Race Segregation Across the Academic Workforce

Abstract

In terms of income and employment opportunities, previous studies have indicated that African American men fare less well than their White counterparts in the academic workforce, including a recent study by the author that found the hiring practices in higher education had a disparate effect on African American men. On the grounds that human capital and merit-based performance measures have proven to be critical criteria for decision making within the overall hiring practices in higher education, this study examined the extent to which these factors influence the observed representation of African American and White men in the academic workforce. This study found that both human capital and merit-based performance measures were good employment predictors for White men and, in contrast, were not good employment predictors for African American men in the academic workforce.