Black Powerlessness in Policy-Making Positions

STUrmES OF ghetto violence, most notably the Report of the National Advisory Commission of Civil Disorders (1968), have documented Black exclusion from the opportunity structure in terms of high unemployment among Black ghetto youth, inadequate housing, and failing educational opportunities for low income Black ghetto residents. While riot studies have focused attention on the exclusion of Blacks from entry level jobs, only limited notice has been given to the extent of Black exclusion from positions of power in major institutional sectors. Community power studies also have provided relatively limited information on Black participation in community decision-making. It is the thesis of the present paper that Blacks are effectively excluded from the decision making process at the community level. A recent study of black powerlessness in Chicago examined the extent to which Blacks were excluded from positions of influence in major institutional sectors (Baron, et al., 1968). Their findings indicated that Negroes occupied only 2.6 percent or 285 of the 19,997 top policy-making positions in the Chicago area (Baron, 1968:28). Black representation in Chicago was greatest in the elected public sector, welfare and religious voluntary organizations, and industrial unions. In the words of the Chicago study

Economics · Epistemology · Policy making · Political science · Positive economics · Sociology · Education Systems and Policy · Gender Studies · Philosophy · Public Administration · Social Movements and Cultural Identity · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

• Black powerlessness in Chicago

  Open Access•Harold M Baron, Harold Baron et al.•Trans-action•1968

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