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)

Residential Segregation

Indices of Dissimilarity

Hispanic/White Segregation

Asian/White Segregation

The Most and Least Segregated Top 50 Metro Areas (Black/White)  Detroit: 85  Milwaukee: 82  New York: 82  Chicago: 81  Newark: 80  Augusta, GA: 46  Raleigh-Durham: 46  Norfolk: 46  Riverside: 46  Greenville, SC: 46

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 1. Black/White segregation is deeper and more entrenched than that involving other racial and ethnic minorities. 2. Black/White segregation has been declining gradually over time. 3. Asian/White and Hispanic/White segregation has increased slightly during the past 20 years.

Conclusions, continued 4. Older cities in the Midwest and Northeast remain among the most segregated. 5. Rapidly growing cities in the South and West are among the least segregated. 6. Where one grows up has a significant effect on what happens to one later in life.