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Title: Enemy Within: Black-White Differences in Fatalism and Joblessness
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Petterson, Stephen Mark
Enemy Within: Black-White Differences in Fatalism and Joblessness
Journal of Poverty 3,3 (Fall 1999): 1-32
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Haworth Press, Inc.
Keyword(s): Attitudes; Black Youth; Discrimination, Racial/Ethnic; Education; Family Background and Culture; Labor Market Outcomes; Racial Differences; Unemployment

There is an emergent consensus that the disposition of Black young men is an important determinant of their labor market troubles. The problem we are told is not labor market discrimination but the fatalistic attitudes (the "enemy within") held by many Black youth. This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine race differences in fatalism and joblessness. I find that the greater fatalism of Blacks is explained by their more disadvantaged background and subsequent problems in schools and the labor market, not to their distinctive cultural orientations. I also find a modest effect of measures of fatalism on subsequent joblessness and a more pronounced effect for more disadvantaged White and Black young men.
Bibliography Citation
Petterson, Stephen Mark. "Enemy Within: Black-White Differences in Fatalism and Joblessness." Journal of Poverty 3,3 (Fall 1999): 1-32.