Black Residential Segregation in the City and Suburbs of Detroit: Does Socioeconomic Status Matter?

Abstract

According to ecological theory, the socioeconomic status of a minority group is inversely related to the group's level of residential segregation from the majority group. This article determines whether the level of black socioeconomic status is related to the level of black residential segregation in the city of Detroit and Detroit's suburbs. Data were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Census, 1990 Summary Tape Files 4-A. The methods employed to measure residential segregation were the indexes of dissimilarity D and isolation P * . Indexes were computed by census tract to measure segregation and isolation between blacks and whites at the same level of occupation, income, or education. The results revealed that residential segregation between blacks and whites remained high (i.e., above 50%) in both the city and the suburbs despite comparable socioeconomic status. Blacks in the suburbs were more segregated and isolated than blacks in the city at each socioeconomic level.

Perceptions of African American Police Officers on Racial Profiling in Small Agencies

“…Yet it is almost certain that racial profiling occurs in these smaller areas (Alba & Logan, 1993;Darden & Kamel, 2000;Meehan & Ponder, 2006;Weitzer, 2000a;. Many of these smaller agencies are unable, as well, to take advantage of any likely benefits of the presence of African American police officers due to their noted absence in their force matrices.…”

Race and place: The ecology of racial profiling African American motorists

“…For example, research on social threats has demonstrated that communities respond to the greater residential presence of minorities by increasing police expenditures (P. Jackson, 1989Jackson, , 1992Liska, 1992). Community support is also reflected in gatekeeping practices that have produced patterns of residential segregation of African Americans that are deeply entrenched throughout the United States (Alba & Logan, 1993;Darden & Kamel, 2000;Massey & Denton, 1993). Although patterns of residential segregation have changed over the past 30 years--statistics show that 1 in 3 African Americans now live in suburbs--American suburbs are still predominantly white Downloaded by [University of Kent] at 17:13 16 November 2014 (Baldassare, 1992;Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 1997).…”

Black–White and Hispanic–White Segregation in U.S. Counties

“…For example, as of 1990 blacks and whites were less segregated in general and at comparable income levels in Southern California's suburban counties than in the central county, which is Los Angeles (Clark and Ware 1997). This pattern is not necessarily true everywhere, though, and might be dependent on the areal units defining suburbs, as shown by the fact that within Wayne County, Michigan, blacks and whites of the same income levels were less segregated in Detroit than in areas outside that city (Darden and Kamel 2000).…”