This study examines racial inequalities in changing self-employment rates associated with natural hazard impacts and federal recovery assistance in ethnoracially diverse metropolitan counties between 2000 and 2010. It advances the viewpoint that such inequalities can stem from hoarded opportunities tied to white privilege in addition to commonly highlighted social vulnerabilities tied to racial inequities and exclusion. To test that proposition, we conduct change-score analyses using county-level data from the US Census Bureau, the Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Results indicate that (a) overall, self-employment rates increase with local property damages from natural hazards, especially among white and Latino workers; (b) those increases are largely explained by the amount of federal public assistance received for disaster recovery, not property damages themselves; and (c) white workers experience the most positive and consistent increases in self-employment from federal recovery assistance. Implications for understanding racial inequities stemming from current and future disasters and government assistance are discussed.

本研究调查了 2000 年至 2010 年间种族多元化的大都市区与自然灾害影响和联邦恢复援助相关的自雇率变化中的种族不平等。突出了与种族不平等和排斥相关的社会脆弱性。为了验证这一命题，我们使用来自美国人口普查局、美国空间灾害事件和损失数据库以及联邦紧急事务管理局的县级数据进行了变化评分分析。结果表明 (a) 总体而言，自雇率随着自然灾害造成的当地财产损失而增加，尤其是在白人和拉丁裔工人中；(b) 这些增加的主要原因是收到的联邦公共援助用于灾难恢复的数额，而不是财产损失本身；(c) 白人工人从联邦复苏援助中获得了最积极和持续的自雇增长。讨论了理解当前和未来灾难和政府援助造成的种族不平等的意义。