Housing, Neighborhoods, and Race Relations: Recent Survey Evidence

• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Author: D. Garth Taylor
• Date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100104
• Subject Matter: Articles

26

Housing,

Neighborhoods,

and

Race

Relations:

Recent

Survey

Evidence

By

D.

GARTH

TAYLOR

ABSTRACT:

This

essay

looks

at

the

various

uses

which

have

been

made

of public

opinion

data

in

explaining

and

predicting

patterns

of

racial

residential

segregation.

Public

opinion

is

central

to

understanding

the

process

of

housing

discrimina-

tion

because

housing

market

behavior

is

difficult

to

monitor

and

police

in

any

official

or

bureaucratic

fashion.

Current

poll

results

show

that

racial

attitudes

or

preferences

for

segre-

gated

neighborhoods

by

whites

(or

by

blacks)

are

not

the

central

stumbling

blocks

in

desegregating

American

neigh-

borhoods.

Rather,

shifts

in

the

nature

of

the

housing

market

in

an

area

reflect

responses

to

a

broader,

more

complex

set

of

neighborhood

processes.

Factors

causing

neighborhood

change

vary

greatly

in

their

effects

depending

on

the

kind

of neighborhood

"at

risk"

and

the

amount

of integration

which

is

likely

to

occur.

Simple

calculations

of

the

future

of

inte-

grated

neighborhoods

or

the

amount

of

segregation

due

to

preferences

are

in

error

unless

they

take

these

complexities

into

account.

D.

Garth

Taylor

is

currently

an

Assistant

Professor in

the

Department

of Political

Science

at

the

University

of

Chicago

and

a

Senior

Study

Director

at

the

National

Opinion

Research

Center.

Recent

publications

or

essays

include:

several

case

studies

of

public

reactions

to

school

desegregation

and

busing

in

American

cities;

trends

in

American

racial

attitudes

since

World

War

II;

studies

of

the

relation

between

fear

of

crime,

fear

of

the

ghetto

and

white

racial

attitudes;

and

a

general

treatment

of

the

progress

of

Myrdal’s

predictions

for

the

American

Creed

since

World

War

II.

ANNALS,

AAPSS,

441,

Jan.

1979