Reproducing Racism

Argues that racial inequality reproduces itself automatically over time because early unfair advantage for whites has paved the way for continuing advantage

This book is designed to change the way we think about racial inequality. Long after the passage of civil rights laws, blacks and Latinos possess barely a nickel of wealth for every dollar that whites have. Why have we made so little progress?

Legal scholar Daria Roithmayr provocatively argues that racial inequality lives on because white advantage functions as a powerful self-reinforcing monopoly, reproducing itself automatically from generation to generation even in the absence of intentional discrimination. Drawing on work in antitrust law and a range of other disciplines, Roithmayr brilliantly compares the dynamics of white advantage to the unfair tactics of giants like AT&T and Microsoft.

With penetrating insight, Roithmayr locates the engine of white monopoly in positive feedback loops that connect the dramatic disparity of Jim Crow to modern racial gaps in jobs, housing and education. Wealthy white neighborhoods fund public schools that then turn out wealthy white neighbors. Whites with lucrative jobs informally refer their friends, who refer their friends, and so on. Roithmayr concludes that racial inequality might now be locked in place, unless policymakers immediately take drastic steps to dismantle this oppressive system.

Daria Roithmayr is the George T. and Harriet E. Pfleger Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. An internationally acclaimed legal scholar and activist, she is one of the country’s leading voices on the legal analysis of structural racial inequality. Prior to joining USC, Professor Roithmayr advised Senator Edward Kennedy on the nominations of Clarence Thomas and David Souter, and taught law at the University of Illinois.Daria Roithmayr is the George T. and Harriet E. Pfleger Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. An internationally acclaimed legal scholar and activist, she is one of the country’s leading voices on the legal analysis of structural racial inequality. Prior to joining USC, Professor Roithmayr advised Senator Edward Kennedy on the nominations of Clarence Thomas and David Souter, and taught law at the University of Illinois.

Vanessa Bush:
This is a well-researched and thought provoking analysis of the legacy and complexity of racism that has broad implications for American politics and social policies.

Gerald Torres,Bryant Smith Chair in Law, the University of Texas at Austin School of Law:
This book, which builds on an already impressive body of work by Professor Daria Roithmayr, deserves to be widely read. It is methodologically serious and theoretically rigorous.

W. Brian Arthur,External Professor, Santa Fe Institute:
The most persuasive argument I've yet seen for why racial inequality persists and what we can do about it. Well-written, well-researched, and well worth reading.

Lawrence D. Bobo,W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University:
The disadvantaged status of many blacks and Latinos is an enduring problem. Legal scholar Daria Roithmayr gives us profoundly important leverage on the 'locked-in' nature of American racial inequality. Her accessible and ably documented book shows how the historic works of 'racial cartels' like the Jim Crow system gave white Americans a now self-reinforcing and troublingly permanent economic advantage in life. Critically, she shows how todays ostensibly race-neutral processes of family inheritance, social network ties, and institutional practices and meritocratic standards make racial inequality automatic. This book is a necessary antidote to all the nonsense talk of post-racialism.

Steven Ramirez,Loyola University Chicago:
Offers an explanation of the operation of race that transcends and incorporates the best extant scholarship on the issue.

Dahlia Lithwick,Senior Editor, Slate:
A tremendously important examination of the racial disparity in achievement in America; one that tests the reflexive assumptions of both liberals and conservatives on the subject. Roithmayr's sobering read on our inequality gapits roots and its lingering effectsshould be required reading for anyone who believes in simple causation or easy fixes for the equality gap. This is a clear-eyed, and often brutal look at whether America is indeed 'post-racial' and what we must demand of ourselves to get there.