In the second of two presentations, Brown University Economics Prof. Glenn Loury tempered a passionate discourse on the causes of high rates of crime, gun possession, children conceived out of wedlock and lack of education among underprivileged African-Americans with the empirical analysis that is the tool of his trade last night at the Stanford Humanities Center.

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Shams Shaikh

Brown Prof. Glenn Loury gave the second of his Tanner series talks on racial inequalities at Levinthal Aud.

While the Wednesday talk consisted of a wealth of empirical data on these problems, last night’s presentation focused on constructing mathematical models of these problems. Loury concluded that many of the troubles facing black communities cannot be viewed simply as consequences of poor choices on the part of individuals but, rather, are direct outcomes of societal conditions and perceptions.

One model illustrated that the inclination of any particular group to invest in education is directly related to the perceived benefit of such an investment. Within groups where education was prevalent and had been shown to continuously benefit the recipients, the level of investment in education was shown to grow. The opposite trend existed in groups where education was less common and the benefits less obvious.

As a result, communities which start with a lower level of education will be subject to a vicious cycle preventing growing investment in education.

Loury argued that such an approach pins responsibility on actions taken by whites in the past.

“What we fail to realize is that ghettos and such urban enclaves are our own creation,” Loury said. “They are there precisely because white Americans did not want such people to live with them. And when the ghettos to which these people were confined began to fester in their isolation, the inhabitants of such communities were condemned as dangerous and harmful to society.”

Loury gave an example of how this model fits into the context of America by referring to a well-documented phenomenon known as the “acting white problem,” in which hardworking African-American students supposedly face labeling as “wannabe whites” for devoting too much attention to their studies.

Loury pointed out that such cultural pressure by African-American students on their peers was only evident at schools in which the African-American student population was less than a fifth of the general population.

“The way African-American students acted toward one another was a direct result of how African-American students interacted with white students,” Loury said.

Loury argued that this had implications for American society as a whole.

“The American project of civil inclusion is woefully incomplete,” he said.

The only way to truly solve the racial problems of this generation, Loury argued, is to foster a broader and more inclusive sense of humanity.

“The fundamental premise that should guide us is that we are in this together,” he said. “To understand that those people, whatever their race, nationality, social status or religious preference, are us.”