Racial inequality persists through all-white social networks, not only intentional discrimination

Evidence

Many social scientists, for example, have noted that high unemployment among African Americans may not solely be the result of racial discrimination. Black people may find themselves disadvantaged because they don’t move around in the same social circles as white Americans. Seventy-five percent of white Americans report that their social networks are entirely white. Those networks refer them to potential employers and help them get jobs. Black networks don’t seem to be as helpful; they aren’t as robust or well connected. So help from family and friends may be the driving force of inequality in this country. White people extend a hand to those who are in their social circles, and they do so without any intention of disadvantaging others, but it still perpetuates white advantage. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 156

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s social-capital theory where network position determines access to opportunities; here networks actively reproduce race-based advantage.