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The Jurisprudence of Race and Meritocracy: Standardized Testing and “Race-Neutral” Racism in the Workplace

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Craig Haney at University of California, Santa Cruz
Craig Haney
Aida Hurtado at University of California, Santa Barbara
Aida Hurtado
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Abstract

Examines the jurisprudential interrelationships between the concept of merit, the tradition of legal individualism, and various doctrines of employment discrimination law. The authors review evidence of continuing racial disparities in income and employment that have persisted despite decades of litigation to reduce or eliminate them. It is argued that the unique jurisprudential role played by the concept of merit has undermined legal attempts to address the structural causes of racial discrimination in the workplace. It is further suggested that the use of standardized employment tests and the nature of the legal doctrines that govern their use reflect certain outmoded meritocratic assumptions that, by individualizing the nature of racial disparity, contribute to continuing group disadvantage in the workplace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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... When the starting place for different groups remains so unequal, it calls into question the article's claims about meritorious evaluation and decisionmaking in current human resources practices. There is a great deal of research evidence to suggest that inequality exists both in the availability of opportunities to compete and in the processes by which candidates for hiring or promotion are evaluated (Carbado, Turetsky, & Purdie-Vaughns, 2016;Castilla, 2008Castilla, , 2022Haney & Hurtado, 1994;Shams & Tomaskovic-Devey, 2019). ...
... Taking actions to help reduce the biases for White men may require rethinking the meaning of qualifications, but by no means do they require ignoring either merit or fair process. It is not the use of merit as a criterion for selection that is problematic, but the too-narrow definition of merit (Haney & Hurtado, 1994;Plaut, Thomas, & Goren, 2009). As Alon and Tienda (2007) documented, it has been the unnecessary narrowing of criteria of merit that has contributed to the exclusion of non-Whites from school admissions, and presumably corporate positions as well. ...
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... The principal problem with meritocracy as the basis for the allocation of resources is the homoarchic hierarchy leading to an absence of the majority in deciding to whom, to what extent, and what benefits and burdens are distributed throughout the organization. Meritocracy, as defined by the super-managers, is the key distributive mechanism for wages in the capitalist markets thereby reinforcing the status quo (Fischer & Smith 2003;Haney & Hurtado 1994;Son Hing, Bobocel & Zanna 2011). As Barry observed, "[a] belief among the successful [is] that the mere absence of discrimination or patronage is sufficient to justify any degree of inequality", (Barry 2012: 109). ...
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... Among high status groups, the more individuals believe that Meritocracy exists, the more likely are to endorse positive stereotypes (e.g., intelligent, hardworking; Jost, 2001) and to deny White privilege (Phillips and Lowery, 2015). Conversely, believing that Meritocracy exists is related with greater negative internal attributions for the relative disadvantage position of low status groups (Haney and Hurtado, 1994;Fraser and Kick, 2000). Among low status groups, research finds a positive relationship between endorsing meritocracy and a greater sense of control (McCoy et al., 2013); yet, in the long run it is associated with lower self-esteem, self-blame, and depression (Major et al., 2007), and also higher blood pressure (Eliezer et al., 2011), particularly when low status targets face discrimination. ...
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... Measurements of excellence, such as test scores, are viewed as neutral requirements affirming a candidate's ability to excel in a specific job. However, many of the "neutral" measures for excellence are neither neutral (see Haney and Hurtado 1994 for a discussion of the racial bias in standardized testing and hiring practices) nor directly related to the technical functions of work. Increasingly a diversity of perspectives is seen as a benefit to organizations, but institutional norms reinforce a lack of equity of opportunity for candidates constructed as "other" by institutional norms. ...
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