Review: What's Race Got To Do With It?

Author(s): Aldon Morris

Review by: Aldon Morris
Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 25, No. 3 (May, 1996), pp. 309-313
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2077438
Accessed: 20-05-2015 21:08 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Contemporary
Sociology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 77.105.21.162 on Wed, 20 May 2015 21:08:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY 309
ties: Freud and Beyond. Lexington:Universityof Mahoney, Maureen and Barbara Yngvesson. 1992.
KentuckyPress.
"The Constructionof Subjectivityand the Paradox
. 1995. "Gender as a Personal and Cultural
of Resistance:Reintegrating
FeministAnthropology
Construction."Signs 20:516-44.
and Psychology."Signs 18:44-73.
Disch,Lisa and MaryJo Kane. 1996. "Whena lookeris Pierce, Jennifer.1995. Gender Trials: Emotional
reallya bitch:Lisa Olson, Sport,and the HeterosexLives in ContemporaryLaw Firms. Berkeley:
ual Matrix."Signs 21:278-308.
University
of CaliforniaPress.
Goode, William J. 1963. World Revolution and
Scott,Joan W. 1988. "Gender:A UsefulCategoryof
Family Patterns.New York:Free Press.
HistoricalAnalysis."Pp. 28-50 in Genderand the
Laslett,Barbara. 1990. "UnfeelingKnowledge: EmoPolitics of History.New York:ColumbiaUniversity
tion and Objectivityin the Historyof Sociology."
Press.
Sociological Forum 5:413- 433.
Segura, Denise A. and JenniferPierce. 1993. "ChiSara. 1994. rve Known Rivers:
Lawrence-Lightfoot,
cana/o Family Structureand Gender Personality:
Lives of Loss and Liberation. New York: Penguin
Chodorow,Familism,and Psychoanalytic
Sociology
Books.
Revisited."Signs 19: 62-91.

What's Race Got To Do

With It?*
ALDON MORRIS

Northwestern
University
Originalreviews,CS 9:1 (January1980), by
ThomasF. Pettigrewand Cora BagleyMarrett.FromCora BagleyMarrett's
review:
The positionof[theblackmiddleclass]may
be far more precarious than Wilson suggests... [The Bakke]case and similarchallenges to special minorityprogramsindicatetomanyobserversthataffirmative
action
programsare notfirmly
entrenched... The
progressofthemiddleclassmaybe shorterlivedand less sweepingthantheWilsonpresentationmightimply.

The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks

and Cbanging American Institutions, by
William Julius Wilson. Universityof Chicago
Press [1978] 1980. 204 pp. $9.95 paper. ISBN:
0-226-90219-7.

DSR was importantto his election as only the

second Black president of the century-old
American Sociological Association. Wilson's
staturehas also made him a valued consultant
to President Clinton.
Why did DSR have such an impact?I argue
here
that this book had a huge impact
In 1978 the University
of Chicago Press
because
1) it carried a message that was
published WilliamJ. Wilson's book, The
enormously
appealing to manyAmericans;2)
Declining Significance of Race (hereafter
its title skillfullyalerted the public to its
referred
to as DSR), whose provocativetitle
conveyed its stunningnew message. The message; 3) Wilson's race and institutional
book's popular and scholarlyimpact was affiliationlegitimizedthe message; and 4) the
immediateand widespread,and it has re- message developed in the book allowed
mainedon thepress'stop 100 bestsellers
list. America's race problem to be conceptualized
Thanks to its success, Wilson became froma differentangle of vision.
DSR is theoreticallyambitious. It attempts
famous,securingmillionsof researchdollars
by
way of a macrohistorical argument to
and winninga MacArthur"genius"award.
explain how racial stratificationhas worked
in America, from slavery to the 1970s. For
* Numerous colleagues provided criticalfeedback the modern period, Wilson argued that only
on thisessay and I thankthemall. I especiallythank some Blacks were at the bottom of the
ChristopherJencks,CherylJohnson-Odim,Michael stratificationsystem, and what kept them
Schwartz,Charles Willie, Donald Brown, and Terry there was not their skin color or current
Murphy.I thank Clarence Page for agreeing to be
interviewed.My greatestdebt is to WilliamJ.Wilson racial discrimination. For Wilson, a brand
who agreed to lengthyinterviewsand graciously new phenomenon had emerged in modern
providedrelevantsources.
America that fundamentallychanged racial

This content downloaded from 77.105.21.162 on Wed, 20 May 2015 21:08:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

310

CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY

stratification:Social class rather than race

now determined the life chances of African
Americans. From an economic standpoint,
America had become a color-blind society.
One explanation for the phenomenal success of Wilson's message can be derived from
an analysisof the social and political context
of America during the 1970s. By 1978 most
Americans-especially whites-wanted to believe that the nation's racial nightmarewas
finallyover. Whites longed for release from
both the guiltracismproduced and pressures
to initiateadditionalchanges. They wanted to
embrace the idea that a color-blind America
had arrived.
During the 1960s and '70s changes had occurredthatappeared consistentwiththedawningofa color-blindsociety:In the 1970s Blacks
were achieving visibilityin areas previously
closed to them,especiallytelevision,and large
numbersof Blacks had, for the firsttime,entered professional and managerial positions.
Wilson personifiedthe trend.He became the
Universityof Chicago sociology department's
firstBlack professorin 1972, and by the time
he published DSR, he had become its chairman. In the 1970s, scholars (Freeman 1973;
Feathermanand Hauser 1976) amassed significant evidence showing thatduringthe 1960s
and '70s young educated Blacks made significantprogressin thelabormarket.Others(Schuman et al. 1985) found that duringthe same
period whites were discarding their view of
Blacks as inferiorand had begun to embrace
the principle of racial equality. Thus by the
1970s therewas a new Black presence in the
media and white-collar occupations. These
changes were buttressedby a white populace
who had developed a kinder,gentlerview of
AfricanAmericans.
Despite these gains, racial conflict persisted in the 1960s and '70s. At the height of
this racial quagmire,DSR offereda way out.
Its title alone made it clear that the book's
message landed on the side of those who
believed that significantracial progress had
been achieved. Without its title,DSR would
not have had the impact it did, nor would it
have sold so many thousands of copies.
Wilson anchored his argument on the
documented increase of college-educated
Blacks in white-collarpositions, arguingthat
Blacks from advantaged familybackgrounds
were the ones who obtained college degrees
and the necessary skills to enter high-status

positions.For theseyoung,talentedcollege
linkagebetweentheir
graduates,
theprimary
skincolorand theirplace in thestratification
order had collapsed. For them,just as for
whites,class position,not race, determined
were bright,
theirlifechances:Theirfutures
for they were headed to the expanding
white-collar
sectoroftheeconomy.
Butifthenewswas so good,whywereinner
withpoorBlackswho oftenapcitiesteeming
For
newsin handcuffs?
pearedon thenightly
was not
Wilson,currentracialdiscrimination
responsible
forthepresenceofthishugeBlack
underclass.He arguedthat,althoughthe legcreatedit,imperacy of past discrimination
forthe
sonaleconomicforcesare responsible
A segmented
labormarcurrent
predicament.
ketlockedtheBlackpoor intodead-end,lowpayingjobs. ForWilson,thesepoorlytrained
limitedBlackswerebecomandeducationally
ing membersof a permanentunderclass.
inDSR
Wilson'sanalysis
oftheBlackunderclass
andThe TrulyDisadvantaged hasshapedconresearchin povertyand informed
temporary
publicpolicyon thesematters.
Yet, even in the case of poor Blacks,
was not salient.
currentracialdiscrimination
In fact,Wilsonruledout currentdiscrimination as an importantfactorin the labor
marketwritlarge.Thus,thegap betweenthe
ofoldereducatedBlackworkersand
earnings
was explainedby
theirwhite counterparts
Blacks'lack of experienceand lowerseniority. The modern labor markethad been
cleansedofracialdiscrimination.
of class divisionswithinthe
The centrality
compoBlack community
was an important
nentof Wilson'smessage.For him,the segmidmentedlabormarket
createda prosperous
thatwas deeply
dle classanda poorunderclass
dividedalongclass lines.Thus,an economic
schismbetweentheBlack"haves"and "haveAs a renots"was growingand crystallizing.
Blackexsult,therewas no longera uniform
perience.Wilsonsaw theseclass divisionsas
whichpurmovement,
rootedinthecivilrights
sued middle-class
goals.Despiteavailableevidenceto thecontrary,
Wilsonclaimedthatthe
overthrow
ofJimCrowpracticeswas a limited
goaloftheBlackmiddleclass,andthatlowerclassBlackswerenotinvolvedinthecivilrights
Wilson
movement.Throughsuch assertions,
Blackclassrelations
internal
simplisportrayed
thatBlacks
He ignoredresearch
showing
tically.
possesshighlevelsofBlackraceandclasscon-

This content downloaded from 77.105.21.162 on Wed, 20 May 2015 21:08:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY 311
sciousness simultaneously(Legget 1968; Geschwender 1977). Thus, therewere also racial
realitiesthatunited Blacks across class lines.
But what of affirmativeaction and other
antibias policies? Wilson argued that affirmative action benefitedyoung, privileged,educated Blacks who alreadypossessed the skills
and credentials required for entry into
well-paid, high-statuspositions. However, for
the Black underclass affirmativeaction was
irrelevant, for it could not address the
impersonaleconomic barriersresponsiblefor
theirpoverty.For Wilson "the very attempts
of the government to eliminate traditional
racial barriers through such programs as
action have had the unintentional
affirmative
effect of contributingto the growing economic class divisionwithinthe Black community" (p. 19). One reading of this is that
affirmative
action was not needed, given that
racial discriminationin the labor markethad
been eliminated and that such policies
caused Black class divisions.
Despite the book's title,Wilson's argument
claimed only that race had declined in
significance in the labor market. This approach enabled him to argue that racial
conflictswould continue to occur, but in the
sociopolitical order outside the labor market.
These conflictswould be foughtout in the
inner city over housing, public schools, and
local politics. Racial conflict in the future
would be limitedto fightsbetween the Black
and white have-nots.The hidden hand of the
economy and the emergence of a state that
promoted racial equality had finallyliftedthe
white upper and middle classes, as well as the
Black middle class, above the politics and
economics of race. Future concerns should
be focused on alteringthe economy in such a
way that the Black underclass and poor
whites could be incorporated into the labor
market. If this vexing problem could be
solved, the basis of racial conflict could be
erased even for the have-nots.
The Wilsonian message was encouraging
forwhite liberalsbecause it exonerated them
of blame and presented an analysis that
seemed to explain the contemporaryracial
scene in radical terms. For white and Black
conservativesit provided intellectualfuel for
the rising movement intent on dismantling
affirmativeaction and other policies they
believed promoted reverse discrimination.
For whites generally the message was em-

braceable, for it suggested that America had

finally overcome its racist past. Clarence
Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune,
explained thatthe book attractedwide media
coverage because "therewas a strongwish at
the time forAmericansto put our racial sins
behind us and achieve the dream. In the
media there was a yearningfor evidence of
Black progress.Old news is no news" (1996).
Similarly, the majority of the scholarly
reviews of the book welcomed the good
news of Black progress,as well as the claim
that current racial discriminationhad been
superseded by class factors.
The factthatWilson was Black and a professor at the Universityof Chicago played an important role in legitimatingthe book's message. DSR would not have made the same
impactifthe authorhad been white.In fact,in
the early 1970s a number of white conservative scholars, including Moynihan (1972),
Glazer (1976), and Wattenbergand Scammon
(1973), had developed the buildingblocks of
Wilson's argument.Moynihan,forexample, in
a 1973 articlerevealinglytitled"The Schismin
Black America,"stated, "At a time when the
nationwas preoccupied with civil rightsmeasures-measures having to do with the issues
ofrace and caste -I said,in effect,thatthe real
problem was going to be thatof social class"
(p. 7). These writers,like Wilson,emphasized
the gainsof a Black middle class,and identified
a risingclass of poor Blacks trapped in the inner city. They emphasized Black class divisions,and,forthe same reasons as Wilson,they
were unenthusiasticabout affirmative
action.
Thus Glazer wrote, "It seems clear that the
main impact of preferentialhiring is on the
betterqualified-the professionaland technical, who are alreadythe beneficiariesof an income bonus on the basis of theirrelativescarcity..." (p. 73).
Wilson echoed many of these arguments
and gave them a legitimacy unavailable to
white authors. Wilson agrees that his race
was central to the impact of the book: "I
think that many of the white liberals who
came to my defense would have been more
reluctantto defend a white scholar who had
writtenthe same book" (1996). Also important was Wilson's prestigious position. Most
of the reviews of DSR identifiedWilson as a
Black professorat the Universityof Chicago.
Earlier, Moynihan had complained that the
good news about racial progress needed to

This content downloaded from 77.105.21.162 on Wed, 20 May 2015 21:08:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

312

CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY

be exposed because we "ought to know analysis.They concluded that Wilson was

about it, and permitit to cheer us up" (p. underunfairattackand thatrace problems
position made were less complex and more easilysolved
19). Race and institutional
thanfundamental
Wilsonan ideal carrierofthe message.
class problems(e.g.,GreeA numberofwhitescholarswroteimpor- ley 1978; Record 1980; Van den Berghe
tant critiques of DSR (Pettigrew 1980; 1978). Wilsondescribedthewhitescholars'
Margolis1979). Yet, the race of the Black reactionswhenhe concludedthattheirview
criticsof DSR was also consequentialto its seemedto be:
reception.Many Black scholars were exHere is a Black scholarwho has written
tremelyconcernedwithwhattheybelieved
what is reallya book thatrepresentsleft
to be the dangerousideologicalimplications thinking.... He is under attack for many
ofthebook.In 1978 theAssociationofBlack
wrong reasonsand the least I can do is
Sociologistsissued a widely printedstatesupport him....
Here is a guy who has
mentstatingthat"it is the positionof this
reallyputhisneckon theline.He has gone
thatthe suddennationalattenorganization
againstthegrain.He is runningthe riskof
tion given to ProfessorWilson'sbook obhimself
frommanypeople in his
alienating
oppresscurestheproblemofthepersistent
race and he haswrittena progressive
book
sion ofBlacks"(Willie 1979,p. 177).
so I thinkI reallywant to supporthim.
CritiquesbyBlackscholarstendedto focus
(1996).
on a set of relatedissues.Theyworriedthat
to therising As a result,the Black critiqueswere largely
thebook would givelegitimacy
thatopposedaffirma-ignored.
movement
conservative
In retrospect,
manyof theintellectual
and
tiveaction.The BakkeandWebercases were
relevantin this context.Black politicalconcernsofthoseBlackscholarsare
particularly
centuryapscholarswere concernedwiththe accuracy paramountas the twenty-first
of the argumentthat fundamentalclass proaches.Racialconflictin the labormarket
differences
divided the Black community; persistsas elementsof the state wage a
action.
many white reviewers seemed to relish mightycampaignto end affirmative
such divisions.Wilsonhad shifted The briefera when Black college graduates
reporting
inequalityto earned as much as whiteshas passed, and
the debate fromwhite/Black
fewerBlacksareattending
collegethanin the
internalBlackcomparisons.
Black scholarswere also concernedthat 1960s. Whitesappearless prejudicedattituWilson misreadprecariousBlack gains as dinally,but researchshows that they are
permanentchanges,foreverbacked by a usually opposed to measuresdesigned to
supportivestate.An analysisthatseparated implementracial equality. Moreover,reoveraccessto schoolinganddecent searchcontinuesto showthatBlacksexhibit
struggles
housingfromthelabormarketwas,theyfelt, greaterracial bonds than class bonds in
seriouslyflawed.These critics also ques- contrastto whites (Jackmanand Jackman
claims that 1983,pp. 48-50). Those Blackswho entered
tioned Wilson'sunsubstantiated
jobs in the 1960s and 1970swere
Blacks now had access to power and high-status
channeledinto positions
privilege.They pointed out that Wilson disproportionately
racism, concerned with managingthe firm'srace
on institutional
ignoredtheliterature
actionpolicies(Colto defineracismas onlyovertacts relationsand affirmative
preferring
lins,forthcoming
1996). As SharonCollins
ofdiscrimination
bywhites.
Manyof the Black critiqueswere closely argues,it is becomingclearthattheydo not
reasonedand well argued(e.g.,Marret1980; evenhavepowerto influencethebattleover
action.
Payne 1979; Thomas 1979). Yet, Wilson's affirmative
Importantworks deserve scrutiny.Thus,
white liberal reviewerstended to dismiss
Black criticsas emotionaland shrill.They whileI am criticalofDSR, myoverallviewis
contribudue to theirvested thatthisbook has made important
wereseen as overreacting
tions.It stirreda fruitful
debate over race.
interestin theBlackmiddleclass.
On the otherhand,Wilsonwas portrayed The Declining Significance of Race reininteracas a dispassionate,
courageousscholar.White forcedtheneed to analyzerace/class
liberalacademicsarguedthatWilsonwas the tions,althoughit fell shortof a relational
radical,for his work was, afterall, a class class analysisthatencompassedthe waysin
This content downloaded from 77.105.21.162 on Wed, 20 May 2015 21:08:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

CONTEMPORARYSOCIOLOGY
which the white middle and upper classes
shape racial outcomes.The book directed
attentionto critical issues pertainingto
poverty,includinga focus on the systemic
and enduringqualitiesof Black poverty.At
the same time,I believe that the analytic
flaws and political angle of DSR were as
responsibleforthebook'ssuccessas were its
virtues.
References
Collins, Sharon. Black Corporate Executives, The
Making and Breaking of a Black Middle Class.
Temple University Press, forthcoming 1996.
Featherman, David L. and Robert M. Hauser. "Changes
in the Socio-economic Stratification of the Races,
1962-73." American Journal of Sociology, 82

(November 1976): 621-49.

Freeman, Richard. "Black Economic Progress Since

1964." The Public Interest 52 (Summer 1978):

52-68.

Geschwender, James. Class, Race and Worker Insurgency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1977.

Glazer, Nathan. Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic

Inequality and Public Policy. New York: Basic
Books, 1975.
Greeley, Andrew. "Racism Fading But Poverty Isn't."
Chicago Tribune, March 21, 1978.

313

Jackman,Maryand RobertJackman.Class Awareness

in the United States. Berkeley: Universityof
CaliforniaPress,1983.
Leggett,John.Class, Race, and Labor: Working-Class
Consciousness in Detroit. New York: Oxford
University
Press,1968.
Margolis,RichardJ. "If We Won, Why Aren't We
Smiling?"Change (April 1979): 54-56.
Marret,Cora Bagley. "The Precariousnessof Social
Class in Black America."ContemporarySociology,
v. 9 January1980): 16-19.
Moynihan,Daniel. "The Schism in Black America."
ThePublic Interest(Spring1972): 3-24.
Page, Clarence.Interview,
January19, 1996. Chicago,
IL.
Payne, Charles. "On the Declining and Increasing
Significanceof Race." Caste and Class Controversy.
Ed. CharlesV. Willie.Bayside,NY: GeneralHall,Inc.
1979.
ThomasF. "The Changing-Not DecliningPettigrew,
Significanceof Race." ContemporarySociology,v.
9: no. 1 (January1980): 19-21.
Record, Wilson. "Review of The Declining Significance of Race." AmericanJournal of Sociology,v.
85:4 january 1980) 965-68.
Schuman, Howard, Charlotte Stech, and Lawrence
Bobo. Racial Attitudesin America: Trends and
Interpretations. Cambridge: Howard University
Press,1985.
Thomas, Charles B. "Review of The Declining
Significance of Race." Afro-Americansin New
YorkLifeand History.January,1979.

Empire and Knowledge: More

Troubles, New Opportunities
for Sociology*
STEVENSEIDMAN

State UniversityofNew York,Albany

No previous CS review.

Orientalism, by Edward Said. New York:

Sociology was the inventionof the West. The

Pantheon Books, 1978. 368 pp. $14.00 paper.
ISBN: 0-394-74067-X.
breakthroughperiod occurred between the
1880s and World War I. Distinct national
traditionsof sociology materialized-in Germany (Weber, Simmel), in France (Tarde,
taneouslyforgedimperialempires of unprecDurkheim), in Italy (Pareto, Mosca), in
edented scope and power. In particular,the
England (Hobhouse, Spencer), and in the
United States,England,Germany,and France
United States (Du Bois, Small). It is not
exercised dominion over much of Asia and
coincidental, though rarely noted in its
Africa.Indeed, by World War I, 85 percent of
disciplinary histories, that this period was
the earth's surfacewas under the dominance
also the high point of Western imperialism.
of the West. It is curious then that "empire,"
The nationsthatproduced sociology simulor the dynamicsof colonialism and imperialism, were untheorized by classical sociolo*My thanks to Ali Mirsepassi for his helpful gists. To be sure, Weber, Sumner, Spencer,
and Durkheimwere aware of imperialismand
comments.

This content downloaded from 77.105.21.162 on Wed, 20 May 2015 21:08:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions