Negro-White Occupational Differences in the Absence of Discrimination

A distincion is drawn between racial disadvantages due to discrimination and those based on the unfavorable position occupied by Negroes in the social structure. Although the latter may be derived from early discriminatory acts, the operation of racially neutral, universalistic forces would tend to handicap some groups even if discrimination were to vanish completely. A Markov model is used to project future Negro-white occupational patterns based on current cross-tabulations between father's and son's occupations and between father's and son's education and the relationship between education and occupation. A series of crude assumptions is necessary, but it appears that the absence of racial discrimination in the job market would not eliminate racial differences in occupations immediately, since there are broad societal processes operating to the disadvantage of Negroes. Racial differences in occupation would decline sharply after only one generation in which discrimination was absent, although several generations would be necessary before parity was reached.