Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
oped a model that requires only modest preferences for living with one's
own group to inluence setling paterns and lead to very high levels of
segregation.
25
Studies of housing preferences among blacks and whites
indicate that while blacks and whites both prefer integrated neighbor-
hoods, whites prefer a much lower proportion of African Americans in
the population than do blacks. This means that as more blacks move into
an all-white neighborhood, it becomes more preferable for blacks but
less so for whites. Reynolds Farley's work supports this but also shows
that the strict racial preferences have been easing in recent decades.
26
He also credits the Civil R ights Act of the 1960s for making it less likely
that newer suburbs will be segregated, since it is now illegal for develop-
ers and real estate firms to discriminate based on race. However, since
change to setlement paterns only occurs when some residents move in
and others move out, it would take a long time to overcome historical
segregation. Nonetheless, ebbing of segregation is to be expected as the
population is replaced.
Somewhat complementary to this analysis is the research by Doug-
las Massey and Andrew Gross, which shows the relationship between
dissimilarity, isolation, and exposure.
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hey demonstrate that where
there are only a small proportion of African Americans in a given com-
munity, to achieve the same level of isolation, much lower levels of dis-
similarity are required. Given the low levels of African American pres-
ence in large cities during the post-slavery era, it is not surprising that
the dissimilarity levels were quite low in the beginning of this analysis.
Maintaining a comparably high level of white isolation found in the early
periods required that as African Americans moved to the cities, they
lived in areas of high racial concentration, which led directly to the high
levels of dissimilarity found. Given the Jim Crow legal framework in
the United States in the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century,
which allowed blatant discrimination against African Americans in all
realms of life, it is not surprising that segregation developed. By the same
token, given the laws against discrimination that are the legacy of the
civil rights movement and the low levels of segregation in some of the
“newer” cities, it is not surprising that recent development has led to less
extreme levels of racial segregation.
