Solving the Wrong Problem: Reframing the Relationship between Spatial Proximity and Racial Inequality

• In Event: 258 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session. Race, Class and Spatial Justice

Abstract

Neighborhoods have always been an important part of the scholarly conversation on racial and ethnic stratification. Decades of research on segregation in housing and discriminatory housing policies and more recently on “integrated” neighborhoods have put residential matters at the center of discussions of racial inequality. While the evidence that residential segregation helps facilitate stratification is well established, I illustrate with data from Creekridge Park--a pseudonymous multiethnic urban neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina--how the relationship between proximity and equity is not fixed. I argue if we do not fully consider power and the limitations of good intentions in interracial interactions, we cannot challenge the inequitable racial contract (Mills 1997). In this paper, I present a theoretical framework that uses a critical race paradigm to study contemporary urban space. By proposing three new theoretical concepts for urban sociology (diversity ideology; white codes; and white, urban, middle-class habitus), I suggest new ways of thinking about the ideological and structural context in which urban processes of inequality take shape. Creating a dialogue between critical race theory and urban sociology will lead to better scholarship and urban policy.

Author

• Sarah Mayorga-Gallo, University of Cincinnati