1. Key indicator of segregation. Index of dissimilarity: % of a minority group in a given community which would have to move in order to achieve a proportional residential pattern.
2. . Their research
a. History: the Great Migration and the creation of black hypersegregation in the 20th century.... city by city chart which is summarized here:
Index of dissimilarity, 1860-1940
Free blacks vs. whites, 1860 Blacks vs. native whites, 1910 Blacks vs. whites, 1940 Northen Cities (N=11) 45.7 59.2 89.2 Southern Cities (N=8) 29.0 38.3 81.0
b. Comparison with European immigrant groups... Chicago research in the 1920s... in none of the immigrant ghettos did one nationality constitute even a majority (except for Poles at 54%)... in Chicago's black ghetto, by comparison, blacks comprised 82%
c. Factors by which the black ghetto was constructed
1) Violence: race riots after both World War I and II when ex-servicemen and their families tried to move into white neighborhoods
2) Restrictive covenants and other real estate practices
3). Government and private mortgage programs
4) Government programs of low-income housing (the government has acknowledged its responsibility in a series of recent court settlements, including the Holman case in Minneapolis)
d. Current trends.
1) more tables comparing cities' scores on the index of dissimilarity and showing little progress in the 1960s and 1970s and a little bit more in the 1980s
2) Comparison with Latino minority... in 1990, the average Chicago black lived in an area that was 90% black; the average Mexican-American lived in an area that was 50% non-Hispanic white
e. But isn't there a law against segregated housing? Yes, but....
1) The Fair Housing Act of 1968 passed with no provisions for enforcement other than lawsuits by individuals
2) HUD continued to promote highly segregated low-income housing until stopped by a serious of expensive lawsuits (Chicago, Philadelphia, Minneapolis)
3). Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 finally put some teeth into enforcement, but still depends on budgets and enforcement priorities.
a. Hispanics less segregated nationally than African-Americans and therefore less investigated.
b. Among Hispanics, Puerto Ricans the most segregated.
c. This is a study of the ways in which the white (Irish, Italian, Polish) residents of Greenpoint, a neighborhood in New York City, attempt to keep Hispanic (mostly Puerto Rican) residents segregated in their own neighborhood... a working class neighborhood, with a clear separation between white and Hispanic
a. Rental housing market almost entirely a matter of informal recruitment: "word of mouth"
Much of it landlord occupied, and "they want people to come who are recommended...people they can get along with... sometimes you can rent to somebody and nnot know who they are. And, you know, they may be flamingo (sic) dancers..."
b. Home sales also often handled informally, or else through realtors who live in the community and who know who belongs where.
"It is difficult for an outsider to rent an apartment or purchase a house in southern Greenpoint."
c. Sanctions and intimidation:
1) "This house was almost bought by a Cuban gentleman and the lady on this side of us told our landlord that they are not welcome here, in very choice words she used; and they almost threatened him..."
2) "You know your family's going to hear it if you rent to a black... I know what they would go through; that's why I wouldn't really do it."
a. The Church. Mostly Catholic churches, and only one that serves Spanish-speaking community, and they maintain separate services and social activities for their white vs. their Hispanic members. Spanish masses take place in the lower church (basement)...
b. Local politics: race a very explicit theme
day of election: photo of black and white candidate and headline: "The Choice is Yours"
1. France's colonial history... map of French colonial empire in 1914
2. France's way of incorporating immigrants from the former empire:
a. Citizenship(French Revolution) but slowly and not always welcomed by immigrants... finally in 1980s enough naturalizations that immigrant community began to develop political power
b. No official recognition of ethnic, racial, or religious differences... no affirmative action, for example... banning of veils from the schools... intention to prevent ghettoization, but de facto ghettoization is widespread, with many immigrants and their children living in government-subsidized apartment blocks with very high unemployment
1. Germany and Austria: "guest worker" policy, but guest workers mostly never went "home" and although still difficult for immigrants to obtain citizenship, those born in Germany or Austria now receive citizenship...
2. Britain: immigrants from Commonwealth countries received immediate voting rights, until that policy was ended under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s...recognition of ethnic communities, considerable ghettoization, and the shock of the recent bombings which were carried out by Muslims born and raised in England
Map of British Empire