The Racial Component of Favoritism

In the Times this weekend, Nancy DiTomaso, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School, discussed some of the research she has done examining how favoritism has played a part in driving inequality and unemployment numbers in the U.S. — especially among African Americans, whose unemployment rate still hovers over 13 percent. (“Because we still live largely segregated lives, such networking fosters categorical inequality: whites help other whites, especially when unemployment is high. Although people from every background may try to help their own, whites are more likely to hold the sorts of jobs that are protected from market competition, that pay a living wage and that have the potential to teach skills and allow for job training and advancement. So, just as opportunities are unequally distributed, they are also unequally redistributed.”)

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