Streetscapes and stereotyping: streets named after Martin Luther King, Jr., and the geographies of racial identity

Abstract

In addition to recognizing a commemorative space and geography that serve to legitimize a particular racial identity, streetscapes in the U.S. named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (MLK) are also a stereotyped space that is presupposed as marginalized. The main objective of this paper is to investigate whether stereotyped MLK neighborhoods differ from the lived spaces. To achieve this objective, the paper relies on two indexes of segregation: namely dissimilarity and interaction indices, the racial composition, and the socioeconomic characteristics of MLK neighborhoods in the 48 contiguous states. Both dissimilarity and interaction indices implied higher segregation in the South and Midwest. The higher proportion of the African American population relative to Whites and other races in the MLK neighborhoods, except in California, confirms that the MLK streetscapes are racially concentrated spaces. Further, analysis of socioeconomic variables does resonate with the stereotype of MLK neighborhoods as marginalized spaces. To demystify the stereotype and to reconstruct the identity of African Americans and their lived and experienced spaces, this paper draws upon studies of the broader process of racialization, critical toponymy, and stereotype theories. Based on this exploratory approach, the paper concludes that though the characteristics of MLK neighborhoods reflect their marginalized status, this status is itself the result of a broader process of racialization. This process has distributed resources unequally among racial groups, forming and buttressing negative stereotypes about African Americans while also stigmatizing their living spaces, which are all too often susceptible to a policy of benign (or not-so-benign) neglect, property devaluation, and industrial pollution.