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Research Conference on Racial Trends in the United States

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Description

The NRC Research Conference on Racial Trends in the United States, which took place October 15 and 16, 1998, was cosponsored by the Committee on National Statistics and the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education(CBASSE). It was a major event that was both well attended and well received by the audience, which included federal policymakers, Hill staff, journalists, and researchers. The conference brought together leading scholars of race relations to examine past and current trends for Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and American Indians in several key areas, including demography and immigration; income, wealth, and welfare; education; labor force participation; racial attitudes and affirmative action; crime and justice; and health status.

The conference was chaired by Neil Smelser, chair of CBASSE and Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, and William Julius Wilson, Professor, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. It was sponsored by the President's Initiative on Race, the White House Council of Economic Advisors, and 15 federal agencies.

The conference papers and discussants’ comments were used as background for a report on race that President Clinton is expected to released in 2000. Selected papers from the conference have been compiled into a report entitled America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences (Neil Smelser, William Julius Wilson, and Faith Mitchell, editors), which will be published later in 2000. The country's leading scholars on race and race-related social policy contributed to America Becoming, which presents long-term trends and the latest findings in health, education, employment, criminal justice, and other important areas. Reflecting the growing diversity of the country, the papers are not limited to black-white comparisons but also discuss the status of Latinos, Native Americans, and Asians and Pacific Islanders. The racial trends conference captured the attention of policymakers, researchers, students, government officials, and community advocates, and it is expected that the readership of America Becoming will be similarly broad.

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Staff