abstract: 'Racial earnings inequalities in the United States diminished

  significantly over the three decades following World War II, but since

  then have not changed very much. Meanwhile, black-white disparities in

  employment have become increasingly pronounced. What accounts for this

  historical pattern? Sociologists often understand the evolution of

  racial wage and employment inequality as the consequence of economic

  restructuring, resulting in narratives about black economic fortunes

  that emphasize changing skill demands related to the rise and fall of

  the industrial economy. Reviewing a large body of work by economic

  historians and other researchers, this article contends that the

  historical evidence is not consistent with manufacturing-and

  skills-centered explanations of changes in relative black earnings and

  employment. Instead, data from the 1940s onward suggest that racial

  earnings inequalities have been significantly influenced by political

  and institutional factors-social movements, government policies,

  unionization efforts, and public-employment patterns-and that racial

  employment disparities have increased over the course of the postwar and

  post-1970s periods for reasons that are not reducible to skills. Taking

  a broader historical view suggests that black economic fortunes have

  long been powerfully shaped by nonmarket factors and recenters research

  on racial discrimination as well as the political and institutional

  forces that influence labor markets.'
affiliation: 'Sites, W (Corresponding Author), Univ Chicago, Sch Social Serv Adm,
  Chicago, IL 60637 USA.

  Sites, William; Parks, Virginia, Univ Chicago, Sch Social Serv Adm, Chicago, IL
  60637 USA.'
author: Sites, William and Parks, Virginia
author-email: 'w-sites@uchicago.edu

  vparks@uchicago.edu'
author_list:
- family: Sites
  given: William
- family: Parks
  given: Virginia
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/0032329210394998
files: []
issn: 0032-3292
journal: POLITICS \& SOCIETY
keywords: 'earnings; employment; racial discrimination; deindustrialization; skills

  mismatch; labor-market institutions'
keywords-plus: 'WHITE WAGE DIFFERENTIALS; CIVIL-RIGHTS POLICY; UNITED-STATES;

  TECHNOLOGICAL-CHANGE; UNEMPLOYMENT GAP; PUBLIC-SECTOR; RELATIVE

  EARNINGS; GREAT COMPRESSION; FAMILY-STRUCTURE; JOB SEGREGATION'
language: English
month: MAR
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '134'
pages: 40-73
papis_id: 6ca8bd50446cc26d53a80ee71a84b32d
ref: Sites2011whatdo
times-cited: '19'
title: What Do We Really Know About Racial Inequality? Labor Markets, Politics, and
  the Historical Basis of Black Economic Fortunes
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000287963300002
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '31'
volume: '39'
web-of-science-categories: Political Science; Social Issues; Sociology
year: '2011'