William Julius Wilson

William Julius Wilson is an award-winning sociologist and one of only 22 University Professors at Harvard University (the highest professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member). He is Past President of the American Sociological Association. Wilson has received 44 honorary degrees as well as the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States. He is the author of numerous publications, including "The Declining Significance of Race" which argues that the significance of race is waning and an African-American's class is comparatively more important in determining his or her life chances. In his book "The Truly Disadvantaged," Wilson was one of the first to enunciate at length the "spatial mismatch" theory for the development of a ghetto underclass. As industrial jobs disappeared in cities in the wake of global economic restructuring, and then urban unemployment increased, women found it unwise to marry the fathers of their children, since the fathers would not be breadwinners. Wilson also argued against Charles Murray's theory of welfare causing poverty. In Wilson's most recent book, "More Than Just Race," he directs his attention to the overall framing of pervasive, concentrated urban poverty of African-Americans, and traces the history of powerful structural factors impacting African-Americans, such as discrimination in laws, policies, hiring, housing, and education. His goal is to "rethink the way we talk about addressing the problems of race and urban poverty in the public policy arena." This podcast of Professor William Julius Wilson was recorded at the 1997 Achievement Summit during his symposium presentation at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.