Exam 1 results Mean: 71.5 Range: Mean (4.0): 3.3 Range (4.0): To convert your score: (Raw Score/85)*4

Residential Segregation Residential segregation has proven to be the most resistant to change of all realms - perhaps because it is so critical to racial change in general. -Thomas Pettigrew

Why study residential segregation? Sociology is concerned with residential segregation because 1. Residential/spatial distribution patterns are seen as mirroring social patterns/relationships 2. Residential (and distribution patterns in general) have consequences for life chances (contextual effects of community)

Conceptualizing Residential Patterns “Segregation” - pattern of diffuse distributions across geographical units (blocks, census tracts, etc) “Concentration” - form of segregation where all groups are not only dissimilar in distribution, but are also clustered together “Centralization” - From of segregation and concentration in which one group is clustered near the center

Conceptualizing Residential Patterns “Segregation” “Concentration” “Centralization”

Measuring Segregation Index of Dissimilarity The result is the percentage of one group that would have to move to get an equal distribution 0 = perfectly distributed (no segregation) 100 = no mixture of groups (fully segregated) Contact measures Chances of running into a similarly raced person Isolation Index - the probability that you will meet someone in your group Interaction Index - probability that you will meet someone from another group

History of U.S. segregation Early 20th century (pre-civil rights legislation) Less extreme black-white segregation at turn of century In northern cities some blacks shared neighborhoods with poor immigrants Black isolation was slight in 1890, increased over the next two decades and took off in WWI Immigration declines while blacks began “Great Migration” Ecological theory - new immigrant groups are more segregated Competition for urban space leads to fire bombings, restrictive covenants, and mortgage discrimination

1980s and 1990s Some decline but blacks still most segregated Lower in West and South than in the North, Midwest or Northeast The south has spatial integration but still social segregation Challenges to segregation in the led to some decrease Federal housing policy - “Fair Housing Act” Liberalization of white’s attitudes Gains in housing construction Growth of Black middle class

Consequences of Segregation Political Isolation Linguistic isolation Poverty Concentration (expensive goods) Educational exclusion Adaptation of “oppositional culture” Segregation is worse for blacks and PR Segregation + Poverty Limits access to jobs - “Spatial Mismatch” Greater Health Risks

Explanations for segregation Human Ecology Model (everyone) - predicts segregation based on demographic and structural variables Region, City size/age, new housing starts, suburbanization Socioeconomic Status differences (Wilson) - higher incomes allow exodus from city centers Race is not the cause, blacks with requisite financial resources move to suburbs Evidence is mixed

Explanations (cont) Preferences of Whites (Massey, Farley) - segregation persists because whites choose to live away from and exclude blacks from their neighborhoods Black preferences have shifted away from integration, White toward but not by much Discrimination by Individuals - official discrimination has given way to unofficial Links preferences to outcomes Whites may have fixed tolerance for living near minorities

Explanations (cont) Discrimination by institutions (Massey, Farley) - real estate and lending practices Audit studies demonstrate that blacks are denied more often and receive less favorable rates when granted a loan than similarly situated whites “Redlining”, restrictive housing covenants Same for rental market Massey’s work in Philadelphia Whites benefit from poverty concentration

Redlining

Economic Inequality: Cause or Consequence? Massey and Denton Segregation causes inequality/poverty Discriminatory housing practices cause and maintain segregation Blacks with higher SES are more likely to share a tract with blacks of lower SES than whites Wilson SES is the problem Deindustrialization, suburbanization, “Spatial Mismatch” Black community is segregated according to SES

“White Flight” Concerned with the extent to which racial and non-racial characteristics are associated with the “flight” of whites from central cities s Frey - No: flight can be accounted for by deteriorating economy and social environment (tax revenues, crime rates, job relocation) rather than race itself (% black, school desegregation) Crowder - Yes: Racial makeup matters Increases in Asian and Hispanic do not matter. Only for increases in black population