Opinion: Don't be fooled, housing segregation is still a reality | News - Home

A residential segregation research finding that I have always found interesting and equally offensive is that Asians, Latinos, and whites all rank blacks as the racial group least desired to have as neighbors. This finding holds up even taking class into consideration: when middle class blacks move into white neighborhoods, whites are still inclined to move.

I live in Prince George's County---known as the wealthiest black county in America---and often ask fellow residents, who are upwardly mobile and have the social and human capital to live in a number of counties, their reasons for selecting this area. The most common answer I get is: "I want to live around other black middle class people and I want my children to grow up around other black middle class children." (See the book "Blue Chip Black" by Karyn Lacy for further discussion on this topic.)