One of the challenges in quantifying inequality is measuring the ABSENCE of discretion, as in who benefits and who does not in the application of discretion. Audit studies is one way we do that and this op-ed is a good primer.
All of the additional bits of information and care that goes into smoothing friction for customers that actors give when they assume the person in front of them deserves it isn't just an inconvenience. In a consumer society, information symmetry is pretty important to citizenship
Certainly it is important to who can PERFORM being a citizen when what we buy is part of how we signal our legitimate claim to belongingness.
For example, I am buying a house. That's a secret, btw. Govern yourselves accordingly. Now, when I went in to talk to the sales agent, I had to ask for a pamphlet. I had to ask for a tour. The information I get is perfunctory.
Part of how I have to manage that is by going back repeatedly and literally tagging along as they tour white prospective buyers. When I do that I hear information like how they have different mortgage programs or what options can be financed different ways.
We can both buy the house but the information offered to me, at the sellers discretion, will cost me time and money that it does not cost the white buyers. Dozens of transactions everyday this is how inequality is reproduced. From coffee to real estate to education.
It happens a lot when I travel. From what is offered by airlines and hotels and car companies - all assume I am not buying or that if I am buying that I am not a deserving consumer. The friction is stressful.
As Earl points out, we don't have a problem of not knowing this happens. It is some of the most well-documentated discrimination in the literature. As DuBois once said, it is not that white people do not know but that they do not care to know.
And let me point out that it is stressful for me when I *can* perform customer with enough effort on my part. When I was poorer and certainly for black folks who are still poorer, the friction becomes violence when the police are used to reinforce who deserves discretion.
