“Chocolate city,vanilla suburbs:” Will the trend toward racially separate communities continue?

Almost a decade ago, the Kerner Commission warned that this country was moving toward two societies—one white and one black. Data on residential segregation indicate clear-cut boundaries for these two societies—large cities are becoming black but most suburban areas remain white. Detroit is a case in point and this led the 1976 Detroit Area Study to investigate the sources of racial residential segregation. Our approach was guided by three hypothesized causes of this segregation: (i) the economic status of blacks, (ii) the preference of blacks to be with their own kind, and (iii) the resistance of whites to residential integration. We developed several new measurement techniques and found that most evidence supported the third hypothesis. Blacks in the Detroit area can afford suburban housing and both blacks and whites are quite knowledgable about the housing market. Most black respondents expressed a preference for mixed neighborhoods and are willing to enter such areas. Whites, on the other hand, are reluctant to remain in neighborhoods where blacks are moving in and will not buy homes in already integrated areas. This last result has been overlooked by traditional measures of white attitudes toward residential integration but emerges clearly with the new measure.     

Black people don't exercise in my neighborhood: Perceived racial composition and leisure-time physical activity among middle class blacks and whites

Using a sample of middle class blacks and whites living in urban and suburban areas, this article focuses on how perceptions of the racial composition of neighborhoods influence leisure-time physical activity. Using an ordinal representation of an underlying continuous indication of the perceived percentage of blacks and whites within an egocentric neighborhood, the results show that black men are significantly less likely to be physically active in neighborhoods perceived as predominately white. Alternatively, they are more likely to be physically active in neighborhoods perceived as racially diverse and predominately black. Conversely, for black women, white women, and white men, physical activity increases as the perception of one's neighborhood becomes increasingly white. Black women are significantly less likely to engage in physical activity in neighborhoods perceived as predominately black and urban. Drawing upon the intersectionality framework, I discuss how perceptions of criminalization and safety lead to different levels of leisure-time physical activity for middle class black women and men relative to their white middle class counterparts.     

White,black, and Hispanic male youths in central city labor markets

Data from the 1% 1980 Census Public Use Sample are used to estimate the determinants of employment and wage rates for out-of-school male youths residing in central cities. Separate calculations are undertaken for white, black, and Hispanic youths. Independent variables include individual, family background, and local labor market characteristics. Three basic findings emerge. First, racial inequality persists, with whites showing the best outcomes, Hispanics second, and blacks at the bottom. Second, underlying these unequal outcomes are rather different patterns of effect for personal and family characteristics by race. Note-worthy here is the Hispanic pattern of low reliance on schooling and high reliance on family. Finally, net of these effects, intercity differences are interesting and important. These include negative effects of city size and race composition effects which show white gains where blacks and Hispanics are a larger share of the population.     

Minority group status and the wages of Indian and black males

Using the 1976 Survey of Income and Education the differences in the wages of Indian, black, and white males are examined. The results indicate that the differences in characteristics between Indians and whites largely account for the difference in the average wage of these two groups. On the other hand, minority status, as well as characteristics, are important in understanding the differences in the average wage of blacks and whites. These findings illustrate the importance of understanding the different historical experiences of minority groups to an understanding of current racial inequality.     

Does race matter in the search for housing? An exploratory study of search strategies, experiences, and locations

In a departure from most studies of the causes of racial residential segregation that focus on the three main factors of economics, preferences, and discrimination, this paper examines one of the mechanisms through which segregation may be perpetuated: the housing search process itself. Data come from a 2004 face-to-face survey of an area probability sample of African American and white householders living in the three counties of the Detroit metropolitan area (n = 734). These data are used to address three research questions: (1) What are the strategies people use to find housing, and are there racial differences in those strategies? (2) Do whites and African Americans report similar or different experiences in the search for housing? (3) Do the locations in which people search for housing vary by race? Results show that once controlling for the type of search and background characteristics, the search strategies are generally similar for whites and blacks, though more so for buyers than renters: for example, black renters use more informal strategies and networks than do white renters. Analyses that look at the features of these strategies, however, reveal some significant racial differences. Search experiences are similar in terms of length and number of homes inspected, but other objective and subjective questions about the search show blacks at a disadvantage compared to whites: African Americans submit more offers/applications for homes, report more difficulties, and are much more likely to feel they were taken advantage of during the search. The racial characteristics of the communities in which blacks and whites search are quite different: whites mainly search in white communities, while African Americans search in communities with a variety of racial compositions. The paper concludes with a call for further research on housing search strategies, with particular attention to the role of social networks.     

American Indian intermarriage

An analysis of intermarriage patterns with data from the Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1980 Census shows that there is considerably more intermarriage between Indians and whites than between blacks and whites. Indians who live in traditional Indian areas are more likely to be endogamous than those who live in areas where Indians have not traditionally lived, though Indians in traditional Indian areas are also more likely to be married to whites than are Indians in nontraditional Indian areas (after adjustments are made to take into account the number of men and women in the different racial groups). The results also indicate that endogamous American Indians are poorer and less educated than any other type of couple, including endogamous black Americans.     

Prismatic Metropolis: Race and Residential Segregation in the City of the Angels

Most major urban areas remain segregated by race, especially in terms of black segregation from whites. We replicate and extend the innovative approach developed by Farley and colleagues for understanding processes of racial residential segregation with data collected in Los Angeles. Using a large (N = 4025) multiracial sample of adults, we examine (1) actual and perceived differences in economic status, (2) mutual preference for same race neighbors, and (3) racial prejudice and discrimination as hypotheses for the persistence of residential segregation. With a systematic experimental design we gauge respondent openness to living in areas with varying proportions of black, white, Latino, or Asian neighbors. We find no support for actual or perceived cost of housing as a barrier to integration. Although all groups exhibit some degree of ethnocentric preference for same race neighbors, this tendency is strongest among whites rather than blacks and plays only a small role in perpetuating segregation. Blacks face the greatest hostility in the search for housing and are consensually recognized as most likely to face discrimination in the housing market. Racial minorities are more open to sharing residential space with whites than with other minorities. We find generally higher rates of openness to integration than Farley and colleagues found in their recent Detroit survey.     

Black and white homebuyer,homeowner, and household segregation in the United States, 1990–2010

As homeownership has been expanding in the United States over the past several decades, residential segregation between blacks and whites has been declining in most metropolitan areas. However, the degree to which the residential patterns of new homebuyers have mirrored these overall trends in segregation and how the massive increase in home buying has related to changes in segregation has remained largely unexplored. This paper examines the segregation of new black homebuyers from white households, new white homebuyers from black households, and black and white households from each other using Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 1992 to 2010 merged with data from the Census and ACS. I find that black homebuyers are less segregated from white households than black homeowners overall and black households in general, providing evidence in support of the spatial assimilation model that would predict better outcomes for homeowners. Also consistent with the spatial assimilation perspective, I found in the multivariate models that increased income parity between blacks and whites and growth in black lending are associated with average declines in black/white household segregation from 1990 to 2010. Although subprime lending was not associated with overall changes in segregation, metropolitan areas with higher percentages of loans to blacks from subprime lenders experienced increases in segregation of both black homeowners from white households as well as white owners from black households.     

Metropolitan influences on migration into poor and nonpoor neighborhoods

Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and three decennial US censuses are used to examine the influence of metropolitan-area characteristics on black and white households’ propensity to move into poor versus nonpoor neighborhoods. We find that a nontrivial portion of the variance in the odds of moving to a poor rather to a nonpoor neighborhood exists between metropolitan areas. Net of established individual-level predictors of inter-neighborhood migration, black and white households are more likely to move to a poor or extremely poor tract rather than to a nonpoor tract in metropolitan areas containing many poor neighborhoods and a paucity of recently-built housing in nonpoor areas. Blacks are especially likely to move to a poor tract in metropolitan areas characterized by high levels of racial residential segregation and in which poor tracts have a sizeable concentration of blacks. White households are more likely to move to a poor than to a nonpoor tract in metropolitan areas that have comparatively few African Americans.     

Extended-family resources and racial inequality in the transition to homeownership

We use longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how access to financial resources in the extended family affects the accumulation of wealth among non-owners and how these resources subsequently affect transitioning into homeownership. Our findings show that economic conditions of the extended family have substantial effects on non-owners’ wealth accumulation and likelihood of becoming homeowners, even after adjusting for individual sociodemographic and economic characteristics. We find significant effects of extended-family wealth for both black and white households, but effects of extended-family income insufficiency for blacks only. Consequently, limited access to wealth and greater level of poverty in the extended family hamper blacks’ transition to homeownership. Our results show that the level of extended-family wealth necessary for black householders to equalize their likelihood of becoming homeowners with whites is very high. In fact, our findings indicate that white householders embedded in extended families with no net wealth are just as likely to make the transition to ownership as are black householders with affluent extended families. These findings support arguments related to the importance of extended-family resources in processes of residential attainment but also point to important racial differences in not only levels but also consequences of these family resources.     

Racial identity and the quality of life among blacks and whites in the U.S.

Social identity theory and research on mental health among racial minority groups suggest that a stronger, more positive racial identity will be related to a higher subjective quality of life. We investigate how ingroup closeness, ingroup evaluation, and ingroup bias are associated with happiness, positive affect about life, and generalized trust for blacks and whites, using partial proportional odds models. Data came from the 1996–2014 General Social Surveys (N = 6553). Ingroup closeness and more favorable ingroup evaluation had mostly positive associations with the quality of life dimensions. Contrary to what social identity theory would predict, ingroup bias was either unrelated or negatively related to them. Racial identity functions somewhat differently for blacks and whites. Ingroup evaluation and ingroup bias were related to greater positive affect about life for blacks but lower positive affect about life for whites.     

Socioeconomic background and racial earnings inequality: A propensity score analysis

Does a racial earnings gap exist among individuals who come from similar childhood socioeconomic backgrounds? Is the racial earnings gap larger or smaller for those from higher or lower socioeconomic origins? This research addresses these questions by taking a counterfactual approach to estimating the residual racial pay gap between non-Hispanic black and white men from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The findings indicate that the racial earnings gap is larger among those from lower-middle class and working class childhood backgrounds than among those from upper-middle class backgrounds, for whom the racial pay gap is indistinguishable from zero. Compared to their more advantaged counterparts, black men from lower-middle and working class backgrounds have more difficulty rising above their socioeconomic origins relative to white men from similar social class backgrounds. Racial earnings equality among those from upper-middle class backgrounds suggests that the high levels of racial inequality often observed among those with college and professional degrees may in fact reflect heterogeneous childhood socioeconomic backgrounds among the college educated—backgrounds that continue to have an effect on earnings despite individual academic achievements.     

Race and Wealth Inequality: The Impact of Racial Differences in Asset Ownership on the Distribution of Household Wealth

What accounts for persistent racial differences in wealth ownership? Previous research has debated the role that differences in asset ownership play in creating and maintaining wealth inequality. I use survey data to model the ownership of seven assets and find that whites are indeed more likely than blacks to buy high-risk, high-return assets. I then use a simulation model to explore the effect that these differences have on the distribution of wealth. I separate the effects of asset ownership from the effects of racial differences in family wealth history, earnings, education, marital behavior, fertility, and other influences on wealth inequality. I find that removing racial differences in asset ownership reduced wealth inequality drastically, but not completely, and that racial differences in educational attainment account for much of the remaining difference. I estimate how changes in historical patterns of portfolio behavior and educational attainment would have reduced inequality, and I explore the implications of these findings for reducing wealth inequality in the future.     

Race Composition and Earnings: Effects by Race, Region, and Gender

For more than 40 years, studies have reported that the higher the proportion of blacks in a community, the more white men earn, but the less black men earn. Researchers have speculated that black men earned less because earnings discrimination increases with percent black. Others have suggested that the negative effect of black representation on black men's earnings reflects black men's limited occupational opportunities. This study (1) investigates whether pay discrimination and regional location condition the relationship between black representation and workers' earnings and (2) examines the relationship between black representation and earnings for women. The results, based on 1980 Census data for black and white workers from 267 SMSAs, show that black representation was associated with higher earnings for white men and lower earnings for black men in both the north and south, and that part of the effect for southern black men stemmed from earnings discrimination. Southern black men's earnings gains from black representation offset some of the effects of discrimination, while northern black men encountered costs of black representation even in the absence of earnings discrimination. These findings reflect the disparate economic opportunities of black men in each region as manufacturing jobs have disappeared from the north and relocated to the south. For women, black representation led to higher earnings for blacks and whites. I argue that black representation does not lower black women's earnings because occupational sex segregation prevents black women from threatening white men's economic status.     

The relationship between neighborhood racial concentration and verbal ability: An investigation using the institutional resources model

Relatively few studies examine the relationship between racial residential segregation and educational or cognitive outcomes. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the institutional resources model of neighborhood effects, I investigate one account of how macrostructural arrangements between race, neighborhood segregation, and school quality interact to produce inequalities in test scores. Consistent with the institutional resources model, results suggest that school quality varies across neighborhoods based, in part, on their degree of racial concentration. Indeed, school quality and other school characteristics mediate the relationship between racial concentration and verbal skills, particularly among black males. These findings have implications not only for inequalities in cognitive skills among blacks across residential space, but also between blacks and whites given high levels of residential segregation in the United States. In sum, findings illustrate yet another way in which residential segregation contributes to, and not merely reflects, racial inequalities.     

Segregation by race and income in the United States 1970–2010

A systematic analysis of residential segregation and spatial interaction by income reveals that as income rises, minority access to integrated neighborhoods, higher levels of interaction with whites, and more affluent neighbors also increase. However, the income payoffs are much lower for African Americans than other groups, especially Asians. Although Hispanics and Asians have always displayed declining levels of minority-white dissimilarity and rising levels of minority-white interaction with rising income, income differentials on these outcomes for blacks did not appear until 1990 and since then have improved at a very slow pace. Given their higher overall levels of segregation and income's limited effect on residential attainment, African Americans experience less integration, more neighborhood poverty at all levels of income compared to other minority groups. The degree of black spatial disadvantage is especially acute in the nation's 21 hypersegregated metropolitan areas.     

The racial foundations of whites’ support for child saving

Scholars emphasize that attitudes toward rehabilitation and views about punitive polices are distinct phenomena with seemingly unique etiologies. However, few existing studies examine the sources of public views about juvenile rehabilitation, or “child saving,” and none engage a measure of racial attitudes. At the same time, recent theoretical work implicates racial concerns as a central foundation of public opinion about youth justice. This paper thus provides the first assessment of whether whites’ perceptions of the racial makeup of delinquents and animosities toward blacks are associated with their views about juvenile rehabilitation. Findings show that whites who more strongly associate delinquency with blacks and those who are racially resentful both tend to be less supportive—in absolute and relative terms—of rehabilitation. The results also suggest that contextual threat moderates the effect of racial typification of delinquency, but not that of racial resentment, on whites’ views about rehabilitation.     

Is geography destiny? Disrupting the relationship between segregation and neighborhood outcomes

Considerable research has shown that, in the cross-section, segregation is associated with detrimental neighborhood outcomes for blacks and improved neighborhood outcomes for whites. However, it is unclear whether early-life experiences of segregation shape later-life neighborhood outcomes, whether this association persists for those who migrate out of the metropolitan areas in which they grew up, and how these relationships differ for blacks and whites. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1979 to 2013, we find that the level of segregation experienced during adolescence is associated with significantly worse neighborhood outcomes in adulthood for blacks. However, migrating out of the metropolitan area an individual grew up in substantially moderates these relationships. In contrast, adolescent segregation is associated with improved, or not significantly different, neighborhood outcomes in adulthood for whites. These findings have important implications for theorizing about the mechanisms linking segregation and neighborhood outcomes and for considering potential means of assuaging racial disparities in harmful neighborhood exposures.     

Undocumented migration and the residential segregation of Mexicans in new destinations

This study uses data from the 2000 Census and 2005–2009 American Community Survey to examine the impact of undocumented Mexican migration to new destinations on residential segregation between Mexican immigrants and native-born whites and native-born blacks. We find that Mexican-white and Mexican-black segregation is higher in new Mexican gateways than in established areas and that, for Mexican-immigrant segregation from whites, this heightened level of residential segregation in new destinations can be explained by the high presence of unauthorized Mexican immigrants living there which tends to bolster segregation between the two groups. By contrast, Mexican-immigrant segregation from native-born blacks tends to be lower in areas with larger undocumented populations, a pattern that is especially true in new destinations. Neither of these opposing effects of legal status on Mexican-immigrant segregation can be explained by compositional differences in assimilation (English ability and earnings) between documented and undocumented immigrants nor by structural variation in metropolitan areas, suggesting a unique association between legal status and segregation.     

A Systemic Approach to Racial Residential Patterns

This paper applied the model of Linear System of Action developed by Coleman (1992) to understand racial composition in neighborhoods from a systemic approach. The model had an advantage to consider how an individual household simultaneously maximizes all desirable neighborhood qualities with limited socioeconomic resources. The model generated relative values of socioeconomic resources and neighborhood qualities of each racial group in the exchange process. In addition, the model estimated a preference hierarchy of neighborhood qualities of each group. Results suggested that blacks and Asians in Canada tend to live in neighborhoods with higher proportions of their own groups because blacks may be steered away from predominantly white neighborhoods and Asians experience low returns on their socioeconomic resources in improving spatial contact with whites.