The American Non-Dilemma: Racial Inequality without Racism

IMES Lecture

Lecture

Professor Nancy DiTomaso (Rutgers Business School) will discuss her 2013 book entitled 'The American Non-dilemma: Racial Inequality without Racism' (New York: Russell Sage Foundation). She will focus on her argument that racial inequality gets reproduced in the post-civil rights period as much by the advantages that whites provide to each other as by discrimination and racism of whites toward nonwhites.

DiTomaso argues that the segregation of neighborhoods, schools, and even churches contributes to whites using social networks among themselves to find jobs that are protected from market competition and that the “bias for” other whites contributes to different cognitive, political, and legal outcomes than having to enact “bias against” blacks and other nonwhites.

Based on interviews with whites in different parts of the U.S., she found that while all groups of whites used social networks to find most jobs over their careers, the interviewees differed in terms of their political views and what they considered as fair.

To explain these differences, DiTomaso also analyses how the competition between the Democratic and Republican Parties for different segments of the white vote has affected post-civil rights politics, including in the most recent U.S. election.

In her discussion, Professor DiTomaso will briefly discuss how the argument about “bias for” rather than “bias against” might be applicable to a European context with regard to immigration and intergroup relations. 

About Nancy DiTomaso

Nancy DiTomaso is Vice Dean for Faculty and Research and Professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers Business School—Newark and New Brunswick. Her research specialties include the management of diversity and change, the management of knowledge-based organizations, and the management of scientists and engineers. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Wisconsin Madison. She also has a Certificate in Business Administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and attended Proyecto Linguistico in Quetzeltenango, Guatemala.

Published by  IMES