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Show HINCKLEY JOURNAL OF POLITICS SPRING 2001 is residential segregation. This type of segregation is highly important because school zones are drawn using local boundaries. If a neighborhood is segregated, then the local school will be segregated. For example, Detroit is so racially isolated that researchers refer to it as "hypersegregated" (Massey 1993, 83, 221). As was the case in 1974, there is no evidence that the surrounding suburban districts operated a dual system. There cannot be evidence of a dual system when there is no one to discriminate against in the school district. In sum, it is impossible for city schools to desegregate when the neighborhoods are virtually one race. This underlying cause of school segregation has been impacted by dramatic changes in American society, namely the Civil Rights movement. Yet, residential segregation has persisted. The years between 1945 and 1970 marked a time of extensive suburban expansion. Many blacks could not join this exodus because of discrimination in the workforce and housing policies. Employment discrimination kept many out of higher paying jobs that would allow them to leave the city. Housing discrimination kept most African-Americans in certain areas of the city (Massey 1993, 61). Then along with the movement to desegregate schools came the cry to desegregate in all other areas of life. As mentioned earlier, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned racial discrimination in employment. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination in housing. The courts also prohibited states from building public housing projects in exclusively black neighborhoods (Massey 1993, 83). It initially appeared that these measures and changes in public attitude were working to desegregate many metropolitan cities. However, despite the initial decline, residential segregation remains relatively high and has changed very little since the 1970s. The decline has actually been very small, from 0.70 in 1970 to 0.66 in 1980. In fact, many scholars consider the decline insignificant (Jargowsky 1996, 140). They point out that many cities still have racial segregation indexes well above 60, which is the threshold for hypersegregation (Musterd 1998, 49). They also note that the 1990 census shows that five of eighteen northern metropolitan areas had a higher index than in 1980 (Massey 1993, 221). For many reasons segregation remains high in metropolitan areas. One reason is the structural changes in the economy. The shift from manufacturing industries to service oriented industries, along with the relocation of plants overseas or to other cheap labor sites, has caused heavy job losses in the higher-paying manufacturing sector. In turn, this has helped intensify the pattern of minorities in concentrated areas, particularly in Northern cities such as Chicago and Detroit (Musterd 1998, 52-3). At the same time, companies also began locating in the suburbs, which further reduced employment opportunities for segregated minorities (Jarowsky 144). A second reason is policies of banks and insurance companies. These agencies are reluctant to loan money to minorities who may wish to leave the inner city. In the past, minority neighborhoods were labeled as "high risk" or as having "questionable environmental factors" (Massey 1993, 105). Unfortunately, there is evidence that these stereotypes still exist. Studies still consistently show that black or mixed neighborhoods receive less federally insured loans, less private credit, fewer home improvement loans, and less mortgage money than whites with similar socioeconomic status (Musterd 1998, 106). The late 1980s and early 1990s have shown little change. In 1991, the New York Times reported that Federal Reserve data indicated substantial racial disparities in loan rejection rates, which could not be explained by income (Massey 1993, 108). These practices are a major hindrance to minority mobility. A third factor is discrimination in housing. Government actions can sometimes cause discrimination. In Chicago, for instance, urban "renewal" projects ruined many viable affordable housing neighborhoods. The government then built high-rise public housing projects alongside the city's major expressway for the displaced individuals. Local governments are reluctant to build affordable housing developments, because the projects would not bring as much tax revenue as more affluent development (Musterd 1998, 52). There are also more direct forms of discrimination in housing. In 1988, the U.S. Department Housing and Urban Development (HUD) did a study to determine the extent of discrimination in housing. When John Yinger analyzed the study's results, he found housing was systematically made more available to whites in 45 percent of transactions in rental markets and 34 percent in sales (Massey 1993, 102). Yinger also found a substantial amount of "racial steering" or the guiding of African-American clientele to all black or mixed neighborhoods (Massey 103). The HUD study also measured the severity of housing discrimination or how often blacks are shown, recommended, and invited to see a unit compared to qualified white clients. It found that among advertised rentals, the likelihood whites would be shown a unit that blacks would not be shown was 65 percent (Massey 1993, 104). Discrimination in housing was still prevalent in the 1990s. In February 1997, the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington D.C. released a report that found that minority apartment seekers experience discrimination more than two out of every five times they tried to rent a unit in the Washington area (Turner 1999, C03). Housing discrimination did not disappear with the Fair Housing Act of 1968, nor is it going away any time in the near future. Coupled with bank and insurance policies and the changing structure of the economy, housing discrimination limits the housing options of minority groups, thus keeping them in the inner city. One might argue that minority groups prefer to live in a segregated neighborhood. However little evidence supports such a claim. On the contrary, evidence suggests blacks would prefer to live in a mixed neighborhood. The 1976 Detroit Area Survey found that 63 percent of African-American respondents chose a neighborhood half-white and half-black as most desirable (Massey 1993, 89-90). Along with the factors for residential segregation mentioned in the previous 67 |
