THROUGH THE
Sallyport
Michael Emerson discusses segregation in society during a presentation to the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals.
Separate Is Never Equal It’s no surprise that people try to get the best houses in the best neighborhoods they can find. How does it end up they live so segregated by race? That’s the question that Michael Emerson asked, and he said he hears two common answers. The fi rst: “It’s not race; it’s class.” “In fact, that’s not the answer,” said Emerson, the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology and co-director of the university’s new Kinder Institute for Urban Research. “There is a range of incomes within any racial group, and when we look at where people live by income level, they’re still segregated by race. Segregation by race is substantially greater than segregation by income.” The second answer — “People like to live with people like themselves” — is somewhat more accurate, he said, but it’s still not the complete answer. “In current times, many people want not to live with certain people — people they think will drive down their property values, raise crime and lower the quality of local education. They use race to decide these other factors.” The 2000 Census showed a distinct separation between black and white neighborhoods, with Hispanics somewhat more integrated but still dominating many neighborhoods of their own. According to the most recent Houston Area Survey, too few are committed to diversity. Emerson’s own neighborhood is a good example of what has befallen not only Houston, but other major cities nationwide. “When I moved there, it was mixed with many racial groups, but now it’s 99 percent black and Hispanic,” said Emerson, who is white. “I’m totally convinced we have to live in integrated neighborhoods, so my family and I choose to do so.” A “factorial experiment” of African-Americans, Hispanics and whites, 1,000 each, revealed important results. As expected, there was sensitivity among all groups to high crime rates and low-quality schools, and blacks and whites were more sensitive to home valuation than Hispanics. But what about race? Race is less of an issue for Hispanics, at least in Harris County. “But for whites,” Emerson said, “you get a different story. They are highly sensitive to percent black and percent Hispanic. Even if you take a neighborhood that has low crime, high-quality schools and rising property values, and you say it’s 30 percent black, in almost every single case, the white respondent will say, ‘Not likely to buy the home.’” Similarly, he
said, African-Americans in Harris County proved less interested in neighborhoods where the percent of Asian residents was on the rise. Why does neighborhood segregation by race matter? The fourfold increase in the national gap between net worth of white and black families — demonstrated in an “incredibly detailed” study of 2,000 families followed over 24 years from 1984 to 2007 — is telling. The study, Emerson said, “shows most middle-class Americans generate their wealth through their homes, and white “There is a range neighborhoods, due to higher of incomes demand, rise in value more than in other neighborhoods. So it’s within any racial a big deal where people live. group, and when We must fi nd ways to stop givwe look at where ing benefits along racial lines. As people live by most Americans believe, benefits income level, should go to people by merit, not race.” they’re still segEmerson said he and his regated by race. Kinder Institute colleagues are Segregation by anxious to see the results of the race is substan2010 Census when they become available next year. He hopes to tially greater fi nd Houston neighborhoods that than segregation have been integrated for 20 years by income.” or more. “We will attempt to understand why they are stably in—Michael Emerson tegrated,” he said, “and what the consequences are, positive and negative, for people who live there.” “People give all kinds of reasons why it’s okay to have segregation and to have inequality by class and race and never actually face it,” he said. “The fact is, the society our children inherit will suffer and the society our grandchildren inherit will suffer even more if we don’t address racial segregation and the resulting increasing racial wealth gap.” —Mike Williams
Rice Magazine
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No. 8
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2010
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