America's changing color line is perhaps best expressed in shifting patterns of neighborhood residential segregation--the geographic separation of races. This research evaluates black exceptionalism by using the universe of U.S. blocks from the 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses to provide a "single" geographically inclusive national…

Previous studies have shown that as the percent black or percent Hispanic grows, that group's residential segregation from whites tends to increase as well. Typically, these findings are explained in terms of white discriminatory reaction to the perceived threat associated with minority population growth. The present analysis examines whether…

This article discusses a class project on residential segregation in Florida's metropolitan areas for which students analyzed trends regarding African Americans relative to white populations using data from 1980 to 2000. The project provided a means of teaching the importance of geographical perspectives to nongeography students in an…

Investigating the role of preferences in causing persistent patterns of racial residential segregation in the United States has a long history. In this paper, we bring a new perspective--and new data from the 2004 Detroit Area Study--to the question of how best to characterize black and white preferences toward living in neighborhoods with people…

In 1979-80, residential mobility was lower among African Americans than non-African Americans after adjusting for differences in home ownership and sociodemographic characteristics. Both African-American and non-African-American mobility were influenced by life-cycle factors, housing characteristics, and metropolitan features, but African-American…

This paper examines the relationship between the socioeconomic status of selected ethnic groups in metropolitan areas and the extent of foreign stock in the areas, with some control for size and regional classification. (Author/AM)

This report of racial discrimination in housing throughout the United States measures the nature and extent of discrimination against blacks in both the sales and rental housing market. The report is based upon the findings of 300 whites and 300 blacks, working in matched pairs, who shopped for housing advertised in the newspapers of forty…

1980 census data for the Saint Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area indicated (1) no change in central city desegregation and only a modest decline in suburban segregation; (2) rapid Black population growth in suburbs with low segregation indexes (signifying a possible racial turnover); and (3) repetition of central city segregation patterns in the…

Using the 1980 census's independent measures of race, Spanish origin, nativity, and ancestry, this paper describes racial differentiation and segregation in 21 metropolitan areas, comparing it with ethnic group segregation, and to other demographic and housing characteristics. Special attention is given to the interplay of race and poverty.…

This article addresses shortcomings in the literature on environmental inequality by (a) setting forth and testing four models of environmental inequality and (b) explicitly linking environmental inequality research to spatial mismatch theory and to the debate on the declining significance of race. The explanatory models ask whether the…

The emphasis in this report is on how public service quality affects urban decline and middle-class flight. It is pointed out that the key role in decline is played by neighborhood "external diseconomies," which result from the way municipal services are financed, produced, and distributed in metropolitan areas. It is also pointed out…