Between Barack and a Hard Place. Tim Wise

of common sense—most jobs, especially the most lucrative ones, aren’t filled based on qualifications anyway, or open competition, so much as by networking and word-of-mouth? And what of the racial impact of this truth: namely, that it is disproportionately folks of color who end up “out of the loop” when it comes to such networks, thereby scratched from the start of the race and afforded less opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.³¹ Indeed it is the matter of social and professional networking that explains, in large measure, why persons of color with the same educational background as whites, and of the same age, doing the same job, so often earn much less.³² So, for instance, a recent study found that Chinese Americans in the legal and medical professions earn, on average, about 44 percent less than their white counterparts, despite equal qualifications and educational attainment.³³ Whereas white job-seekers are able to access more lucrative positions, be they professional, managerial, or even blue-collar, thanks to the networks within which they so often find themselves, black and brown Americans, equally qualified as their white counterparts, have to take positions with less capitalized firms and companies, with the resultant lower pay, because they simply aren’t in a position to network with the right people. Although this form of exclusion is not illegal, it does amount to institutional racism—a kind of racism that is perpetuated within structural settings, even without deliberate and bigoted intent, due to the normal workings of long-entrenched policies, practices, and procedures. And for whites, the privileges that flow from the arrangement are substantial.