Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

Poverty Not a Racial Phenomenon............................................................................2

African American Poverty Rates Decreasing.............................................................3
Minority Wages Increasing........................................................................................ 4
Income Disparities Do Not Prove Racism..................................................................5
Health Disparities do not Prove Racism in the Health Care System..........................5
Trickle Down Solutions Effective............................................................................... 7

Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

Poverty Not a Racial Phenomenon

CAUCASIANS ARE LARGEST GROUP IN URBAN POVERTY
Cherry Lei Hunsaker, (Journalist), CLASS IN AMERICA: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA, Vol. 2, 2007, 632.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Caucasians are the largest group of poverty-stricken individuals in
urban America. White poverty is not as apparent as the poverty of other ethnic groups because whites
tend to be distributed throughout cities rather than concentrated in particular neighborhoods.

Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

African American Poverty Rates Decreasing

POVERTY RATES FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS DECREASING
Kevin Lang, (Prof., Economics, Boston U.), POVERTY AND DISCRIMINATION, 2007, 65.
The earned income tax credit (EITC) gives money to workers with low incomes. As such, it does not
help the nonworking poor but increases after-tax income for the working poor. The EITC is viewed as a
reduction in tax liability. Because the official definition of poverty is based on pretax income, the EITC
is not counted in the official determination of poverty. However, because most poor families pay no
income tax, the earned income tax credit is a kind of transfer. Moreover, because families care about
their after-tax income, not their before-tax income, even if the EITC served only to reduce taxes, it
would make families better off.

Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

Minority Wages Increasing

WAGES FOR MINORITIES ARE INCREASING
Katherine Newman, (Prof. Sociology, Princeton U.), ENDING POVERTY IN AMERICA: HOW TO
RESTORE THE AMERICAN DREAM, 2007, 102.
In 1993 the median wage of these workers [referring to a research sample from Harlems working poor]
was $4.25 an hour (1993 dollars). Four years later the median wage of those people who were working
had increased substantially to $7.49 an hour (again in 1993 dollars). Among a randomly selected
subsample of those who were employed in 2002, the median hourly wage was $11.64 (1993 dollars as
well). Only a few workers were stuck in jobs paying the minimum wage or anything close to it. Most
have jobs that pay above 200 percent of this threshold, and more than 20 percent have risen above 300
percent of the minimum wage. This trajectory reflects improvement in the labor market in the 1990s, the
increase in the federal minimum wage in 1997 (to $5.15 per hour), and the benefits of steady work
experience and additional education.

Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

Income Disparities Do Not Prove Racism

INCOME DISPARITIES DO NOT PROVE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Bradley Schiller, (Prof., Economics, American U.), THE ECONOMICS OF POVERTY AND
DISCRIMINATION, 10th Ed., 2008, 209.
Hence, income disparities alone do not prove the existence of racial discrimination in the labor market;
they simply create a presumption that discrimination will be discovered if sought.

Health Disparities do not Prove Racism in the Health Care System

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH SERVICES ARISE FROM NUMEROUS
SOURCES
Kevin Fiscella, (Prof., Family Medicine, U. Rochester), HEALTH POLICY: CRISIS AND REFORM
IN THE U.S. HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM, 5th Edition, 2008, 50.
Racism perpetuates these health disparities by operating at three distinct levels: institutionalized policies
and practices that maintain racial disadvantage, individual racial discrimination and biased treatment,
and internalized cognitive processes. Each reinforces the others. Institutionalized racism, manifested
through long-standing racial inequities in employment, housing, education, health care, income, wealth,
and criminal justice, is reinforced through racist beliefs. Individual racism, including unconscious bias,
is manifested through discrimination in housing, banking and employment, racial profiling by police,
harsher sentencing for minority defendants, lower educational expectations for minority students, and
unequal medical treatment. Racial stereotypes contribute to voting patterns and public policies that, in
turn, reinforce institutionalized racism. Internalized racism refers to introjection of racial stereotypes by
the minority group members. Internalized racism may contribute to self doubts, lower school
performance, depressive symptoms, substance abuse, dropouts, and other risk behaviors.

RACIAL HEALTH DISPARITIES PRIMARILY CAUSED BY RESIDENTIAL

SEGREGATION
Kevin Fiscella, (Prof., Family Medicine, U. Rochester), HEALTH POLICY: CRISIS AND REFORM
IN THE U.S. HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM, 5th Edition, 2008, 50.
Residential segregation, a product of long-standing institutional and individual racism, represents a
fundamental cause of racial disparities in health because it perpetuates racial disparities in poverty,
education, and economic opportunity that, in turn, drive disparities in health. The social and spatial
marginalization associated with segregation reinforces substandard housing, underfunded public
schools, employment disadvantages, exposure to crime, environmental hazards, and loss of hope, thus
powerfully concentrating disadvantage.

RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH SERVICES ARISE FROM NUMEROUS

SOURCES
Stephen J. Kunitz, (Prof., Preventive Medicine, U. Rochester), HEALTH POLICY: CRISIS AND
REFORM IN THE U.S. HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM, 5th Edition, 2008, 63.

Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

In addition, there is evidence that (1) the quality of primary care physicians who treat most African
Americans may not be as good as that of other physicians and that (2) even when whites and African
Americans have similar types of health care coverage -- for example, Medicare -- and are admitted to
hospitals, the care they receive differs. Notwithstanding the importance of Medicare as an integrative
force in health care, studies of Medicare fee-for-service and managed care programs still reveal
"differences in care patterns . . . for cancer treatment, treatment after acute myocardial infarction, use of
surgical procedures, hospice use, and preventive care."

Planet Debate 2009 Racism Affirmative Advantage

Trickle Down Solutions Effective

TRICKLE DOWN SOLUTIONS ACTUALLY WORK
William Julius Wilson, (University Professor, Harvard U.), ENDING POVERTY IN AMERICA: HOW
TO RESTORE THE AMERICAN DREAM, 2007, 96.
More than 30 years ago African American economist Vivian Henderson pointed out that "the economic
future of blacks in the United States is bound up with that of the rest of the nation."" So, just as blacks
suffered greatly during the decades of growing separation between haves and have-nots, they benefited
considerably from the incredible economic boom in the last half of the 1990s, which not only
substantially reduced unemployment, including black unemployment, but sharply increased the earnings
of all low-wage workers as well.