The Racial Couple Continuum: A Study of the Neighborhood Attainment of Multiracial Individuals and Mixed-race Couples

• In Event: 231 - Section on Sociology of Population Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Critical Social Issues

Abstract

The United States has become increasingly racially and ethnically diverse. In part, this racial and ethnic diversity has been spurned by increases in multiracial identification and mixed-race coupling. Despite these population-level changes we have a dearth of knowledge of where multiracial individuals and mixed-race couples fall within established structures of residential stratification. We use unique data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act from 2006 to 2014, in combination with multiple population censuses, to not only assess the percentage of whites in the neighborhoods that monoracial black, Latino, and Asian households purchase into, but also multiracial individuals and their partners, in addition to mixed-race couples. Using linear regression analysis, we find that these couples fall along a spectrum of exposure to white neighborhoods that is significantly determined by the level white representation within a couple. Our findings have implications for the understanding of race and its role in residential attainment.

Authors

• Ryan Gabriel, Brigham Young University

• Jacob S. Rugh, Brigham Young University