Class Mobility And Reproduction For Black And White Adults In The United States: A Visualization

Authors

Daniel Laurison, Swarthmore CollegeFollow
D. Dow
C. Chernoff

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Published In

Socius: Sociological Research For A Dynamic World

Abstract

The relationship between where people start out in life (class origin) and where they are likely to end up (class destination) is central to any question about the fairness of contemporary society. Yet we often don’t have a good picture—literally or metaphorically—of the contours of that relationship. Further, work on class mobility in the United States often glosses over the large differences between white and Black Americans’ class positions and mobility trajectories. This visualization, based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, shows the association between occupational class origin and destination for Black and white employed Americans ages 25 to 69. Stark racial inequality, produced by the legacy and ongoing operation of white supremacy, is evident in each aspect of these figures.

Keywords

class, mobility, stratification, race

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Comments

This work is freely available under a Creative Commons license.

Recommended Citation

Daniel Laurison, D. Dow, and C. Chernoff. (2020). "Class Mobility And Reproduction For Black And White Adults In The United States: A Visualization". Socius: Sociological Research For A Dynamic World. Volume 6, DOI: 10.1177/2378023120960959
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-soc-anth/202