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Putting Race in Context: Identifying the Environmental Determinants of Black Racial Attitudes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2004

CLAUDINE GAY
CLAUDINE GAY
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

Prior research on the contextual determinants of black racial attitudes has focused on the effects of residential segregation while overlooking differences in the socioeconomic character of neighborhoods. I posit that socioeconomic environments, in particular, the quality and socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods, may affect whether blacks view race as a defining interest in their lives. I test these propositions with a multilevel dataset that merges the 1992–1994 Multi-City Survey of Urban Inequality with block-group–level demographic statistics from the 1990 Census. The results indicate that neighborhood quality and neighborhood socioeconomic composition work at cross-purposes in affecting black racial attitudes. The salience of race recedes with improvements in neighborhood quality yet advances with greater exposure to the race-oriented predispositions of high-status blacks. In closing, I discuss the implications of shifting residential patterns for the future of political consensus and group-based mobilization among African Americans.

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ARTICLES
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American Political Science Review , Volume 98 , Issue 4 , November 2004 , pp. 547 - 562
Copyright
© 2004 by the American Political Science Association

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