Defended Neighborhoods, Vulnerable Routines: The Social Ecology of Everyday Discrimination

• In Event: 41054 - Urban Sociology and the Legacy of Chicago

Abstract

Where do individuals experience discrimination? We address this question first by describing alternative hypotheses about Black and White Individuals’ differential risk of experiencing discrimination during their everyday lives. We then test these hypotheses with routine activity data from a large, representative sample of caregivers in the Adolescent Health and Development in Context study. We find that Black individuals are twice as likely as Whites to experience discrimination in their routine activities, which is further increased when in home neighborhoods, at work, and grocery stores relative to other locations. Consistent with an extension of the defended neighborhoods perspective, Black individuals are more likely to report experiencing discrimination in higher collective efficacy areas that are characterized also by high affluence or a high proportion White population. However, greater collective efficacy is associated with a reduced probability that White individuals’ report experiencing discrimination. Socioeconomic status and proportion White population also tend to have compensatory benefits for White individuals; each is associated with reduced probabilities of reporting discrimination when the other is lacking. We will discuss implications for urban resource allocation and efforts to improve well-being by targeting neighborhood social organization.

Authors

• Nicolo P Pinchak, University of Chicago

• Christopher R Browning, The Ohio State University

• Bethany Boettner, Ohio State University

• J. Brandon Carter, The University of Texas at Austin

• Catherine A. Calder, The University of Texas at Austin