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Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by coldtea on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:17PM (#12559428)
>All you need for self-segregation to occur is that individuals don't want to be a small minority in their local area.

If that was the case (or enough), we wouldn't have this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_steering

and this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_segregation_in_the_Uni...

I don't think many blacks care of being a "small minority" on a posh white neighborhood...

Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by smallnamespace on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:21PM (#12559463)
I'm not arguing that overt discrimination doesn't occur or that it doesn't matter, just that as long as people don't like being a local minority, eliminating explicit discrimination will not be sufficient to integrate neighborhoods.

At that point, you would need to something like the state to force people to mix.

> I don't think many blacks care of being a "small minority" on a posh white neighborhood...

I respectfully disagree. I'm Chinese-American, grew up in the US, but still see definite advantages to living where there are other Asians: better access to food that you grew up with, a doctor who might be more familiar with your genetics, not being the only person in the room who looks different, better access to Chinese school if you want to send your kids there, etc.

My college roommate was black and we went to school in a town that was >95% white (besides the student population). There wasn't a single stylist in town who knew how to cut black people's hair properly, so a few entrepreneurial black students would actually go around cutting their fellow students' hair on campus, like they would show up at your door and cut your hair in the dorm bathroom. They were in such high demand that sometimes it would take a week or two before you could get on their schedule.

It's these sort of minor annoyances that people do take into account when deciding where to live. Constantly feeling like your own needs and preferences are out of the norm can be a stressful experience, even if nobody is being overtly racist.

Would I necessarily mind living in 90%+ white Middle America? Probably not, but it would not be my first choice, and all that's necessary is for a slight preference to exist.

Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by tkxxx7 on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:46PM (#12559726)
> I don't think many blacks care of being a "small minority" on a posh white neighborhood...

We do. Besides what a sibling has already mentioned regarding some small cultural difficulties, there's the whole "police killing us all the time" thing which is much less likely to happen if you're in an area where being black doesn't make you stand out

Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by vannevar on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:40PM (#12559683)
I don't think many blacks care of being a "small minority" on a posh white neighborhood...

You're implying that they don't have the choice of an equally posh black neighborhood, in which case such a slight preference against being a minority wouldn't be surprising at all.

Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by nostrademons on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:20PM (#12559450)
Not necessarily. It's possible for individuals to not want to be a small minority in their local area and for real estate brokers to steer them away from the area. There's no rule against overkill.
Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by coldtea on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:21PM (#12559461)
Possible yes. The case? I doubt.
Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by baddox on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:20PM (#12559458)
Racial steering could simply be the result of real estate agents recognizing the tendencies of people's preferences and prioritizing the showing of units that are the likeliest to be a good fit.
Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by LoSboccacc on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:24PM (#12559495)
Also prices
Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by mistersquid on Thursday September 22, 2016 @03:25PM (#12559513)
A more aggressive form of racial steering is redlining, the difference being that redlining involves active distortion of market prices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

Re:Why don't black and white Americans live together? by TheGRS on Thursday September 22, 2016 @07:25PM (#12561182)
Actually the new york times did a great article on this, blacks do care about being a small minority even in affluent neighborhood and will actively choose poorer neighborhoods where they feel more at home: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/us/milwaukee-segregation-w...