White’s Residential Preferences

• Date: 01 October 2012
• Author: Mar Gertz,Donald Tomaskovic-Devey,Patricia Y. Warren,Eric A. Stewart
• Published date: 01 October 2012
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368712452908
• Subject Matter: Articles

Articles

White’s Residential

Preferences: Reassessing

the Relevance of Criminal

and Economic Stereotypes

Patricia Y. Warren

1

, Eric A. Stewart

1

,

Donald Tomaskovic-Devey

2

, and Mar Gertz

1

Abstract

In the United States Black citizens are more residentially segregated from Whites than

other racial and/or ethnic group. Prior studies have found that these patterns of

segregation result in part from feelings of resentment and racial stereotypes that

Whites hold toward Blacks. In this study, we further explore this idea by assessing the

relevance of criminal and economic stereotypes, along with an extensive set of

community and individual-level controls in understanding White citizens preferences

for segregation. Utilizing a sample of 1,222 White citizens we explore factors that

shape their residential preferences. Our results demonstrate that Whites who view

Black citizens as criminal and economic liabilities are less willing to desire them as

neighbors. The results also suggest that the growth of the Black population further

erodes White’s willingness to reside in communities with Black residents.

Keywords

segregation preferences, stereotypes, criminal, economic

Racial residential segregation remains a unique characteristic of American neighbor-

hoods despite manymetropolitan areas experiencinga 15-point drop in the dissimilarity

index from 1980 to 2010. These persistent patterns of residential segregation has been

particularly consequential for Blacks as they remain more spatially segregated from

Whites compared to any other racial and/or ethnic group (Emerson, Yancey, & Chai,

2001; Farley & Frey,1994; Logan & Stults, 2011; Logan, Stults, & Farley, 2004;). For

1

College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

2

Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts–Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Patricia Y. Warren, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 634 West Call

Street, 302 Hecht House, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.

Email: pwarren@fsu.edu.

Race and Justice

2(4) 231-249

ªThe Author(s) 2012

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368712452908

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example, in 2010the average White citizen residedin a neighborhood that was approx-

imately 8%Black, while Hispanic (11%) and Asians (5%) represented 16%of the

neighborhood composition (Logan & Stults, 2011; Logan & Zhang, 2011).

In recent years, these patterns of segregation have attracted a significant amount of

scholarly research with the purposes of understanding factors that produce these

sustained patterns of segregation. In general, these studies have demonstrated that

White’s prefer neighborhoods with fewer Black residents in part because of the ste-

reotypes of poverty and crime often attributed to Black communities (Adelman, 2004;

Chiricos, Welch, & Gertz, 2004; Crowder, South, & Chavez, 2006; Krysan, 2002;

Quillian, 1999; Wilson & Taub, 2006). Charles (2000) notes that racial stereotypes

that stigmatize Black citizens as lazy, unintelligent, and more prone to violence

contributes to White citizens greater resistance to Black neighbors (see also Massey &

Denton, 1993). Moreover, Whites who subscribe to these stereotypes also express

concern about the quality of their neighborhoods once Blacks move in. For example,

Krysan (2002) found that Whites’ consistently assert that Blacks do not appropriately

maintain their property which reduces the property values for the entire neighborhood.

Althoughprior studies have providedconsistent evidence that Whitesare more averse

to Black neighbors, there still remains, unanswered questions about the factors which

shape these preferences (Bobo & Zubrinsky, 1996; Farley, Steeh, Krysan, Jackson, &

Reeves, 1994; Krysan, Couper, Farley, & Forman, 2009; Quillian & Pager, 2001). In

traditional studies of segregation preferences scholars often rely onsurvey respondent’s

reaction to hypothetical neighborhoods with different proportions of White and Black

residents.Although thesestudies have providedinvaluable informationabout segregation

preferences,relying on suchan approach without takinginto account contextualand other

individual-level characteristicspotentially overestimates the relevance of race.

The purpose of this research is to further explore segregation preferences among

Whites by exploring how the relative size of the Black population moderates the

relationship between stereotypes and White’s segregation preferences. We emphasize

the importance of stereotypes because they are the generalized attributes of a par-

ticular group that in the absence of individuating information will be used to cate-

gorize individuals (Bargh, Bargh, & Burrows, 1996; Devine, 1989). In this study, we

focus in particular on criminal and economic stereotypes. Criminal stereotypes are

relevant because Blacks have generally become the symbols of crime and violence in

American society (Chiricos et al., 2004; Hawkins 1995; Kennedy, 1997; Quillian &

Pager, 2001). These symbols generally typify crime as a Black phenomenon which

makes Black citizens less desirable neighbors. Economic stereotypes are important

because the extent to which Whites associate poverty and lower property values with

Blacks will influence their willingness to reside in communities with them (see also

Krysan, 2002). These stereotypes coupled together are expected to decrease the

likelihood that Whites will prefer to reside in communities with greater Black pres-

ence. Further, we also explore whether the size of the Black population moderates

negative stereotypes on segregation preferences. In other words, we assess the extent

to which a county’s Black population presence amplifies the effects of stereotypes on

neighborhood preferences among Whites.

232 Race and Justice 2(4)