Skip to main content

Still the Linchpin: Segregation and Stratification in the USA

Race and Social Problems volume 12, pages 1–12 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

High levels of black residential segregation emerged over the course of the twentieth century as the black population urbanized. Segregation was achieved by means of different mechanisms at different times and places, beginning with targeted violence directed at African Americans followed later by discrimination in real estate and banking using devices such as deed restrictions, restrictive covenants, and racial redlining, practices that were institutionalized in federal policies during the New Deal. By 1977, however, discrimination had been outlawed in most US markets and average black segregation began to decline. The declines, however, were inversely proportional to the size of the black community. As Latinos grew in number after the 1970s, levels of racial isolation within Hispanic neighborhoods also rose. At the same time, class segregation increased, especially among families with children, and inequalities of wealth and income grew to create a polarized urban geography. High concentrations of affluence now prevail for affluent whites and Asians living in wealthy post-industrial coastal areas, with high concentrations of poverty prevailing for poor blacks and Hispanics in older, declining industrial areas in the Midwest and the South, which also contain pockets of white and Asian poverty. The new political geography of race and class effectively denies blacks and Hispanics their access to quality education and undermines their lifetime earning prospects to create self-perpetuating system of social and economic stratification.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1

References

  • Baradaran, M. (2017). The color of money: Black banks and the racial wealth gap. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, J. F. (1987). Public housing, race, and renewal: Urban planning in Philadelphia, 1920–1974. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bobo, L. D., Charles, C. Z., Krysan, M., & Simmons, A. D. (2012). The real record on racial attitudes. In P. V. Marsden (Ed.), Social trends in the United States: Evidence from the General Social Survey since 1972 (pp. 38–83). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpusor, A. G., & Loges, W. E. (2006). Rental discrimination and ethnicity in names. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,36(4), 934–952.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles, C. Z. (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual Review of Sociology,29, 167–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chetty, R., & Hendren, N. (2018a). The impacts of neighborhoods on intergenerational mobility I: Childhood exposure effects. Quarterly Journal of Economics,133(3), 1107–1162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chetty, R., & Hendren, N. (2018b). The impacts of neighborhoods on intergenerational mobility II: County-Level Estimates. Quarterly Journal of Economics,133(3), 1163–1228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choi, A., Herbert, L., Winslow, O., Browne, A. 2019. Long Island divided. Newsday, November 17. https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/#open-paywall-message

  • Delis, M. D., & Papadopoulos, P. (2019). Mortgage lending discrimination across the U.S.: New methodology and new evidence. Journal of Financial Services Research,56(3), 341–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (1986). The aversive form of racism. In J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination and racism (pp. 61–89). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, O. D. (1957). The measurement of population distribution. Population Studies,11(1), 27–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, M. O., Chai, K. J., & Yancey, G. (2001). Does race matter in residential segregation? Exploring the preferences of white Americans. American Sociological Review,66(6), 922–935.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, M. J., & Massey, D. S. (2004). The ecology of racial discrimination. City & Community,3(3), 221–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grigoryeva, A., & Ruef, M. (2015). The historical demography of racial segregation. American Sociological Review,80(4), 814–842.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson, A., & Hawley, Z. (2011). Do landlords discriminate in the rental housing market? Evidence from an internet field experiment in US cities. Journal of Urban Economics,70(2), 99–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartfield, C. (2018). A few red drops: The Chicago race riot of 1919. New York: Clarion Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helper, R. (1969). Racial policies and practices of real estate brokers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, A. R. (1983). Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940–1960. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Intrator, J., Tannen, J., & Massey, D. S. (2016). Segregation by race and income in the United States 1970–2010. Social Science Research,60(1), 45–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, K. T. (1985). Crabgrass frontier: The suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katznelson, I. (2005). When affirmative action was white: An untold History of racial inequality in twentieth-century America. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kozol, J. (1992). Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krysan, M., & Crowder, K. (2017). Cycle of segregation: Social processes and residential stratification. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberson, S. (1980). A piece of the pie: Blacks and white immigrants since 1880. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberson, S. (1981). An asymmetrical approach to segregation. In C. Peach, V. Robinson, & S. Smith (Eds.), Ethnic segregation in cities. London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logan, J. (2017). Racial segregation in postbellum Southern cities: The case of Washington, D. C. Demographic Research,36(1), 1759–1784.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S. (2016). Segregation and the perpetuation of disadvantage. In L. Burton & D. Brady (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the social science of poverty (pp. 369–393). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1988). The dimensions of residential segregation. Social Forces,67, 281–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1989). Hypersegregation in U.S. metropolitan areas: Black and Hispanic segregation along five dimensions. Demography,26(3), 373–393.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Lundy, G. (2001). Use of black English and racial discrimination in urban housing markets: New methods and findings. Urban Affairs Review,36(4), 470–496.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Rugh, J. S. (2018a). The intersection of race and class: Zoning, affordable housing, and segregation in U.S. metropolitan areas. In G. Squires (Ed.), The fight for fair housing: Causes (pp. 245–265). New York: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Rugh, J. S. (2018b). The great recession and the destruction of minority wealth. Current History,117(802), 298–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Rugh, J. S. (2020). America's unequal metropolitan geography: Segregation and the spatial concentration of affluence and poverty. In F. Rosenbluth & M. Weir (Eds.), The new politics of insecurity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., Rugh, J. S., Steil, J. P., & Albright, L. (2016). Riding the stagecoach to Hell: A qualitative analysis of racial discrimination in mortgage lending. City & Community,15(2), 118–136.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Tannen, J. (2015). A research note on trends in black hypersegregation. Demography, 52(3), 1025–1034.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Tannen, J. (2016). Segregation, race, and the social worlds of rich and poor. In H. Braun & I. Kirsch (Eds.), The dynamics of opportunity in America: Evidence and perspectives (pp. 13–33). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Tannen, J. (2017). Suburbanization and segregation in the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies,41(9), 1594–1611.

    Google Scholar 

  • Metcalf, G. R. (1988). Fair housing comes of age. New York: GreenwoodPress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, A. (2016). Inequality in children’s contexts. American Sociological Review,81(3), 549–574.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, A. (2017). Racial residential segregation of school-age children and adults: The role of schooling as a segregating force. The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences,3(2), 63–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, R. D., & Krivo, L. J. (2010). Divergent social worlds: Neighborhood crime and the racial-spatial divide. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, N., Levy, B. L., Sampson, R. J., Small, M. L., & Wang, R. Q. (2019). The social integration of American Cities: Network neasures of connectedness based on everyday mobility across neighborhoods. Sociological Methods and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124119852386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Philpott, T. (1978). The slum and the ghetto: Neighborhood deterioration and middleclass reform, Chicago 1880–1930. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quillian, L. (2014). Social psychological processes in studies of neighborhoods and inequality. In J. McLeod, M. Schwalbe, & E. Lawler (Eds.), Handbook of the social psychology of inequality (pp. 459–484). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reardon, S. F. (2016). School segregation and racial academic achievement gaps. The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences,2(5), 34–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reardon, S. F., Bischoff, K., Owens, A., & Townsend, J. B. (2018). Has income segregation really increased? Bias and bias correction in sample-based segregation estimates. Demography,55(6), 2129–2160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reardon, S. F., Kalogrides, D., & Shores, K. (2019). The geography of racial/ethnic test score gaps. American Journal of Sociology,124(4), 1164–1221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reardon, S. F., Weathers, E. S., Fahle, E. M., Jang, H., & Kalogrides, D. (2019). Is separate still unequal? New evidence on school segregation and racial academic achievement gaps. CEPA Working Paper No. 19-06, Stanford, CA: Center for Education Policy Analysis. https://cepa.stanford.edu/wp19-06

  • Rice, R. L. (1968). Residential segregation by law 1910-1917. Journal of Southern History, 64(2), 179–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothwell, J., & Massey, D. S. (2009). The effect of density zoning on racial segregation in U.S. urban areas. Urban Affairs Review,44(6), 799–806.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothwell, J., & Massey, D. S. (2015). Geographic effects on intergenerational income mobility. Economic Geography,91(1), 83–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugh, J. (2015). Double jeopardy: Why Latinos were hit hardest by the US foreclosure crisis. Social Forces,93(3), 1139–1184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugh, J. S., & Hall, M. (2016). Deporting the American dream: Immigration enforcement and Latino foreclosures. Sociological Science,3, 1053–1076.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugh, J. S., & Massey, D. S. (2010). Racial segregation and the American foreclosure crisis. American Sociological Review,75(5), 629–651.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugh, J. S., & Massey, D. S. (2014). Segregation in the post-civil rights America: Stalled integration or end of the segregated century?”. The DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race,11(2), 202–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rugh, J. S., Albright, L., & Massey, D. S. (2015). Race, space, and cumulative disadvantage: A case study of the subprime lending collapse. Social Problems,62(2), 186–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J. (2012). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schuman, H., Steeh, S., Bobo, L., & Krysan, M. (1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sewell, A. A. (2016). The racism-race reification process: A mesolevel political economic framework for understanding racial health disparities. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity,2(4), 402–432.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharkey, P. (2013). Stuck in place: Urban neighborhoods and the end of progress toward racial equality. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Squires G. D. (2005). Predatory Lending: Redlining in Reverse, Shelterforce: The voice of community development, January 1, 2005. https://shelterforce.org/2005/01/01/predatory-lending-redlining-in-reverse/.

  • Steil, J. P., Albright, L., Rugh, J. S., & Massey, D. S. (2018). The social structure of mortgage discrimination. Housing Studies,33(5), 759–776.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, C. (1998). Durable inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, M. A., Santos, R., Levy, D. K., Wissoker, D., Aranda, C., & Pitingolo, R. (2013). Housing Discrimination against Racial and Ethnic Minorities 2012. Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M. J. (1986). Segregation and diversity: Measures in population distribution. Population Index, 52, 198–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkerson, I. (2010). The warmth of other suns: The epic story of America’s great migration. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of Population Research, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Douglas S. Massey

Authors
  1. Douglas S. Massey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas S. Massey.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Massey, D.S. Still the Linchpin: Segregation and Stratification in the USA. Race Soc Probl 12, 1–12 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-019-09280-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-019-09280-1

Keywords

  • Affluence
  • Poverty
  • Segregation
  • Concentration
  • Education