Abstract
identical on paper and trained to self-present similarly are simply not received similarly by employers. Her (in)famous finding that employers preferred to call back white men whom they believed had been convicted of crimes more often than black men who had no criminal records indicts the culture of employers, not poor inner-city black men. In both studies, Pager's and my own, black men who embodied desirable mainstream cultural values and played by the rules lost out, and were sometimes rejected in favor of white men who did not play by the rules. Given the rejection outcomes experienced by the nonpoor and well-behaved black men Pager and I studied, I would like Wilson to explain precisely what cultural improvements poor inner-city blacks can make that will assure improved life chances?
Highlights
I very much appreciate Margaret Andersen’s invitation to respond to these three challenging reviews of my book, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City
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Royster concludes her rambling review with this question: “Given the outcomes experienced by the non‐poor and well‐behaved Black men Pager and I studied, I would like Wilson to explain precisely what cultural improvements poor inner‐city Blacks can make that will assure improved life chances?” For my answer, I suggest that she go back and reread page 23 of More Than Just Race, where I emphatically argue that programs focusing on cultural problems, “without confronting the broader and more fundamental issues of restricted economic opportunities, have limited chances to succeed.” References Dobbie, Will and Roland G
Summary
I very much appreciate Margaret Andersen’s invitation to respond to these three challenging reviews of my book, More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. Is subject to analytical confusion” because the many items including in a broad definition of culture make “cultural arguments susceptible to misreading.” In More Than Just Race I follow Ulf Hannerz (1969) and defined ‘culture’ “as the sharing of outlooks and modes of behavior among individuals who face similar place‐based circumstances (such as poor segregated neighborhoods).
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