse images of blacks on the minds of hiring officials. The imprinting process can occur at almost any point in the hiring official's life; admittedly, given decay effects, more recent imprinting experiences are likely to have a more pronounced effect on hiring decisions. The focus here is on television infotainment because it is the most pervasive form, and the remaining forms are generally subsumed within it. (1)
DeFleur and DeFleur (1967) determined nearly 40 yr ago that perceptions are affected by television, particularly when an observer (consumer) has limited real-life experience concerning a topic. (2) In addition, Gerbner and Gross (1976) found three decades ago that exposure to television is correlated with perceiving the world more in accordance with the way it is portrayed in television dramas. Kang (2005) discusses current research that reaches into the subconscious and reveals how racial schemas, which are promulgated through infotainment, produce adverse responses on the part of whites toward blacks. Kang (2005) exposes the prevalence of these (unconscious) adverse responses to blacks in key social and economic interactions, including in employment and hiring processes. (3)
Add to these research findings the fact that infotainment industries accounted for 4.5% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for 2005, with value added amounting to $555.2 billion and it becomes clear that infotainment's power to persuade creates demand for these industries' services and is responsible for their size. (4)
To further buttress this theoretical framework, note the following circumstances concerning the absence of countervailing real-life experiences to counteract the effects of adverse images in infotainment.
* Reporting for the U.S. Census Bureau, Iceland, Weinberg, and Steinmetz (2002) indicate that from 1980 to 2000, an index of racial housing spatial proximity decreased only 4.3% implying little change in the extent to which blacks continue to reside disproportionately in contiguous areas or segregated enclaves, which remain quite apart from whites.
* Tatum (2003) discusses continued patterns of voluntary segregation in public schools in her recent book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. In addition, Duhon (2002) describes how black elementary and secondary public school students are often "tracked" into highly segregated classes.
* Although their study focuses on a predominantly white university in the Midwest, Radloff and Evans (2003) findings concerning continued social distancing between blacks and whites is apparent on college campuses across the nation.
* Klagge (2003), a professor at Virginia Tech University, concludes that "few multiracial churches are successful" (p. 6), and therewith echoes Martin Luther King's oft-quoted statement that "the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning."
These findings suggest that infotainment imprinting experiences are simultaneously substantiated and reinforced by the above-described segregation; that is, whites may not experience sufficient opportunities to disconfirm and correct adverse infotainment images of blacks.
Following Loury's (1998) advice, in addition to infotainment, the roles of four social phenomena--black drug-related arrests, black HIV/AIDS cases, hip-hop culture, and perceived differences between blacks and unauthorized immigrants--are examined as possible factors in the black unemployment problem. Infotainment, especially television, is widely recognized as presenting a preponderance of comical images of blacks as explained by Bogles (1989, 2001) and Cosby (1994). These images make blacks appear as unfocused personalities incapable of making a serious and positive contribution in the work environment to augment a firm's bottom line. In fact, for the period 1972-2002, of 778 black prime-time television programs analyzed as part of this study, 378 or 48.6% were classified as comedies. (5) Blacks are presented as simply too busy being funny to be busy producing, which constitutes a signal that they should not be hired. In the econometric models presented in this article, the number of prime-time television programs featuring blacks in primary or secondary roles (credited cast members) serves as a proxy for infotainment.
There are several key social phenomena that could engender adverse notions about blacks among whites; the aforementioned four highly visible social phenomena are incorporated into the statistical models. First, crime is considered; however, a more focused and potentially damaging subset of the crime spectrum is the abuse of illegal drugs. (6) The idea that blacks generally abuse drugs could justify in the minds of employers that blacks would not be good employees and, hence, cause employers to engage in hiring discrimination against blacks. The annual number of black arrests for drug offenses serves as the variable for the models based on Uniform Crime Report data from the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (1972-2003). In a modern society, incarceration is a primary tool for removing undesirables. Much has been written about the disproportionate level of black arrests historically; Blumstein (2002) shows that black arrests and the related disparity in sentencing can only be adequately explained using race variables. Thus, one can view arrests as an iconic variable that captures cultural sentiments on an in-groups (whites) versus out-groups (blacks) basis.
Second, the role of sexually transmitted diseases among blacks is examined as a possible reason for hiring discrimination and a higher black unemployment rate. Employees with HIV/AIDS impose a cost on employers that is not imposed by healthy employees. Employers may attempt to avoid this cost by not hiring employees that they suspect have HIV/ AIDS. Furthermore, puritanical perspectives may motivate adverse opinions of blacks who contract AIDS and contribute to employers' decision to not hire blacks. Data on the annual number of black HIV/AIDS cases from the Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control (2005) are used in the models.
Third, after 400 yr as the dominant culture in the United States and with other ethnicities mimicking, to some degree, white culture, it may be somewhat unsettling for whites to experience blacks developing a strong, new, and independent hip-hop culture, which is primarily based on African and African Diaspora cultures. Whites who view hip-hop and Rap music and culture as alien and nonconformist might respond to this culture by rejecting as employees blacks who are aligned with that culture. The annual number of Billboard Rap (hip-hop) Top 25 Singles from Billboard Research Services (2005b) that appear on the Billboard Top 100 Chart from Billboard Research Services (2005a) proxies for the penetration of this new culture into mainstream American culture.
Fourth, over the past three decades, increasing numbers of immigrants have entered the United States. What impact have these immigrants had on black unemployment? Steinberg (2005) seeks to answer this question by surveying key contributions to the literature on this topic. For example, Ogbu (1991) and Lim (2001) account for the employment success of immigrants vis-a-vis blacks by citing differences in social capital between the two groups. That is, immigrants are portrayed as possessing higher levels of motivation and interest in working than blacks. Simon (1991) argues that, overall, immigrants do not exacerbate unemployment. On the other hand, Moss and Tilly (2001) conclude that many employers simply prefer immigrants over blacks; such preferences should result in higher black unemployment. In a very recent study, Borjas, Grogger, and Hanson (2006) conclude that the flow of immigrants is correlated with reductions in employment for black males and with increases in the black male incarceration rate. Moreover, immigrants themselves likely contribute to the black-white unemployment rate gap and black unemployment. Chang and Diaz-Veizades (1999) provide clear evidence that black stereotypical media images reach international audiences and contribute to the formation of adverse opinions of black Americans among future emigrants to the United States. Logically, these opinions contribute to immigrants' decisions to not hire blacks after they arrive in the country. Because unauthorized immigrants have filled many jobs formerly occupied by blacks, the effect of immigration on black unemployment is tested using data on unauthorized immigrant flows that were obtained from the 2000 Decennial Census from the U.S. Department...
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