of conflict theory in that it sees discrimination as a result of the conflict between competing interest groups. "The business owner or capitalist recognizes that racial discrimination is dysfunctional for the business enterprise and prefers not to discriminate. The objective of the capitalist is to get the best worker for the cheapest wage, and it is therefore in the capitalist's interest not to discriminate, because discrimination limits the pool of workers available for the position. Accordingly, those doing the hiring discriminate not because they have a 'taste for discrimination', but rather because they might have been forced to do so by the laborers that do benefit" (Farley). Higher paid laborers may be able to impose a system of discrimination in a number of ways. Discrimination occurs in a split labor market because workers benefit when they eliminate minority competition. Ethnic antagonism in relation to split labor market Ethnic antagonism is produced when competition arises from a price differential. A source of antagonism between ethnic groups is assumed to be a split labor market or one in which there is a large differential in price of labor for the same occupation/work. The price of labor is not a response to the race or ethnicity of those entering the labor market. A price differential results from differences in resources and motives which are often correlates of ethnicity. Conclusion According to Bonacich, "The central hypothesis [deriving from split labor market theory] is that ethnic antagonism first germinates in a labor market split along racial lines". Split labor market theory traces the roots of racial/ethnic stratification to social and political differences that predate inter-group contact in the labor market, but the specific outcomes (caste system, exclusion, or something else) result mainly from the actions of the higher paid segment of the working class and their power relative to that of capital. In one of the best-known applications of split labor market theory, William Julius Wilson argued in The Declining Significance of Race that a split labor market provided much of the racial antagonism between blacks and whites during the earlier years of what he called the period of industrial race relations. Wilson argued that this did not last, however, as "the passage of protective union legislation during the New Deal era, and the equal employment legislation in the early sixties have virtually eliminated the tendency of employers to create a split labor market in