Race, Segregation, and the Concentration of Disadvantage: 1980-1990

Abstract

This article examines variation across cities in the geographic concentration of poverty, male joblessness, and female-headed families for Blacks and Whites. For each racial group, we describe the scope and analyze the sources of concentrated disadvantage along these dimensions for 1980 and 1990, and for changes between these two years. We explore whether patterns found in past research regarding poverty concentration are generalizable to the concentration of other aspects of disadvantage, including joblessness. Analysis of the sources of concentrated disadvantage focus on the differential role of racial residential segregation for explaining variation in concentrated disadvantage between Blacks and Whites. These relationships are evaluated while accounting for other economic and sociodemographic conditions. We find that: between 1980 and 1990 Black and White disadvantage became more geographically concentrated along some dimensions (poverty and female-headed families) but not others (male joblessness); no matter which dimension is explored, African Americans have a substantially higher concentration of disadvantage than Whites; and, racial residential segregation is critical for understanding concentrated disadvantage and especially for explaining why disadvantaged Blacks are so much more geographically concentrated than disadvantaged Whites.