HKS Authors

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Abstract

When income segregation is coupled with racial segregation, low-income blacks cluster in neighbourhoods that feature disadvantages along several dimensions including joblessness. Residents of these neighbourhoods are often innocent victims of crime, including violent crime, which frequently goes unnoticed or unreported in the media. They represent the other side of ‘Black Lives Matter', which suggests the need for a broader vision that also highlights the plight of innocent victims of violent crimes in the inner city, and that recognizes the close association between such crimes and joblessness. I therefore call for a policy prescription that would enhance the employment prospects of jobless youth, who are disproportionally involved in criminal offenses, especially those stigmatized by prison records. In making the case for this public policy prescription, I challenge Orlando Patterson's assumptions, based largely on the research of Roger Waldinger, that young black males are reluctant to take low-wage employment by highlighting the important research of Stephen Petterson on reservation wages.

Citation

Wilson, William Julius. "Black Youths, Joblessness, and the Other Side of ‘Black Lives Matter’." Ethnic & Racial Studies 39.8 (June 2016): 1450-1457.