How Can We Explain Residential Segregation?

How can we explain racial residential segregation? I. Why is it important? II. What are its historical roots? III. How can we explain continuing residential segregation?

Why does it matter where you live?

Residential segregation: Different races living apart from each other Typically measured by living apart from whites

What does segregation “look like” in U.S. cities? How segregated are we? What does segregation “look like” in U.S. cities?

http://www.salon.com/2011/03/29/most_segregated_cities/slide_show/1

http://www.remappingdebate.org/mediapopup?content=node%2F353

1990 Census:

http://www. huffingtonpost http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-9-most-segregated-cities-in-america_us_55df53e9e4b0e7117ba92d7f

http://www.wired.com/2013/08/how-segregated-is-your-city-this-eye-opening-map-shows-you/

https://www. brookings https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2015/12/08/census-shows-modest-declines-in-black-white-segregation/

II. Historical Roots of Segregation 1. Deed Restrictions 2. Restrictive Covenants: April 1928 (Broadmoor, Seattle, WA) – “No part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any Hebrew or by any person of the Ethiopian, Malay or any Asiatic race...”

II. Historical Roots… 3. Exclusionary Zoning 4. Lending/Insurance Practices: Red-lining

II. Historical Roots… 5. Fair Housing Act of 1968 BUT – maps, data were from 1980s, 1990s, 2000

III. How can we explain the persistence of segregation? A. Individual-level explanation Preferences B. Class-based explanation: Segregation due to differences in income C. Institutional/place stratification Housing providers, not consumers Active, ongoing discrimination by institutional agents

III. How can we explain the persistence of segregation? A. Individual-level explanation Preferences Zubrinsky and Bobo (1996)

What we know about preferences: IDEAL: Whites – vast majority themselves, up to 30% other group African Americans, Hispanics and Asians – bare majority their own group, 50% others REALITY:

B. Class-based explanation Segregation due to differences in income Fischer (2003): class segregation declining since mid-1990s But poor still segregated from non-poor Blacks still most segregated from other groups Poor African Americans uniquely segregated

B. Class… So, class MATTERS, but there’s something more at work too Rosenbaum (1996) – Hispanic home seekers in NYC Outcomes varied by race/skin color

C. Institutional/Place stratification Explanation Housing providers, not consumers Active, ongoing discrimination by institutional agents

C. Institutional… U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 2000 Housing Discrimination Study Discrimination overall is decreasing Racial steering is increasing New “strategies” seem to being adopted Disparate treatment still found between 17%-26% of the time.

All of which tell us: The first two explanations help explain our individual choices But the institutional argument sheds light on the mechanisms by which we have our preferences shaped.