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Residential Segregation. Dimensions, Facts, and Potential Solutions (with thanks to the Lewis Mumford Center, SUNY-Albany). Tools for Studying Residential Segregation. Census tracts: multi-block areas in cities Exposure and Isolation indices (0-100)
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Residential Segregation Dimensions, Facts, and Potential Solutions (with thanks to the Lewis Mumford Center, SUNY-Albany)
Tools for Studying Residential Segregation • Census tracts: multi-block areas in cities • Exposure and Isolation indices (0-100) • Index of Isolation (e.g., the Average White lives in a neighborhood that is 80% white) • Index of Exposure (e.g., the average White lives in a neighborhood that is 7% Black) • Index of Dissimilarity (0-100): the percentage of one group that would have to move in order for all census tracts to have the same racial/ethnic distribution as the city)
Detroit: 85 Milwaukee: 82 New York: 82 Chicago: 81 Newark: 80 Augusta, GA: 46 Raleigh-Durham: 46 Norfolk: 46 Riverside: 46 Greenville, SC: 46 The Most and Least Segregated Top 50 Metro Areas (Black/White)
Massey and Denton: American Apartheid • The Black Ghetto was deliberately constructed by whites through a series of private decisions and institutional practices. • Racial discrimination persists at remarkably high levels in U.S. housing markets • Residential segregation concentrates poverty • Where one lives significantly influences one’s life chances
Massey and Denton, cont. • Barriers to spatial mobility are barriers to social mobility • Historic confinement of blacks to the ghetto meant that blacks shared few political interests with whites (unlike European immigrants) • Insures social and economic isolation from White society • Inner city speech patterns have evolved away from standard American English • Ghetto dwellers developed an oppositional culture: a code of the street
Residential Segregation: Some Questions • Is racial residential segregation a serious problem for American society? • What are the causes of residential segregation? • What are some potential solutions to residential segregation?
Resolving the Problems of Residential Segregation • Enforce anti-discrimination policies in housing legislation • Change White attitudes about Black neighbors • Create opportunities for ghetto residents to relocate
Conclusions • Black/White segregation is deeper and more entrenched than that involving other racial and ethnic minorities. • Black/White segregation has been declining gradually over time. • Asian/White and Hispanic/White segregation has increased slightly during the past 20 years.
Conclusions, continued • Older cities in the Midwest and Northeast remain among the most segregated. • Rapidly growing cities in the South and West are among the least segregated. • Where one grows up has a significant effect on what happens to one later in life.