Detroit Metropolitan Census 2000 Fact Sheet Series Volume 2, Issue 2: Race and Ethnicity In

Volume 2, Issue 2 Detroit Metropolitan Census 2000 Fact Sheets Series June 2002 The 2000 census data for the Detroit metropolitan area confirm what many have Race and Ethnicity in the Tri-County suspected for quite some time – the gap between white and minority populations is Area: Selected wider in the Detroit region’s neighborhoods than anywhere else in the nation. For Communities and example, Livonia is the whitest city (population of 100,000 or more) in the nation School Districts with a reported 96 percent white population. In contrast, Detroit, at 82 percent African American, is the second blackest city in the country.1 In fact, approximately 9 out of every 10 African Americans in the Detroit metropolitan area reside in one of five cities: Detroit, Highland Park, Inkster, Pontiac or Southfield.2 More than half of Detroit’s whites left the city during the 1990s and in the suburbs we see whites and minorities living in separate neighborhoods and communities.3 The Detroit News and WDIV conducted a poll in August 2001 in which they asked individuals throughout the metropolitan area a series of questions including: Do you believe segregation harms blacks? Do you believe segregation harms whites? Sixty- one percent of the respondents stated that African Americans were harmed while 38 percent stated they were not. In contrast, respondents were split 50/50 as to whether whites were harmed by segregation. The poll also indicated that whites were less likely to move into an integrated neighborhood and quicker to leave (fearing decreasing property values and poor schools). African Americans were three times more willing to move into integrated neighborhoods than were whites and were more comfortable staying. However, African Americans were likely to fear discrimination and harassment while living in those neighborhoods.4 Researchers suggest that there is a strong link between population growth and segregation. Regions with rapid population growth tend to integrate quickly whereas slow-growing areas, such as metropolitan Detroit, tend to remain segregated.5 If this is truly the case, then families who reside in segregated communities will be impacted in many ways by the lack of racial diversity. Higher rates of crime and unemployment, lack of jobs and services, little commercial or industrial investment, and poorer health indicators will negatively affect poor neighborhoods. Segregation also plays a more subtle role in determining how individuals move throughout the metropolitan area and the experiences that they encounter while doing so. Skillman Center for Children Center for Urban Studies Center for Community Research College of Urban, Labor and College of Urban, Labor and Outreach Urban Studies Metropolitan Affairs Metropolitan Affairs Skillman 100 East Palmer 656 West Kirby, 3040 F/AB Center for Detroit, Michigan 48202 Detroit, Michigan 48202 Children (313) 872-7166 (313) 577-2208 Resource Urban Center Families Fax (313) 872-7126 Fax (313) 577-1274 Program [email protected] [email protected] www.skillmancenter.culma.wayne.edu www.cus.wayne.edu For example, • Segregation affects what we know and how we think: Nora Bonner never read a book by a white author after her freshman year at Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts. • Segregation affects where Detroiter Ethel Lee Johnson works and how much she is paid. • Segregation influences the restaurants in which Joyce Marshall eats. • Segregation even affects the cable channels that Tanya Shaver watches. 6 Many of the children and youth living throughout the Detroit metropolitan area experience segregation by virtue of living in neighborhoods chosen by their parents/guardians. While adults may have the opportunity to interact with other racial and ethnic groups in the workplace, their children often spend most of their day in schools that are increasingly segregated. In fact, segregation in schools accelerated in the 1990s, a full half-century after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional and inherently unequal. Much of what we see in the Detroit metropolitan area mirrors what is occurring nationally. African American and Hispanic students living in central cities and other segregated communities are the racial/ethnic groups most impacted by segregation. The 2000 U.S. Census reports that Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the country with a veritable explosion in the numbers of children entering the education system during the past decade. This trend occurred after the push of the civil rights era so this population has not benefited from desegregation policies. Thus, Hispanics have been more segregated than other minorities, not only by race/ethnicity but by language and poverty as well. In many ways, we have lost sight of the goal of school desegregation set by Chief Justice Warren in 1954 – not only was desegregation to improve the quality of education, it was meant to be a process that would provide equal opportunity for life-long achievement.7 Based on a study conducted in 1993, Gary Orfield of Harvard University argues that we are seeing the start of an historic reversal in school desegregation with an actual resegregation of African American students, due in part to court decisions that freed school districts from mandatory desegregation.8 In addition to changes mandated by the courts that move schools away from responsibilities for desegregation, public opinion has also shifted from supporting desegregation of neighborhood schools. A 1994 survey reported that although 88 percent of Americans approve of the Brown vs. the Board of Education decision to desegregate schools, 89 percent of whites and 64 percent of blacks polled felt it was better for minority students to attend local schools even if most of the students attending that school were of the same race rather than transferring them to racially balanced schools outside their community.9 In fact, when a school district is released from its obligation to desegregate, it usually sends students back to their neighborhood schools. Oftentimes, community leaders, parents, and educators laud the return to local schools because they believe that desegregation is costly, that it has not accomplished what it was intended to do many years ago, and that it has resulted in few, if any, improvements.10 Also, there is the thought among many that minority children would benefit from staying in their neighborhood schools as opposed to being transferred out of their communities into unfamiliar (and sometimes unwelcoming) schools.11 1 Trowbridge, G. (2002, January 14). What the numbers show: Racial divide widest in U.S. Detroit News. 2 Ibid. 3 French, R. (2002, January 14). New segregation: Races accept divide. Detroit News. (January 14). 4 Upton, J. and Trowbridge, G. (2002). Where we live: Efforts to integrate are ‘just and illusion.” Detroit News. 5 Trowbridge, G. (2002, January 14). The racial divide: Locale links segregated cities. Detroit News. 6 French, R. and Brand-Williams, O. (2002, January 21). Blacks pay harsh price while whites suffer less. Detroit News. 7 Orfield , G. et al.,(1993) The growth of segregation in American schools: Changing patterns of separation and poverty since 1968. National School Boards Association (December). 8 Ibid. 9 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, conducted April 22-24, 1994. 10 Neuborne, B. (1995). Brown at forty: Six visions. Teachers College Record, 96(4), 799-805. 11 Weiler, J. (1998). Recent changes in school desegregation. ERIC/CUE Digest Number 133. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education New York NY. 2 Unfortunately, the reality is that many urban students return to schools that are segregated and inferior. School districts throughout the country have plans for school improvements and upgrades but little funding to follow through on their promises. Sometimes an infusion of money is not enough to meet the challenges facing public schools as many of these neighborhood institutions are situated in communities that are increasingly poverty stricken.12 For example, while only 5 percent of segregated white schools face conditions of poverty among their students (defined as having 50 percent or more of the student population eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch), more than 80 percent of segregated African American and Latino schools do.13 If these increasing patterns of segregation continue, we face the possibility of very serious racial and ethnic polarization reinforced by educational inequalities. A majority of students will be denied access to educational mobility. As a result, the kind of relationships and experiences that prepare people to function in multiracial civic life and workplaces will be greatly restricted. 14 However, there continues to be evidence that desegregation both improves test scores and changes the lives of students. More importantly, there is also evidence that students who attend integrated schools benefit in terms of their likelihood of going to college, their employment outcomes, and their potential to live in integrated settings as adults.15 In addition, recent surveys show that both white and minority students in integrated school districts state that they have learned to study and work together and are highly confident about their ability to work in such settings as adults. Students have learned much about the other group’s background and are comfortable discussing controversial racial issues across racial lines. In other words, students report great confidence about skills many adults are far

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