This is a study of residential segregation. Convincing evidence from studies conducted throughout the last five decades demonstrates that residential segregation denies blacks many opportunities generally available to urban whites. Massey and Denton argue that residential segregation created and now perpetuates an urban underclass in many large cities. Although there were modest declines in black-white segregation in the 1980s; the primary impression gained from examining recent investigations of population distribution based on census data is the persistence of segregation despite changes in federal laws and improvements in the social and economic status of African-Americans. Analyses of the individual level factors acting to sustain this segregation are both rare and inconclusive. Many of these have focused on one metropolis, Detroit, and on the beliefs and preferences of whites only. The present study engages the central theoretical issues with fresh data that largely overcome these limitations. This project presents a conceptual model of the causes of continued segregation emanating from Myrdal's observation that informal social pressures are the primary forces sustaining the geographic isolation of blacks from whites. The model posits that the beliefs individuals hold about their own group and about other racial groups influence their perceptions of which neighborhoods are attractive and which should be avoided. With an innovative data set, the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI), the research will test hypotheses about the beliefs and preferences of samples of blacks and whites in four sites (Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles), samples of Latinos in two (Boston and Los Angeles) and a sample of Asians in Los Angeles. The abundance of relevant variables allows testing the model in two ways. First, the research will examine how characteristics and beliefs influence respondents' preferences for living in hypothetical neighborhoods with varying racial compositi ons. For example, are whites who hold stereotypical beliefs about blacks less likely to remain in their neighborhoods when blacks move in, and are they unwilling to move into already integrated neighborhoods? Second, respondents were asked to evaluate the desirability of living in specific locations such as suburbs or well-known neighborhoods within the central city. If blacks anticipate hostility from the residents of a particular suburb, do they also view it as an undesirable place to live despite the presence of affordable housing there? By asking such questions this research will address how individuals' beliefs and preferences translate into the multitude of locational decisions that determine the residential distributions of blacks and whites. The unique structure of the MCSUI data set also allows the research to investigate whether similar dynamics are likely to affect the residential distributions of Hispanics and Asians who are now entering our increasingly diverse metropolises.
