New Book: The Color of Social Security
How has race and systemic inequities influenced the development and administration of American Social Security programs for nearly a century? That’s the topic of a new book written by Rutgers Law School Distinguished Professor of Law Jon C. Dubin.
The Color of Social Security: Race, Retirement, Disability, and Disparity (Cambridge University Press) draws on legal scholarship, history, constitutional analysis, and public policy to make the case that racial inequities have been embedded within key Social Security programs since their inception. The book traces how these disparities continue to affect access to retirement and disability benefits for millions of Americans today and what can be done to address them.
Written in the year of the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act of 1935, the book starts with a critical examination of that act and highlights how the original retirement insurance program excluded agricultural and domestic workers—occupations that were disproportionately held by Black Americans at the time. According to Dubin, those exclusions helped preserve the economic and political structures of the segregated South while denying many Black workers access to essential retirement protections.
Dubin also examines later developments, including contemporary factors contributing to lower and sometimes sub-poverty benefit levels for beneficiaries of color; the exclusion of U.S. territorial residents, (largely from communities of color) from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program; the disparate racial impact of statutory restrictions affecting individuals involved in the criminal justice system, and disability determination practices that have produced racially disparate outcomes.
A significant portion of the book focuses on disability programs and the challenges faced by applicants of color. Dubin explores issues including racial bias in medical and adjudicative decision-making, especially in the evaluation of pain, the use of “race-norming” in diagnostic tools, and the ongoing mis-evaluation of individuals with sickle cell disease (who are disproportionately Black) under Social Security regulations. These issues, he argues, illustrate how broader inequities in health care and public administration can influence access to disability benefits. Dubin also offers legal and policy recommendations in each chapter to strengthen the system and promote greater fairness. According to the book’s conclusion: “As in the pursuit of racial and economic justice in many other areas, the struggle for more meaningful justice and equity in the social security system is neither linear nor prompt. The challenge is in perseverance.”
Professor Dubin is also a Rutgers University Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Paul Robeson Scholar, and the Director of the Economic Justice and Public Benefits Clinic at Rutgers Law. He is an award-winning author who has written five books on social security law, policy and/or practice. Several of his writings have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. As a lawyer and clinical supervisor, he has worked on several precedent-setting cases in social security and civil rights law.
Click here to read Professor Dubin's Q&A on the Social Security funding crisis