Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
thepopulationinthestateofMassachusetts,livesbelowthepovertyline.Whatwelearn
from Becca is that being white is a form of capital that one can employ to gain access to
residential communities that are racially segregated as well as class segregated.
In 1968 the U.S. Congress passed the Fair Housing Act. This legislation criminalized
whathadpreviouslybeenstate-sanctionedsegregationbyraceintheU.S.rentalandreal
estate markets. After more than four decades, residential segregation by race and class
continues as a durable form of inequality and a stable feature of the U.S. rental market.
Residentialsegregationisassociatedwithlife-longdisadvantagesthatincludelimited
accesstofriendshipnetworks,limitedaccesstoqualitypubliceducation,andlimitedac-
cess to affordable housing, as well as exposure to higher rates of violence and crime.
This form of residential segregation has been described by the sociologists Douglas
Massey and Nancy Denton (1993) as a form of “American apartheid.” Their research
has revealed that blacks in particular, are hypersegregated from other groups and this
has very harmful consequences for single and married mothers of African ancestry.
*United States Census Bureau, 2010.
Figure 9.1
Percentage of the population by race and ethnicity, 2010.
Boston,likeChicago,isrepresentative ofthishypersegregationanditsconsequences.
In this chapter we contribute to and expand the literature on white privilege and resid-
ential mobility by providing a nuanced analysis of the ways that whiteness can be de-
ployed as a form of privilege and converted into economic and social capital in specific
localandregionalcontextsbywelfaredependentwomen.Drawinguponafieldresearch
projectweshowhowwomendeployracialprivilegeaspartofalargerstrategytofacilit-
atemovementoutofimpoverishedresidentialneighborhoodsandintoraciallyexclusive
and class segregated white, middle-class communities. This strategic use of whiteness
as a mobility strategy provides welfare dependent white women and their families with
