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Suburban Segregation

Segregation refers to separation of ethnic, cultural and other distinct groups which are based on housing and residence. Residential or suburban segregation sorts different population groups into various residential contexts and shapes their living environment at the vicinity level. Metropolitan cities in US are utterly segregated according to the racial lines. According to 1990 surveys some 70% of Americans would need to change their places of residence to achieve racial equity in their place of abode. The most manifest case of residential segregation is when a majority/dominant group (whites as a rule) imposes segregation on a minority/ subordinate group (e.g. AfricanAmericans). Unfortunately, it has been still the case that African-Americans traditionally suffer from severe prejudices as well as from the discrimination in urban residential markets. Furthermore they often live in systematically deprived vicinities. Furthermore this ongoing residential suburban segregation has long term effect on Afro-American families as well as on their ability to sell and purchase homes, due to the red-lining of such vicinities described below. Suburban residential segregation may also result from the so-called institutional discrimination or denial of equal rights and opportunities to groups or individuals that results from the societys normal operations. The interaction between residential segregation and institutional discrimination has ultimately created a dual realty market that is generally acknowledged and supported by considerable amount of literature. This dual housing market is the market segregated by race where African-Americans endure housing selections which in their turn are the result of both overt and institutional discrimination. There are lots of factors involved in the suburban residential segregation and discrimination phenomenon. For example, plenty of evidence suggesting that the majority of African American vicinities

2 typically suffer from lower home values, much higher crime rates and a general diminished standards of living. Due to assorting practices, such as those of patent discrimination exerted by realty estate agents, lending institution exerting institutional discrimination, dual housing market which is disadvantageous for African-Americans which is being increased at the expense of the proper treatment of the disadvantageous minority group. Steering is another form of racial discrimination in housing market. Steering is the policy of concealing properties off the market from Afro-American dwelling seekers. The latter are thus steered to the vicinities having similarities to the home seekers racial makeup. African-Americans are generally steered away mainly from white communities. From the other hand there is such phenomenon as the White flight. White Flight is a kind of exodus of whites from the localities (such as schools or vicinities) predominantly or increasingly predominantly inhabited by minorities. White flight is likely to increase suburban residential segregation in mean income housing. The most conspicuous example of racial steering practiced by an urban planner when developing a suburban area in the United States is seen in Detroit., Michigan. As soon as the automobile industry opened new manufacturing facilities and created thus lots of new jobs during 1916-1917 and once again seven years later, many African-Americans moved there in pursuit of material benefits. Those migrations eventually changed the racial, economic, social and political make-up of Detroit. City authorities had to face racial straining hardly overnight. Furthermore such tensions were instigated and maintained by city authorities. Those city officials rendered their support to laws and movements that permitted discrimination in housing and racial discrimination as well as discrimination in community services, employment and education.

3 It should be noted however that racial steering is not lawful in the United States. According to the US civil rights law, racial steering to either create or maintain segregation is not lawful and has been the target of American civil rights reforms since the early part of the century. Some maintain that racially segregated vicinities are often characterized as those lacking educational recourses, blighted and having higher than average levels of crime and violence. At the same time some scientists challenge this thesis and suggest that such neighborhoods are economically striving. They have succeeded to develop protective markets, stable and strong social networks which have allowed those vicinities to build higher than average levels of social capital. Is suburban residential segregation a result of individual desires for some peculiar types of neighbors? According to data gathered by the Society for the Study of Social Problems residents always tend to have more in-group neighbors or residents of their own ethnic or racial group than out-of-group neighbors. Whites have displayed the highest level of preference for having the majority of co-ethnic neighbors, i.e. of the same color of skin. Furthermore white Americans possess the highest level of preference for entirely homogeneous make-up. Moreover among Asians, Latinos and Whites, the blacks are generally the least-preferred out group residents. Some scholars argue that this reaction probably stems from the fact that statistically speaking, African Americans neighborhoods possess much bigger numbers of unemployed, high school drop-outs and of single parent families. It is no wonder that these vicinities are more likely to suffer from higher rates of property-, race, violent crime and low appreciation of home equity. Moreover schools populated by either all-black or predominantly black-skinned students have been found to have much lower degrees on standardized tests. Therefore, White Flight phenomenon is likely to be applied to all non-African-American races escaping from the vicinities with

4 predominantly black-population. As it is evident from the collected data an average respondent does not desire any further racial integration that is already present in his/her particular vicinity. Above mentioned respondent instead displayed the desire for living in a neighborhood where his/her own race comprises no less than 20% of the vicinity than any other race. This notwithstanding, evidence presented by the research can indicate phenomenon of white flight rather fueled by financial reasons than for the reason of unequivocal prejudice. According to the evidence from studies that show how discriminatory segregation processes have led to a higher degree of residential segregation that has concentrated on minority and ethnic groups in urban and usually poor vicinities. Such vicinities as a rule have much higher rates of school drop outs, lower rates of college attendance, and higher rates of crime, higher rates of teen pregnancies and social disorder, higher unemployment level as well as lower earnings. These studies together show how suburban residential segregation is disastrous to the entire groups social mobility.