10.+Racial+Segregation (4).ppt

1

10. PATTERNS, CAUSES, AND

SIGNIFICANCE OF U.S.

NEIGHBORHOODS SEGREGATED

BY RACE

2

Introduction

• Black populations in the American metropolis live in highly segregated neighborhoods.

• They are disproportionately located in the central cities of our U.S. metropolitan areas.

• They occupy some of the poorest quality housing stock of the central cities of metropolitan areas.

3

Definition of Race According to the U.S. Census

• Race as used by the U.S. Census Bureau based on respondents' self-identification.

 • Does not denote any clear-cut scientific definition of

biological stock.

 • Race categories confusingly include reference to national

origin—that is, foreign born status.

4

5

Most Racial Statistical Tabulations of the U.S. Census Distinguish Between the Following

Categories

1. White

2. Black or African American

3. American Indian

4. Asian

5. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander

6

Changes in Racial Status Definition

• The question on race for Census 2000 & 2010 was different from the one for the 1990 census.

 • Respondents could select more than one race category to

indicate their racial identities. • In 2010, nearly 97% of respondents reported only one race.  • In 2010, the Black population constituted 12.6% of the total

population.

• In 2010, Hispanics (any race) constituted 16.3% of the total population

• Between 2000-2010 both Asians and Hispanics grew by 43%

7

8

9

10

11

Historical Locational Patterns of the Black Population

• After the Civil War (1866), only small number of blacks move out of the South.

 • Though relatively free to move after 1870, dissuaded by:

Strong ties to family, friends, and familiar places.Limited job prospects in the North because of the

massive immigration of white Europeans into the Northeast.

• Thus, in 1820, while 93% of the nation's blacks lived in south; 89% still lived there in 1910.

12

• From 1916 through the 1960s blacks left the south in what is called "the great northern migration".

 • One of the largest movements of people in American history. • By 1970, only 53% of blacks lived in the region. • While 39% lived in the Northeast and Midwest and 9% lived

in the West.

• For each decade between 1910 and 1970, there was a net out-migration of at least 300,000 blacks from the South.

 • In each of the decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, the

net migration losses were close to one million and a half.

13

Major Destinations• Blacks moved to states: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,

Illinois, Michigan, and the District of Columbia. • Blacks moved to such cities as Boston, Detroit, New York,

and Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh

• Other black migrant streams came from the states of Texas and Oklahoma.

 • Here, bleak economic conditions worsened by dust storms. • Resulted in black migration to West Coast cities--Los

Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland) in the early 1940s.

• Both a regional and a rural-to-urban shift. • While in 1910 about 22% of blacks in urban areas, by 1970

74% lived in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).

14

Destinations of Blacks Leaving South: 1910-1960s

15

Explaining the Migration of Southern Blacks• Historians explain by pointing to several push and pull

factors.Blacks in South experienced increasing oppression (legal

and educational)—from 1890 on.By 1915 every Southern state with Jim Crow laws—

required racial segregation in everyday lifeFew voting rightsIncreasing violence against BlacksStrong segregation laws and practices impinging on all

aspects of livingRural economic circumstances worsened for blacks.Agricultural machines, low cotton prices, and boll weevil

increased unemployment and poverty for rural blacks.

• Strong desire to control own destinies • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7eNRB2_0Q

16

Decline in European immigration to the U.S. from 1914 on resulted in shortages of unskilled labor in northern and midwestern cities.

  Thus, blacks moved in response to job opportunities—usually

younger age groups.  Northern industries would send job recruiters to the South.  Black newspapers published in the North (Chicago Defender)

wrote stories about job opportunities.  Northern and Midwestern metropolitan areas were also more

capable of providing relief programs for the poor.

More educational opportunities for childrenhttp://video.about.com/afroamhistory/Overview-of-The-Great-Migration.htm

17

Changing Migration Patterns of Northern Blacks• This large scale exodus only shifted in the 1970s. • Between 1970 and 1975, the South experienced neither

growth nor decline of blacks from net migration. • From 1975 to the present, however, the South has

experienced net migration gains—initially from NE & MW • 1990-1995: South gained black migrants from all three

regions, including West

• Trend continues during the 2000s.

• 2000-2010: 17% of blacks moving to south left N.Y. state

• Mich. & Ill. had overall loss of blacks for first time

18

19

Explaining the More Recent Migrations of U.S. Black Populations

• The general improvement in the social, economic, and political climate of the South since the 1970s have encouraged these moves.

 • Successes of civil rights movement, voter registration drives,

school desegregation, and legislation against discrimination in employment and housing also positive draws.

• Return to family ties: e.g., to take care of aging relatives.

• Large share of return migrants had lived in the south, but also included children/grandchildren of former southerners

• The blacks moving to the South were younger and better educated and in higher status occupations than blacks who already lived there—trend persisted during decade of 2000s

20

Explaining the More Recent Migrations of U.S. Black Populations (con’t)

• The economic boom of the Midwest and Northeast had come to a grinding halt by early 1970’s

• Many factories that had lured blacks from the South after WWII were abandoned in the wake of globalizing economy

• E.g., Detroit, heart of auto-manufacturing industry saw jobs cut by 50% following end of WWII. In 1947, the city had 3,272 manufacturing firms employing 338,400 people; in 1977, firms decreased to 1,954 employing 153,300 people.

• Lured by cheaper and nonunion labor, less expensive land, temperate weather, and tax breaks, manufacturers were increasingly choosing the Sun Belt states for their locations.

• Blacks also drawn to overall lower cost of living in South.

21

Explaining the More Recent Migrations of U.S. Black Populations (con’t)

• Inner city Blacks in the North and West were also experiencing deteriorating social and economic conditions

• Urban decay, inner-city poverty, discrimination, poor living conditions led to 100s of disturbances (demonstrations, white-black clashes) in black urban neighborhoods

• Most significant took place in the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1965, in Newark and Detroit in 1967 and following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968 in many cities.

• The problem of the ghetto and African-American poverty became a major domestic issue for the Lyndon Johnson presidential administration.

Blacks in Cities Become Desperatehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdFMQBSppik

• In the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, racial tension reaches a breaking point after two white policemen scuffle with a black motorist suspected of drunken driving. A crowd of spectators gathered near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and 116th Street to watch the arrest and soon grew angry by what they believed to be yet another incident of racially motivated abuse by the police. A riot soon began, spurred on by residents of Watts who were embittered after years of economic and political isolation. The rioters eventually ranged over a 50-square-mile area of South Central Los Angeles, looting stores, torching buildings, and beating whites as snipers fired at police and firefighters. Finally, with the assistance of thousands of National Guardsmen, order was restored on August 16.

• The five days of violence left 34 dead, 1,032 injured, nearly 4,000 arrested, and $40 million worth of property destroyed. The Watts riot was the worst urban riot in 20 years and foreshadowed the many rebellions to occur in ensuing years in Detroit, Newark, and other American cities.

22

Region of Residence by Race, 2010

U.S. Northeast Midwest South West Total

White 19.4 26.6 34.5 19.6 100.0

Black 17.5 17.7 55.6 9.3 100.0

Total 18.0 21.7 36.9 23.4 100.0

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population , 2010

23

24

Migration Patterns Have Contributed to the Current Urban-Rural Locations of Blacks in the U.S.

• African-Americans are also more urbanized than white Americans.

 • In 2002, 88% of blacks resided in metropolitan areas.

• Compare with 79% of whites.

25

26

27

Initial Intrametropolitan Location Patterns of African-Americans

• The earliest black neighborhoods were located adjacent to railways.

 • Near the center of the city in old run-down and most

undesirable residential areas. • After 1910, neighborhood conflicts between whites and poor

blacks were more frequent. • Resistance to the spread of black residential areas resulted

in overcrowding (landlords maximized profits by subdividing existing dwellings into tiny flats), and often dilapidated, and barely habitable housing conditions in all black ghettos.

 • The growth of black neighborhoods eventually made possible

by the lower numbers of foreign in-migration after 1920—less competition for inner city slum housing.

28

Initial Intrametropolitan Location Patterns of African-Americans (con’t)

• The expansion of black residential area was through a block-by-block neighborhood transition process (contrast with Asians)

 • Growth was usually sectoral and outward, along and between

the railroads and adjacent to the less desirable areas in proximity to industrial land uses.

• Church was cornerstone of community providing both guidance and relief—e.g., in 1926, 150 blocks in Harlem contained 140 churches.

29

Neighborhood Segregation Patterns of Blacks and Whites

• African Americans remain the most residentially segregated U.S. minority group—reflected in school districts.

 • Hispanics and Asians are much more likely to live near each

other or to whites than are blacks.

• A popular index of neighborhood segregation: Index of Dissimilarity (D).

 • From Karl and Alma Taeuber's classic, Negroes in Cities

(1965).

30

Interpreting the Index of Dissimilarity

• Index captures the degree to which two groups are evenly spread among census tracts in a given city.

 • Evenness is defined with respect to the racial composition of

the city as a whole. The segregation scores on this index can vary between 0 and 100.

 • 0 indicates complete integration (e.g., blacks are distributed

exactly the same as nonblacks). • 100 indicates complete segregation (e.g., blacks are in

completely different neighborhoods than nonblacks). • Interpreted as percentage of one group who would have to

move to achieve an even residential pattern—that is, where every tract replicates the group composition of the city.

31

32

Interpreting the Index of Dissimilarity (con’t)

• A value of 60 or above is considered very high (hypersegregation).

 • Means that 60% of either group must move to a different

census tract for the two groups to become equally distributed.

 • Values of 40 to 50 are usually considered moderate levels of

segregation.

 • Values of 40 or less are considered low.

33

34

35

36

Trends in U.S. Racial Residential Segregation Patterns

• During every decade between 1890 and 1970 metropolitan area segregation increased.Extreme levels in 1940s and 1950s when blacks moved in

large numbers from South to northern industrial cities. 

• Starting in the 1970s, however, segregation fell slowly. Overall black/white segregation levels are currently at their

lowest point since 1920. National dissimilarity index was 0.59 or 59% in 2010 

• Black-white segregation historically lowest in metro areas with less than 5% population—and declined the most here.

37

38

Largest Black Populations

39

40

13 March 2012 Last updated at 21:34 ETThe city of St Louis, Missouri, remains one of the most segregated cities in the US, according to a study by the Manhattan Institute. But one street in particular has been known to residents as the "dividing line".

Delmar Boulevard, which spans the city from east to west, features million-dollar mansions directly to the south, and poverty-stricken areas to its north. What separates rich and poor is sometimes just one street block.

The BBC's Franz Strasser talked to residents, business owners and pastors on both sides of the street about why things are the way they are.http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17361995

41

Suburbanization Patterns of American Blacks

• Historically, blacks concentrated in central cities.

• In 1970s, increased likelihood of blacks moving from central cities to nearby suburbs—trend continuing today.

• Black populations still greatly underrepresented in suburban locations.

• Currently (year 2002), about 57% of whites live in the suburbs, 21% in central cities.

• Contrast with only 36% of blacks who live in the suburbs, 52% in central cities.

42

43

ANTECEDENTS OF RACIALLY SEGREGATED NEIGHBORHOODS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGRjW-bsCIA

Three processes can restrict the ability of population group to occupy certain neighborhoods than others:

Discrimination and PrejudiceMembers of a group denied access (or made to feel unwelcome) by laws, government and private sector policies, institutional practices, or purposive behaviors of other groups.

DisadvantageLess capability of members of minority group to compete in the private market place because of income, education, cultural patterns (e.g., language), social status, access to employment opportunities, and affordable housing

Individual Choice—Voluntary Self-Segregation

44

DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE

Predominant preferences among whites and blacks• Continues to be to live in all-white or nearly all-white

neighborhoods. • Fears of white residents include:

Depreciation of property valuesFear of losing social statusEntrenched racial prejudiceFear of losing political control (via election of black officials)Fear of poorer quality teaching in schoolsFear of white individual of becoming “minority” in own

neighborhood • Blacks prefer to live in racially mixed neighborhoods.

45

DISCRIMINATION AND PREJUDICE (con’t)• Whites often stop moving into neighborhoods when they

become racially mixed.

• "Tipping point” hypothesis: after a neighborhood attains a certain percentage of blacks, it “tips” over and becomes predominantly black because few whites move in, and whites increasingly move out.

 To break this cycle:• More whites than now would have to develop a

preference for racially mixed neighborhoods. • Whites must recognize that their fears of neighborhood

racial change are major part of the problem.

46

Blockbusting• An effort to induce panic in a neighborhood by telling white

homeowners that other whites are leaving the area and that minorities are moving in, with the goal of getting white homeowners to sell their homes at unusually low prices.

 • Mainly, in 1950s and 1960s.

Racially Restrictive Covenants• A deed restriction that prevented a property from being

sold to a minority group member—in white-occupied neighborhoods and particularly those adjacent to existing black neighborhoods.

 • Existed until a 1948 Supreme Court decision ruled them

judicially unenforceable.

47

FHA (U.S. Federal Housing Administration) Mortgage Financing

• After World War II, the FHA insured a phenomenal number of financially attractive mortgage loans in U.S. suburbs.

 • Emphasis on new homes, on homogeneous (i.e., white)

communities. • Homogeneity linked to the preservation of property values. • The FHA's appraisal manuals and rules explicitly required

racial segregation in areas where it insured homes. • Discrimination remained acknowledged practice until the

1960s.  • Still evidence continues to reveal that mortgage lenders still

may offer minorities less attractive loan terms than white Americans.

48

Local Governments in Metropolitan Areas• The construction of highways/barriers between minority and

majority residential areas.

 • Widespread practice of concentrating public and other

assisted low-rent housing in black residential areas.

 • Prevent expansion of black areas by zoning the immediately

surrounding area for nonresidential land use or for large-lot, low density residential use.

 • Blocking the construction of subsidized housing in

predominantly white areas.

49

Realtors’, Landlords’, and Marketing Behaviors• Real estate agent shows white clients homes in

predominantly white neighborhoods and minority clients homes in predominantly non-white neighborhoods. Such racial steering still practiced.

 • Owners or landlords refuse to to sell, rent, or negotiate for a

dwelling unit because of person’s racial membership. Illegal

• Dwellings in black and integrated neighborhoods are marketed differently than predominantly white neighborhoods.

 Less likely to be advertised in the newspaper and

less likely to be marketed through open houses.

50

Review Study Assessing Fair Housing Audits—Paired Testing

51

Unequal Treatment• Compare findings with paired testing studies done in 1977,

1989, and 2000

1. First, testers attempted (by telephone or e-mail) to make appointments for in-person visits.

2. If successful, they used the in-person visit to learn about available homes or apartments.

3. Finally, if told about at least one available housing unit, testers sought to inspect homes or apartments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VULYqIlaiU8

52

Findings• Minority renters and white renters were equally able to make

appointments with rental housing owners. BUT…….

Findings (con’t)

53

Examples

54

Conclusion

Although the most blatant forms of housing discrimination

(refusing to meet with a minority homeseeker or provide

information about any available units) have declined since

the first national paired-testing study in 1977, the forms of

discrimination that persist (providing information about fewer

units) raise the costs of housing search for minorities and

restrict their housing options. Looking forward, national fair

housing policies must continue to adapt to address the

patterns of discrimination and disparity that persist today.

55

56

Banks and Financial Institutions• Redlining practices whereby loan officers who mark (in

red) integrated and minority neighborhoods as poor risk areas even as they accept deposit from customers in area.

Consequences• Housing discrimination and racial steering act to create lower

demand in Black and minority neighborhoods, thereby depreciating home values.

 • Another outcome of all the above discrimination or biases is

a dual housing market. 

One housing market for blacks and a different housing market for whites.

 That is, housing choices are influenced not just by income

and dwelling/neighborhood preferences.

57

DISADVANTAGE: ROLE OF ECONOMIC FACTORS

• Some skeptics argue that the neighborhood segregation patterns and predominantly central city locations of blacks are not because of racial factors, but because of income constraints.

 • Thus, these patterns explained because of the

disproportionately higher percentages of black residents who are poor.

 • But studies show that blacks are still very much

underrepresented in low-income and less educated white neighborhoods in both the central city and the suburbs.

 • Thus most evidence suggests that the black-white

neighborhood segregation does not occur because blacks are on average poorer, less educated, or in lower-status jobs. Rather, the "nature of the beast" is race not class.

58

SELF-SEGREGATION: SUBCULTURAL FACTORS

• Segregation of blacks reflects attractions of living in neighborhood with a homogeneous subculture (1960s Black Power Movement).

 • Proximity to black churches, clubs, family and friends. • Greater black power through political cohesion, that might

otherwise be weakened by spatial dispersion. • The development of black economic businesses serving

black residents. • While argument helps explain residential patterns, the

segregated/central city status of black neighborhoods primarily reflects the social preferences of whites reinforced by various forms of discriminatory behavior.

59

MAJOR RESPONSES TO ELIMINATE RACIAL BIASES IN THE SELLING OR RENTING

DWELLINGS

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 • Also known as the Fair Housing Act (further modified in

1988).

• Protected groups: race, religion, national origin, color, family status (families with children).

 • Prohibited discrimination in a wide array of real estate

practices. 

• Prohibited discrimination in housing sales and rentals. 

• Prohibited discrimination in the provision of homeowner's insurance and mortgage lending.

60

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (con’t)• HUD's (Department of Housing and Urban Development)

regulations implementing the federal Fair Housing Act state that:

It shall be unlawful, because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, to restrict or attempt to restrict the choices of a person by word or conduct in connection with seeking, negotiating for, buying or renting a dwelling so as to perpetuate, or tend to perpetuate, segregated housing patterns, or to discourage or obstruct choices in a community, neighborhood or development. (24 CFR Part 14, Section 100.70(a))

61

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)• Passed in 1977, but was not widely used until the 1990s. • To ensure that low- and moderate-income neighborhoods

receive adequate investment and financial services. • Requires banks, savings and loan, and other federally

regulated depository lenders to make investments, loans, offer financial services to all areas from which they draw deposits.

 • To ensure that low- and moderate-income neighborhoods

receive adequate investment and financial services. • Lenders often file applications for changes in their business

operations, such as new branch offices or mergers or consolidations with other institutions, and acquisitions.

62

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (con’t)• The "teeth" in the law come from challenges to these

applications that third parties, including community organizations, can file with federal financial regulatory agencies.

 • If there is evidence that a financial institution has not met its

obligations under the CRA, the regulator can approve the application with some conditions, delay consideration of the application, deny the application, or approve it.

63

Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)• Helping CRA work, is the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

(HMDA). 

• HMDA was enacted by Congress in 1975.  

• HMDA is basically an information disclosure requirement.

 • Most lenders must report the number, dollar amount, and

type of mortgage loans made by census tract in metropolitan areas.

 • They must also report the race, income, and gender of

each applicant and whether application was approved or denied.