Regina Baker, Professor of Sociology, and Heather O'Connell, Professor of Sociology, publish new paper in the Journal of Marriage and Family, titled, "Structural racism, family structure, and Black–White inequality: The differential impact of the legacy of slavery on poverty among single mother and married parent households."
Background: Family structure is a dominant explanation for racial inequality in poverty. This overemphasis on an “individual-level” variable results in relatively less attention to the role of structural factors. Yet, structural factors, like the legacy of slavery, may be key to understanding how race and family structure intersect in the context of poverty.