Opting Out: Losing the Potential of America’s Young Black Elite by Maya A. Beasley (review)

This book addresses an important question concerning the persisting racial inequality in the United States: Why are well-educated African Americans still employed in only a narrow range of professional occupations? This is a problem in part because occupational segregation between well-educated Blacks and Whites accounts for much of the income inequality between them. Sociologist Maya Beasley argues that some—not all—young, well-educated African Americans are “opting out” of higher paying, White-dominated occupations to pursue professions in which African Americans are already well represented (nonprofit management and social work) or racialized occupations that directly serve African American communities (nonprofit work in Black communities, civil rights law, Black product marketing, etc.).

Maya Beasley is well aware that her emphasis on African Americans’ choices is bound to be controversial among sociologists. When explaining persistent racial inequalities, sociologists usually turn to macro-level phenomena that show how Blacks continue to be much more constrained in their choices than Whites. Along these lines, Beasley devotes substantial attention to the long-term effects of decades of structural constraints, including the limited implementation of civil rights laws, the dismantling of affirmative action policies, and on-going residential and educational segregation. But Beasley’s major contribution lies here: She integrates that macro-level perspective with a focus on micro-level phenomena (how young, well-educated African Americans choose among the options open to them) and meso-level phenomena (how organizational contexts influence students’ aspirations). In so doing, Beasley is able to explain why some young, well-educated African Americans are “opting out” and why others are not.

Beasley interviewed 30 African American and 30 White students at two elite universities: Stanford and Berkeley. While the White students’ families were more affluent than the Black students’ families, most of the Black students were from middle-class backgrounds and their families had very high expectations for them. The major difference was that White students’ families were able to provide more specific support and advice about occupational options than Black students’ families. Beasley explains this difference in terms of the residential and occupational segregation of the Black students’ families. Despite their high expectations—and in many cases their own professional occupations—the Black students’ families did not have the same social and cultural capital as the White students’ families. For example, they were less able to give concrete advice about how to network in and get information about the corporate world.

In addition, organizational differences between Stanford and Berkeley shaped students’ aspirations. Twelve percent of Stanford’s undergraduates are African American, and Stanford provides strong institutional support for the Black community on campus. By contrast, only 3% of Berkeley’s undergraduates are African American, and it offers some but less institutional support for a community among Black students. Beasley found that Stanford students were more likely to develop segregated social networks and that those segregated networks increased the likelihood that Black students would pursue racialicized professions or those in which African Americans are well represented.

In particular, segregated networks encouraged students to be wary about racism they would encounter in White-dominated professions. While Black students who belonged to integrated social networks were also aware of the possibility of discrimination in those occupations, they expressed confidence in their ability to navigate such contexts. Interestingly, Black students from low-income families were less likely than their middle-class peers to be concerned about racism in the occupational world. Because low-income Black students already had a great sense of achievement—they had made it to elite institutions despite many obstacles, including exposure to blatant and violent racism—they were confident that they could handle the less severe forms of racism they expected to encounter in White-dominated professions.

Beasley pays particular attention to the underrepresentation of Black students in STEM majors. Nationwide...