February 10, 2022

Racism and the Mechanisms Maintaining Black Families’ Income Inequality

Dr. Deadric Williams, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Tennessee

Talk Abstract

 Family structure and education remain dominant and enduring explanations for understanding racial income inequality among families. Yet, empirical studies show these factors are most beneficial for white families. The current study presents racial stratification as an alternative perspective to emphasize the social construction of race and the permanence of racism. To illustrate this, I integrate tenets from Critical Race Theory with concepts from racialized space theory to understand racial income inequality. Specifically, I examine whether income inequality among Black families is better characterized by resource differentials (e.g., family structure and education) or racialized space (e.g., residing in predominately Black or predominately white census tracts). Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study, the 2000 Census, and the American Community Survey, results show racialized space, rather than family structure and education, better characterizes income inequality among Black families. Specifically, Black families living in predominately white spaces have higher levels of income compared to Black families living in predominately Black spaces, regardless of family structure and education. Additionally, the auxiliary analyses reveal white married families with higher levels of education living in predominately white space have incomes that are nearly $20,000 higher than Black families with the same characteristics. I recommend family inequality scholars theorize racial stratification for a more holistic understanding of Black Families’ income inequality. 

About Dr. Williams

Headshot of Deadric Williams from Sociology taken in the Communications Studio on August 18, 2020. Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee

 Professor Williams is currently an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his PhD. in sociology from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. He then went on to pursue a post-doc with the Minority Health Disparities Initiative at the University of Nebraska. After two years as a postdoc, he became an Assistant Professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska. 

Dr. Williams’ research is important because he bridges the study of sociology of families with the sociology of race. In this sense, he is pushing a very traditional field of sociology in new, important, and critical directions. His work challenges some of the conventional understandings about the relationship between family structure, race, and poverty, and this work has tremendous potential to impact public policies in ways that can resist rather than reproduce existing forms of structural inequality. 

Dr. Williams is also interested in health and stress, racial health disparities using longitudinal modeling and dyadic data analysis.