Dr. Samuel Kye, Baylor University, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Title: Dynamic White Spaces and the Rip Currents of Neighborhood Change that Preserve White Isolation
Abstract: A growing body of critical quantitative work has demonstrated how segregation persists amid broader trends of increasing diversity. Yet, if this is true, what explains the unmistakable decline of predominantly White neighborhoods? And furthermore, if the supply of White-dominated spaces has waned, where do “fleeing” White households move to? This study engages these questions by arguing that a predominant focus on minority households has made it difficult to detect, demographically, the important role of White population increase as a key axis of contemporary residential stratification. Using a nationwide sample of metropolitan areas from 1980-2020, findings show that the modal decade-to-decade change in over 1 of every 8 neighborhoods was to exhibit White population gains far surpassing the collective growth of all non-White residents. Additional findings from spatial, descriptive, and regression analyses strongly suggest that, as minority households have entered traditionally White spaces, the residential patterns of White households have also transformed to preserve their social and spatial isolation.
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