In today’s New York Times, David Leonhardt discusses a new study showing that middle-income white and Asian Americans tend to live in middle-class neighborhoods, while middle-income black Americans tend to live in poorer ones. The article was published just as the U.S. Supreme Courtnarrowly upheld the federal government’s power to fight housing discrimination, and is a reminder that racial segregation remains a powerful force in shaping the American metropolis.
But Leonhardt also repeats one unfounded and damaging canard to explain segregation’s origins.
“Of course, the neighborhood gap arises in part from voluntary choices,” Leonhardt writes. “Many Americans, of all races, prefer to live among people who are similar to them … For African-Americans, such a choice often means living in lower-income areas, given the racial disparity in incomes.”
[For more of this story, written by Daniel Denvir, go to http://www.citylab.com/housing...eighborhoods/396887/]
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