Racial Attitudes and the Future

of Fair Housing

The Next Forth Years of Fair Housing: Developing an

Agenda for Integration in the 21st Century

Camille Zubrinsky Charles

Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Social Sciences,
University of Pennsylvania

7 October 2008

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More than a century ago, W.E.B. DuBois (1903)
recognized the importance of neighborhoods—the
“physical proximity of home and dwelling-places,
the way in which neighborhoods group
themselves, and [their] contiguity”—as primary
locations for social interaction, lamenting that the
“color line” separating black and white
neighborhoods caused each to see the worst in the
other (1990, p. 120-21).

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Current Trends in Residential Segregation

BLACKS LATINOS ASIANS

Region/Metro Dissimilarity Isolation Exposure Dissimilarity Isolation Exposure Dissimilarity Isolation Exposure
(80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆) (80-00 ∆)
Chicago 81 (-8) 73 (-10) 16 (+5) 62 (-2) 48 (+10) 38 (-13) 44 (-3) 15 (+6) 63 (-12)
Western Area Average 52 (-11) 18 (-12) 41 (-7) 47 (+9) 36 (+13) 42 (-20) 42 (+3) 24 (+13) 48 (-19)
Southwestern Area Average 53 (-15) 24 (-20) 43 (+4) 49 (+4) 42 (+12) 44 (-15) 36 (+5) 8 (+5) 62 (-17)
Midwestern Area Average 74 (-7) 59 (-8) 34 (+4) 46 (+4) 16 (+7) 65 (-12) 41 (+3) 7 (+4) 75 (-12)
Southern Area Average 61 (-10) 53 (-10) 35 (+2) 43 (+10) 19 (+10) 54 (-18) 39 (+1) 6 (+4) 62 (-18)
Eastern Area Average 72 (-6) 46 (-8) 33 (-2) 57 (+3) 28 (+10) 48 (-14) 42 (+3) 12 (+7) 68 (-13)
Overall Average 62 (-10) 41 (-12) 37 (+1) 48 (+6) 27 (+10) 51 (-16) 40 (+3) 11 (+6) 62 (-16)
Adapted from Charles, 2006.

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Neighborhood Racial Composition Preferences in
the Broader Context of Racial Attitudes and
Intergroup Relations

The Persistence of Negative Racial Stereotypes

Conflicting Views on the Sources of Persisting Racial
Inequality
Continued Perceptions of Social Distance
Perceptions of Racial Group Threat/Competition
Attitudes Toward Racial Residential Integration

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Figure 4.4. Multi-Ethnic Neighborhood
Figure 1. Multi-Ethnic Experiment
Neighborhood Experiment Showcard
Showcard

Source:1993-94 Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality

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Table 4.5. Summary Statistics, Neighborhood Racial Composition Preferences by
Respondent and Target-Group Race

Respondent Race/Nativity Status

NB FB NB FB
Target Group Race Whites Blacks Latinos Latinos Asians Asians
White Neighbors
Mean % ---- 21.52% 26.18% 24.50% 27.52% 30.62%
No Whites ---- 8.71 5.67 15.81 0.74 8.34
Black Neighbors
Mean % 14.91% ---- 15.39% 11.74% 16.29% 9.38%
No Blacks 20.04 ---- 18.97 38.07 14.83 44.44
Latino/a Neighbors
Mean % 15.82% 19.83% ---- ---- 19.76% 13.54%
No Latinos 18.46 9.36 ---- ---- 8.76 29.38
Asian Neighbors
Mean % 16.29% 16.25% 16.05% 15.71% ---- ----
No Asians 17.78 16.78 18.61 25.12 ---- ----
Same-Race Neighbors
Mean % 52.97% 42.39% 42.37% 48.04% 36.43% 46.46%
All Same-Race 12.35 3.02 3.84 8.39 0.74 8.13
Notes: p < .001.

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From Attitudes to Preferences
How do various racial attitudes impact preferences
for residential integration?

How do characteristics associated with immigration

—in addition to racial attitudes—impact the
neighborhood racial composition preferences of
Latinos and Asians?

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From Attitudes to Preferences
How do various racial
attitudes impact preferences
for residential integration?
 Classism
 Ethnocentrism
 Prejudice:
 Racial Stereotyping
 Social Distance
 Minority Perception of
Whites as Perpetrators
of Discrimination
 Perceived Racial Group
Threat
How do immirgation-
related characteristics
impact preferences?
 National Origin
 Length of time in the US
 5 yrs or less in the US
 6-10 years in the US
 Over 10 years in the US
 Native-born
 Interactions between time
in the US and:
 National Origin
 English Proficiency
 Various Racial
Attitudes
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Summary of Findings:
From Attitudes to Preferences
Neighborhood racial composition preferences are
primarily a function of racial prejudice; this is true for
ALL groups, but the association is strongest among
whites
Classism and ethnocentrism are, at best, marginally
influential (with the exception of Asians)
Perceptions of whites as “tending to discriminate”
negatively impact nonwhites’ preferences for white
neighbors
Immigration complicates—for Latinos, patterns suggest
internalization process; for Asians, racial context
important (all immigrants more resistant than NB to co-
residence with blacks and Latinos; however, Koreans
(native- and foreign-born) are two or three times more
resistant than other groups
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Where Do We Go From Here?

In An American Dilemma (1944), Gunnar

Myrdal warned that racial residential
segregation permits prejudice “to be freely
vented on Negroes without hurting whites”
(p. 618).

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Where Do We Go From Here?
Race matters over and above objective
differences in social class characteristics
Strategies that get communities working
together toward common goals
Aggressive public relations campaigns (e.g.,
value added by diversity, desirable
neighborhood amenities)
Affirmative marketing
Active, dilligent enforcement of
antidiscrimination laws—greatest
improvements in whites’ attitudes occurred
AFTER the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 11