Building Inequality

Revision with unchanged content. The Black-White racial dichotomy in the American South is changing. Within the last 25 years, many southern states have seen a dramatic increase in Latinos. How will the South adjust to a racial and ethnic landscape that is not just Black and White? More importantly, how will southern Whites hold on to their privilege without being overtly racist? This study compares and contrasts the self-employment experiences and hiring practices of Black, Latino, and White entrepreneurs in the Atlanta construction industry. The results suggest that while all of the contractors use color-blind ideologies to justify their positions, these ideologies actually solidify the racial hierarchy and continue to privilege White contractors. White contractors also use several covert mechanisms such as closed networks that disallow Blacks and Latinos from obtaining the proper financing, lucrative contracts, and cheaper resources, including labor. This book serves as a necessary comparative resource for scholars and students in Sociology and other social sciences, who examine the impact of race and ethnic relations, racism, and immigration on entrepreneurship and the labor force in America.