Study Shows Major Metropolitan Areas Have Become More Racially Segregated
Earlier this year CNN reported that a study from the University of California Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute has discovered racial segregation in most major U.S. cities has increased over the last 30 years.
“The study found that 81% of regions with more than 200,000 residents were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990, despite fair housing laws and policies created to promote integration,” the report said. “Some of the most segregated areas included Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit in the Midwest and New York, Northern New Jersey and Philadelphia in the mid-Atlantic. Conversely, large metropolitan regions that saw the biggest decrease in segregation included Savannah, Georgia, San Antonio and Miami.”
“According to the study, segregated communities of color have lower incomes, higher unemployment, lower home values and are less educated than segregated White communities,” the report added. “However, the report indicates that Blacks and Hispanics who grew up in segregated White communities were able to earn significantly higher incomes than those in communities in color.”
Housing segregation was enabled by policies at the federal, state, and local level, including access to credit and discriminatory urban renewal programs. Now in 2021, there is support from some politicians to keep people of color out of certain neighborhoods, with former President Donald Trump attempting to get rid of fair-housing rules in 2020 for the sake of “suburban housewives.”
“One explanation for increased segregation is that while Asians and Hispanics remain the fastest-growing minority groups in the country, they are becoming more segregated from White communities,” said the report. “This is driving up the nation’s aggregated level of segregation, he said. The study did not explore why these groups are not integrating.”
The study discovered that 81% of regions with more than 200,000 residents were more segregated in 2019 than they were in 199o. This is despite fair housing laws and policies created to promote integration.
Some of the most segregated areas included Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit in the Midwest and New York, northern New Jersey and Philadelphia in the mid-Atlantic.
However, large metropolitan regions that saw the most decrease in segregation included Savannah, Georgia, San Antonio and Miami. According to the study, segregated communities of color often have lower incomes, higher unemployment, lower home values and are less educated than segregated White communities. The report indicates that Blacks and Hispanics who grew up in segregated White communities were able to earn significantly higher incomes than those in communities in color.
“The takeaway from these findings is that race itself appears not to be the determining factor in an individual’s life outcomes,” the institute said in a news release. “Rather, the more consequential factor for life outcomes is the environment in which that individual is immersed.”