Assesses the Braddock-McPartland and Pettigrew-Martin articles and suggests a few limitations and extensions of their analyses. Concludes that race relations analysts need to go beyond the usual discussions of interracial prejudice, employment barriers, and tokenism to extend research to issues such as multifaceted methodologies and changing…

Barriers to equal occupational opportunities for minorities are examined at three stages of the employment process: the job candidate stage, the job entry stage, and the job promotion stage. (PS)

Reviews the problems that arise at the recruitment, entry, and promotional stages for Black Americans. The problems arise from two interrelated sources: the structure of the situations themselves and the operation of anti-Black prejudice in both its traditional and modern forms. (PS)

When American businesses hire, promote, and reward on the basis of race,they are not countering a trend, but behaving in accordance with the general norms of this society. To run counter to the trend they need only place Black managers in positions of power over the livelihood of other (White) employees. (PS)

Pettigrew and Martin overstate the causal priority of structure over social psychology in maintaining barriers to equal employment and downplay the importance of the research they review. Braddock and McPartland present a plausible case for the existence of institutional barriers to equal employment, but their research is not conclusive. (PS)