"Stands as a powerful counterbalance to those who would continue to blame the discarded victims of an uncaring economic system for their own plight."

--Kam Williams, Afro-american Baltimore

"Deirdre Royster's moving and engaging study convincingly and uniquely captures racial differences in school to work transition. Her data on and analysis of the differential employment experiences and outcomes of comparable young black and white working class males are very compelling. Race and the Invisible Hand is an important book that will be widely read and cited."

--William Julius Wilson, author of The Bridge Over the Racial Divide

"As acute in its analysis as it is rich in ethnographic detail, Royster's captivating study shows in telling detail how inequalities in the securing of good working class jobs are reproduced in the anything-but-colorblind contemporary United States."

--David Roediger, author of Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past

"An unflinching look at the experiences of young blue collar job-seekers on both sides of America's color line. This book powerfully demonstrates the hidden workings of racial discrimination today."

--Chris Tilly, co- author of Stories Employers Tell: Race, Skill, and Hiring in America

Publisher Web Site, June, 2004

From the time of Booker T. Washington to today, and William Julius Wilson, the advice dispensed to young black men has invariably been, "Get a trade." Deirdre Royster has put this folk wisdom to an empirical test--and, in Race and the Invisible Hand, exposes the subtleties and discrepancies of a workplace that favors the white job-seeker over the black. At the heart of this study is the question: Is there something about young black men that makes them less desirable as workers than their white peers? And if not, then why do black men trail white men in earnings and employment rates? Royster seeks an answer in the experiences of 25 black and 25 white men who graduated from the same vocational school and sought jobs in the same blue-collar labor market in the early 1990s. After seriously examining the educational performances, work ethics, and values of the black men for unique deficiencies, her study reveals the greatest difference between young black and white men--access to the kinds of contacts that really help in the job search and entry process.

List of Tables

Foreword

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. "Invisible" and Visible Hands: Racial Disparity in the Labor Market

3. From School to Work....in Black and White: A Case Study

4. Getting a Job, Not Getting a Job: Employment Divergence Begins

5. Evaluating Market Explanations: The Declining Significance of Race and Racial Deficits Approaches

6. Embedded Transitions: School Ties and the Unanticipated Significance of Race

7. Networks of Inclusion, Networks of Exclusion: The Production and Maintenance of Segregated Opportunity Structures

8. White Privilege and Black Accommodation: Where Past and Contemporary Discrimination Converge

Appendix: Subjects' Occupations at the Time of the Study

Notes

Bibliography

Index