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Stat$: Does It Work Better to Move or to Fix Up the Neighborhood?
Allan Lichtenstein
February 12, 2016
Housing Desegregation, Diversity, and Social Interaction
by Allan Lichtenstein
salient racial and ethnic differences in terms of the relationship between where people want to live, where they live, and, importantly, where they look to live. That is, mismatches exist between their attitudes toward living in diverse neighborhoods and their actions, reflected in the kinds of neighborhoods in which they search and live.The three major racial and ethnic groups (whites, blacks and Latinos) examined in the study reported a preference for living in diverse neighborhoods. All three groups, however, failed to live in racially diverse neighborhoods, but for different reasons. The mismatches varied, depending on the searcher’s race or ethnicity. Whites, contrary to their stated preference, in fact searched neighborhoods that were less diverse. African Americans and Latinos’, in contrast, searched locations that matched quite closely their attitudes, but for reasons not clarified in the research, ended up moving into less diverse neighborhoods. The lack of interaction across racial and ethnic groups is the key finding of Laura Tach’s study of the South End neighborhood in Boston, a neighborhood that has been both economically and racially diverse for an extended period. The South End neighborhood, in fact, attracts residents who appreciated the neighborhood’s diversity. In her study, Tach contrasted what residents said about their appreciation of the neighborhood’s diversity with their actual behavior in order to assess “the extent to which integration brings about desired benefits.” She found “little cross-race or class-class contact. Instead residents engaged in micro-segregation, or homogeneous pockets of interaction and organization within the larger neighborhood.” This occurred both formally and informally. Micro-segregation in the neighborhood could be found in the residents’ daily routines, interactions, and use of neighborhood space as well as in their interactions in neighborhood associations and organizations. The result, she concludes, is that “patterns of micro-segregation fueled race- and class-based perceptions of inclusion and exclusion that belied the simple, idealized characterization of diversity residents initially espoused.” While the Supreme Court’s decision is important in furthering the effort to integrate housing, it can only do so much. To the extent that housing desegregation and greater neighborhood diversity is advanced, much more is required to bring about interaction between racial and income groups at the neighborhood level — which requires a profound change in the political, social and economic structure of our society. Allan Lichtenstein, a contributing writer to our website and magazine, has a Ph.D in urban planning from Rutgers University and has been working in the field of poverty research for nine years. He grew up in South Africa, lived in Israel for sixteen years, and has lived in the U.S. since 1986.