Did You Know?


" As I wrote years ago, somewhere, I doubt many bank hiring committees in the fifties got together and voted not to hire any negro bank managers. Yet, somehow, they didn't hire any negro bank managers.

Why not? Because things like social networks, subtle bias, and tacit norms about what constituted the boundaries of acceptable traits in bank managers did all the work for them. And I doubt they got many black applicants, because after all, why on earth would you bother? Better to try to start a small business, or get a job as a Pullman porter, where you had a realistic shot at making a decent income. A poll of black high school students would probably have indicated a very small number expressing ambitions to fill jobs that realistically simply were not available to non-white, non-male candidates. "


The Google on the "tacit norms of Jim Crow"

1955
Maryland Penalizes Mixed Birth

The Maryland legislature amends an anti-miscegenation statute first passed in 1884. Under the new law, any white woman who births a child conceived with a black or mixed-race man will be imprisoned for up to five years. The law will be renewed in 1957.
1956
Alabama Restricts Games

The city council in Huntsville, Alabama votes to bar whites and blacks from playing cards, dominoes, checkers, pool, baseball, basketball, football, or golf together.
1956
Kentucky Restricts Socials

A Kentucky law prohibits private firms from holding mixed-race dances, social functions, sports contests, or other recreational activities on their premises.
1956
Louisiana Separates Public Places

A Louisiana law requires public halls, movie theaters, opera houses, and all other places of public entertainment to separate white and black patrons.
1956
North Carolina Separates Bathrooms

A North Carolina law requires all factories and plants to maintain separate bathrooms for black employees.
1958
Virginia Closes Schools

The Virginia legislature votes to close any school that enrolls both black and white students.
1958
Mississippi Closes Parks

The Mississippi legislature authorizes the governor to close public parks in order to prevent desegregation.
1959
Arkansas Segregates Buses

An Arkansas law requires all state buses to designate whites-only seating areas.
1963
Birmingham Segregates Bathrooms

In Birmingham, Alabama, a city ordinance mandates segregation in restaurants and recreational facilities and requires separate bathrooms for black employees in places of business.
August 27, 1963
Du Bois Dies

W. E. B. Du Bois dies in Ghana at the age of 95. Word of his death reaches civil rights leaders at the March on Washington, who ask marchers for a moment of silence in his honor.
1967
Saratoga Separates Beaches

The city council of Sarasota, Florida passes an ordinance that authorizes the chief of police to clear any public beach whenever members of two or more races are present.

Just Heard Megan Mcarglebargle on Marketplace.

My god, in real life she sounds even more juvenile and moronic than in print. Yes, she was there to argue that individuals have a "moral duty" to pay their mortgages. Marketplace actually had a guy on who very sharply and forcefully put the (obvious) case that when people walk away from their house they aren't "breaking" a contract they are simply acting in accordance with the contract. "This is what a contract is for" he said, trying to bring it down to a toddler level "the contract specifies what happens when one or more parties doesn't wish to continue with the contract. There are penalties and then the parties move on." To which Megan began shrieking "if my cel phone provider breaks the contract with me and there's a tiny line of print that says they pay me 50 dollars to get out of the contract I'd be very upset! You would be too! You'd call them bad people! You'd say it was wrong!" To which he replied, still more slowly, that there was a difference between feeling that something wasn't nice, and it being actually "immoral" or "unethical." He tried to explain to her that a bad business decision which results in a) pissing off your customers or b) having a bad credit rating was, perhaps, a *bad business decision* but that just because something made her personally unhappy didn't mean it was immoral or unethical. In addition, to the extent that a bad business decision results in a loss--of customer base or of credit rating, its supposed to be self correcting. The Cel phone company, the borrower, and the bank all learn not to make bad decisions again. She tried another tack and argued that treating the banks as bad actors and punishing them by refusing to pay the mortgage was "misdirected" because it was aimed too broadly. People wouldn't know which banks to punish by refusing to take out mortgages from them (?) and anyway if the banks took losses really those losses would just be passed on to the widders'n orphans (the Red Cross and California Pension Fund) who had foolishly bought the funds in the first place. I had to turn off the radio at that point because I was driving and I didn't want to crash the car with rage.

aimai

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UPDATE: Audio and transcript here. --S.M.