Racial Issues In Urban Planning

Although racially mixed neighborhoods often serve as the backdrop for violent interracial incidents like the Rodney King riots, they are not the epicenter of racial divisions in the state, according to a new study released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). In fact, whites and nonwhites who live in ethnically mixed areas are often more tolerant of each other than people who live in homogeneous neighborhoods.Previous studies have argued that racial tensions are highest in locations where different ethnic groups interact the most. In Ethnic Context, Race Relations, and California Politics, political scientists Bruce Cain, Jack Citrin, and Cara Wong find that people who live in ethnically diverse neighborhoods do not feel greater racial tension or hostility than those who live in predominantly single-race neighborhoods. For example, whites who live in multiethnic neighborhoods are more likely to believe America can become a color-blind society (46%) than whites who live in predominantly white neighborhoods (42%).

Thanks to Chris Steins