Explanations for racial disadvantage and racial advantage: beliefs about both sides of inequality in America

Croll, Paul R.

doi:10.1080/01419870.2011.632426

Cited by 39 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…those of successful societal elites or groups that have an interest in maintaining their advantages more generally. These explanations however fail to account for the observation that 1) many people in fact do not think they live in a just world (Delhey & Dragolov, 2014;McCall, 2013), and, often, 2) meritocratic beliefs go against a person's interests, as when underprivileged societal groups explain inequalities as resulting from differences in effort and ambition (Jost & Banaji, 1994;Kay et al, 2009;McCoy & Major, 2007) or when the privileged justify their own privilege (Croll, 2013).…”

Section: Where Do Meritocratic Beliefs Come From?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and Their Implications for Justice in Education

2015

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This paper draws on a literature in sociology, psychology and economics that has extensively documented the unfulfilled promise of meritocracy in education. I argue that the lesson learned from this literature is threefold: 1) educational institutions in practice significantly distort the ideal meritocratic process; 2) opportunities for merit are themselves determined by nonmeritocratic factors; 3) any definition of merit must favor some groups in society while putting others at a disadvantage. Taken together these conclusions give reason to understand meritocracy not just as an unfulfilled promise, but as an unfulfillable promise. Having problematized meritocracy as an ideal worth striving for, I argue that the pervasiveness of meritocratic policies in education threatens to crowd out need and equality as principles of justice. As such it may pose a barrier rather than a route to equality of opportunity. Furthermore, meritocratic discourse legitimates societal inequalities as justly deserved such as when misfortune is understood as personal failure. The paper concludes by setting a research agenda that asks how citizens come to hold meritocratic beliefs; addresses the persistence of (unintended) meritocratic imperfections in schools; analyzes the construction of a legitimizing discourse in educational policy; and investigates how education selects and labels winners and losers.

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Section: Where Do Meritocratic Beliefs Come From?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and Their Implications for Justice in Education

2015

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“…Interviewees, although often in inadvertent ways, noted the advanced position whites occupied. In contrast to the United States where those who are "raced" are thought of as holding disadvantaged positions (Croll 2013), the Honduran setting showed interviewees the other side of the coin. In Honduras, white interviewees often acknowledged that their lighter complexions were tied to notions of advantaged positions.…”

Section: Importing and Modifying Racementioning

confidence: 93%

Exotic Place, White Space: Racialized Volunteer Spaces in Honduras

Schneider

2018

Sociological Forum

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In every year between 2004 and 2012, more than 800,000 Americans reported volunteering internationally (Lough ). These volunteers are overwhelmingly white (McBride and Lough ) and entering a largely nonwhite and developing world. This study starts by questioning how racial status informs volunteer/volunteer tourist interactions, both with locals and with other volunteers, in a global context. In‐depth interviews with 23 missionaries, teachers, and volunteers from the United States and Canada reveal that (1) international volunteering is largely motivated by romantic and exotic understandings of the Global South and (2) in spite of a stated interest in cultural immersion, participants’ notions of their whiteness guided their perceptions of Hondurans and their actions as they sought out and retreated to white spaces protected from Honduran influence. These findings further the work of those who have argued first world travelers have homogenized spaces on reserve, by demonstrating that whiteness can be the basis for the construction and maintenance of protected spaces in predominantly nonwhite countries.

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“…The notions of privilege and under-privilege are important in understanding teacher-student relationships. Croll (2013) expressed that the "attitudes about racial inequality in the United States often are viewed through the lenses of discrimination and disadvantage" (p. 47). Thus, people may be inclined to disassociate themselves from such discrimination and disadvantage by classifying themselves as "color blind," which theoretically absolves them of any racially connected behavior.…”

Section: White Privilege and Black Under-privilegementioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2017

IAFOR J Educ

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Dr Prema Basargekar works as an associate professor in the areas of economics and entrepreneurship at K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai, India. She has been an academic for more than 20 years. She received her PhD from BITS Pilani, India, in the area of impact assessment of microfinance programmes. Her research interests are the application of ICT in education, women's entrepreneurship, microfinance, social entrepreneurship and impact assessment of social programmes.

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Explanations for racial disadvantage and racial advantage: beliefs about both sides of inequality in America

Cited by 39 publications

References 15 publications

The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and Their Implications for Justice in Education

The Unfulfillable Promise of Meritocracy: Three Lessons and Their Implications for Justice in Education

Exotic Place, White Space: Racialized Volunteer Spaces in Honduras

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