Opinion: Don't be fooled, housing segregation is still a reality
Editor’s note: Kris Marsh is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is on Facebook and on Twitter @drkrismarsh.
By Kris Marsh, Special to CNN
(CNN) - Recently, the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank released a study, "The End of the Segregated Century." Highlights of the study hit the press like wildfire. Headlines like “Segregation hits historic low” jumped off the page, and articles declared the findings to be proof that “the legacy of the civil rights era is still strong.”
Given that one of my areas of emphasis as a sociologist and demographer is racial residential segregation, I was saturated with emails, Facebook posts, and Tweets asking for my reaction. Above all, my main response is that we must be careful as consumers of information; in this case, readers who stop at the headlines are in danger of overlooking the fact that race still maters and that blacks are still highly segregated in the United States.
As social scientist, we employ three overarching theories to explain the existence and persistence of racial residential segregation: economics, preferences and discrimination.
Economics
Historically, there was a time when only the small population of free blacks were able to own property. This set the groundwork for the wealth disparities between blacks and whites that persists today. In general, unlike potential white home seekers, potential black homebuyers often do not inherit wealth from the previous generation. In most cases, blacks do not have the flexibility to borrow money from parents to purchase their homes. This potentially limits blacks’ ability to purchase homes in certain locations causing middle class blacks homeowners to live in close proximity to the black poor and reside in suburban areas less substantively white and affluent than their white middle class counterparts.
By way of illustration, consider Baldwin Hills, California. Baldwin Hills is a predominantly black area in Los Angeles County. This area encompasses both multi-million dollar homes and a housing project with a reputation so dangerous that during the 1980s and 1990s, it was commonly known as “The Jungle.” In the 2001 Denzel Washington film Training Day, this housing project was used as the location for a scene in which a police detective engages in a midday gun battle. That same year, the director of the film Love and Basketball chose a multi-million dollar home in the same area to represent the residence of a former professional basketball star.
This divergent cinematic representation of Baldwin Hills illustrate the propinquity of the black middle class and the black poor and provides a dramatic example of a widespread phenomenon: that the black middle class is a spatial and social buffer between the white middle class and the black poor. FULL POST
Readers react: ‘Where is the black middle class?’
Editor’s note: Readers had a lot to say about Kris Marsh’s post about the composition of the black middle class, and particularly on the black and single portion of that group. Marsh decided to respond to several of the comments.
Kris Marsh is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is on Facebook and on Twitter@drkrismarsh.
(CNN) - Kris Marsh started her piece this way: “While sharing coffee one day with a colleague and friend, William 'Sandy' Darity Jr., we coined a new, emerging group of single and living-alone (SALA) households in the black middle class: the “Love Jones Cohort.” Personal experiences as a member of the Love Jones Cohort help shape, inform and drive my research on this emerging group within the black middle class.
Historically, the quintessential black middle class consisted of a married couple with 2.5 children, a dog, and 'Black Picket Fences' – in reference to the book written on the black middle class by Mary Pattillo-McCoy.
Where is the black middle class now, you ask? We are right here, but look demographically different than we did years ago.”
For starters, many readers asked if Kris Marsh was against marriage or arguing that the black and single professionals she called the “Love Jones cohort” were better off than their married peers.
TMac wrote: "Kris Marsh, obviously a learned black woman, presents a tragically, dissociative view of the black middle class. Whatever her "Love Jones Cohort" morality represents, it is not the structure of a family, nor a model for the black middle class family. Family is a word she does not mention. I am a black principal of a high school, and there are serious family foundational issues with many of our black teenage students that represent much dissembling of the black family. Her approach perpetuates the single parent trap and is really destroying the black middle class."
MDH wrote: "This is a thought provoking, but uninspiring article. While I applaud not throwing a pity party because you are black, educated, and happen to still be single; I did not agree black should accept the decline of the black nuclear family. Education and family stability are the only effective methods blacks can turn their communities around. Black kids are suffering from a value deficit, which in turn is leading to high crime and incarceration rates. Unfortunately, only improving the two parent household rates will turn this around."
Kris Marsh responds: TMac and MDH, I appreciate your comments. I am not anti-marriage or anti-black family. In no way am I suggesting that SALA households are better than traditional families. In no way am I suggesting that marriage or family is not a positive thing for black America. I am simply stating the demographic trends that are taking place among the black middle class and trying to provide a positive slant for these trends. I am not making any value judgments about those who are married, never-married, or even single parents.
I agree that a black married couple (assuming it is a low conflict couple) provides tremendous advantages for children. However, the empirical data shows that black marriage is declining and there is a rise in SALA households in the larger black community and the black middle class. My goal is not to focus on the negative consequences of this trend, but to attempt to move the discussion forward.
Opinion: Where is the black middle class? You don’t have to look far
Editor’s note: Kris Marsh is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a postdoctoral scholar at the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is on Facebook and on Twitter @drkrismarsh.
By Kris Marsh, Special to CNN
(CNN) - While sharing coffee one day with a colleague and friend, William “Sandy” Darity Jr., we coined a new, emerging group of single and living-alone (SALA) households in the black middle class: the “Love Jones Cohort.” Personal experiences as a member of the Love Jones Cohort help shape, inform and drive my research on this emerging group within the black middle class.
Historically, the quintessential black middle class consisted of a married couple with 2.5 children, a dog, and “Black Picket Fences” - in reference to the book written on the black middle class by Mary Pattillo-McCoy.
Where is the black middle class now, you ask? We are right here, but look demographically different than we did years ago.
My research clearly shows a compositional shift in the black middle class, away from married couples to single and living-alone households. Dovetailing with my research, we need to shift the way we talk and think about single, black professionals – both men and women, although women dominate the category.
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What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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