On Redlining and Racial Bias in Lending

Racial differences in the ability to acquire a loan are sometimes pointed to as evidence of white privilege or anti-black bias. These differences are said to lead to racial disparities in home ownership rates which in turn have a variety of long-term economic and social consequences. Data from Pew shows that black people are indeed …

“Lived Experience” is Not Evidence

When discussing the prevalence of discrimination, those calming that discrimination is rampant sometimes appeal to their "lived experience" as evidence for their view. Moreover, if statistical evidence is marshaled which suggests that discrimination is not prevalent, some people will take offense and claim that you are invalidating their lived experience. Traditionally, this kind of thinking …

On Racial Discrimination in Hiring

When Quillian et al. (2017) meta-analyzed the research on hiring discrimination they found that black applicants received 36% fewer call backs than white applicants even when the submitted applications were identical in every way other than the race implied by the applicant's name. This sort of evidence is often pointed to as among the most …