ANN ARBOR—Despite progress in civil rights and anti-discrimination policies, African Americans and Latinos suffer more when they are poor than whites and Asians who might be equally poor, new research indicates.

These disparities result from the cumulative disadvantage of hardship in one area spilling over into other areas, said University of Michigan researcher Ann Chih Lin.

“Any type of disadvantage makes one vulnerable to other disadvantages,” said Lin, an associate professor in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science. “Conversely, advantages insulate, allowing those with fewer vulnerabilities to buffer themselves.”

The implication of cumulative disadvantage is that racial disparities will be slow to yield to improvements in equality. People at an advantage, who are most likely to see equality’s benefits, are protected from realizing that racial disadvantages traps others in poverty, Lin said.

Lin and David Harris, interim provost and professor of sociology at Cornell University, served as editors of a book featuring interdisciplinary authors whose findings connected race and poverty.

When discrimination, beliefs about achievement or cultural practices elevate one race over another, the associated penalties have far-reaching consequences.

Race is not the primary determinant of life chances, the researchers say, but its continuing effect on economic and social policy has a major effect on poverty.

By focusing less on the specific causes of poverty, and more on how racial differences in poverty spread from one domain to another, society can develop better, more comprehensive reforms, Lin said.

Some of the other findings:

• In the United States, one of every three African American children and one of every four Latino children live in poverty?two times higher than the rate for white children.

• Residents of a predominantly black or Hispanic neighborhood have access to roughly half as many social services as those in predominantly white neighborhoods.

• By age 3, white children have a significantly larger vocabulary than black children of the same economic class. The gap for race is as large as the gap for class, and remains the same through age 13.

The researchers say policies in multiple areas are necessary. For example, the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws in employment, housing and credit need to be accompanied by a provision of tutoring in all grade levels.

The findings appear in “The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist.”

Lin: http://fordschool.umich.edu/faculty/Ann_Lin

Ford School of Public Policy: http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/

National Poverty Center: http://www.npc.umich.edu/

Ann LinFord School of Public PolicyNational Poverty Center