The Racial Wealth Gap Post–Affirmative Action: Why Internships and Minority-Serving Institutions Always Mattered

• In Event: Dismantling Barriers: Perspectives, Learning, and Campus Climate

Abstract

The racial wealth gap of college graduates is overlooked (Darity Jr., Hamilton, Paul, Aja, Price, Moore, & Chiopris, 2018; Gumport, 2001). Though Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) promote social mobility, racial/ethnic differences are still unclear (Chetty, Friedman, Saez, Turner, & Yagan, 2017; Creusere, Zhao, Huie, & Troutman, 2019). This specificity on target student groups is a foundational concept of “servingness” (Garcia, 2019) for MSIs. Findings show that while annualized salaries show racial disparities, consistent with past research (Emmons & Ricketts, 2017), these differences are compounded when federal debt is accounted for. Paid internships were also more beneficial than unpaid internships, while MSI outcomes were nuanced when controlling for other variables. Implications for policy and practice pertaining to internships and MSIs are discussed. 

Author

• Bernard Reyes, Loyola Marymount University