Transcript Residential Segregation

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Range: 56-85
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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
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Residential/spatial distribution patterns are seen
as mirroring social patterns/relationships
Residential (and distribution patterns in general)
have consequences for life chances (contextual
effects of community)
Conceptualizing Residential
Patterns
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“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
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“Segregation”
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“Concentration”
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“Centralization”
Measuring Segregation
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Index of Dissimilarity
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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
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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
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Early 20th century (pre-civil rights legislation)
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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 1910-1930
WWI
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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
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Some decline but blacks still most segregated
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Lower in West and South than in the North, Midwest
or Northeast
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The south has spatial integration but still social segregation
Challenges to segregation in the 1960-90 led to some
decrease
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Federal housing policy - “Fair Housing Act”
Liberalization of white’s attitudes
Gains in housing construction
Growth of Black middle class
Consequences of Segregation
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Political Isolation
Linguistic isolation
Poverty Concentration (expensive goods)
Educational exclusion
Adaptation of “oppositional culture”
Segregation is worse for blacks and PR
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Segregation + Poverty
Limits access to jobs - “Spatial Mismatch”
Greater Health Risks
Explanations for segregation
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Human Ecology Model (everyone) - predicts
segregation based on demographic and
structural variables
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Region, City size/age, new housing starts,
suburbanization
Socioeconomic Status differences (Wilson) higher incomes allow exodus from city centers
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Race is not the cause, blacks with requisite financial
resources move to suburbs
Evidence is mixed
Explanations (cont)
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Preferences of Whites (Massey, Farley) - segregation
persists because whites choose to live away from and
exclude blacks from their neighborhoods
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Black preferences have shifted away from integration, White
toward but not by much
Discrimination by Individuals - official discrimination has
given way to unofficial
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Links preferences to outcomes
Whites may have fixed tolerance for living near minorities
Explanations (cont)
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Discrimination by institutions (Massey,
Farley) - real estate and lending practices
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Audit studies demonstrate that blacks are denied
more often and receive less favorable rates when
granted a loan than similarly situated whites
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Same for rental market
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“Redlining”, restrictive housing covenants
Massey’s work in Philadelphia
Whites benefit from poverty concentration
Redlining
Economic Inequality: Cause or
Consequence?
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Massey and Denton
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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
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SES is the problem
Deindustrialization, suburbanization, “Spatial Mismatch”
Black community is segregated according to SES
“White Flight”
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Concerned with the extent to which racial and
non-racial characteristics are associated with
the “flight” of whites from central cities 196070s
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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
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Increases in Asian and Hispanic do not matter. Only
for increases in black population