University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 5-2020 Black middle-class neighborhoods in Louisville through multiple lenses. Jamar M. Wheeler University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Inequality and Stratification Commons Recommended Citation Wheeler, Jamar M., "Black middle-class neighborhoods in Louisville through multiple lenses." (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3387. Retrieved from https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/3387 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK MIDDLE-CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS IN LOUISVILLE THROUGH MULTIPLE LENSES By Jamar M. Wheeler B.A., University of Louisville, 2004 M.A., University of Louisville, 2006 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Sociology Department of Sociology University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky May 2020 Copyright 2020 by Jamar M. Wheeler All rights reserved BLACK MIDDLE-CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS IN LOUISVILLE THROUGH MULTIPLE LENSES By Jamar M. Wheeler B.A., University of Louisville, 2004 M.A., University of Louisville, 2006 A Dissertation Approved on April 10th, 2020 By the following Dissertation Committee: ________________________________________ Dissertation Chair, Dr. Latrica Best ________________________________________ Dr. Lauren Heberle ________________________________________ Dr. Kelly Kinahan ________________________________________ Dr. Kris Marsh ________________________________________ Dr. David Roelfs ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Dr. Clarence R. Talley and all those he loved and who loved him back. Dr. Talley was instrumental in kindling my love for meaningful scholarship and left us all way too soon. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to start by thanking Dr. Latrica Best for her wise captainship of this research project that was full of ideas and directions. I also want to thank Dr. Lauren Heberle for being a mentor, friend, and supporter throughout my most recent academic journey. Additionally, I want to thank Dr. Kris Marsh for her advice, support, and positive energy during some challenging moments. I am also appreciative of the wise counsel provided by Dr. Kelly Kinahan and Dr. Dave Roelfs. Thanks for helping me with some of the finer details that were crucial to getting this text across the finish line. First and foremost, I want to thank my wife Kia Ridván Roberts Wheeler for sacrificing with me to fulfill my dream of maximizing my academic potential. Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my mom Valerie Wheeler for both raising me to be intellectually confident and for helping us with Sylvia during this COVID-19 pandemic. On both accounts, I do not reach this milestone without you. iv ABSTRACT BLACK MIDDLE-CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS IN LOUISVILLE THROUGH MULTIPLE LENSES Jamar M. Wheeler April 10, 2020 This dissertation is an articles-based, mixed methods study that analyzes Black middle-class neighborhood attainment in Louisville. The importance of this study lies in filling existing gaps in the research literature on Black middle-class neighborhoods in mid-sized cities as well as gaps in explaining how the neighborhood perceptions of middle-class Blacks shape their future visions of intergenerational mobility. Racialized social structure theory is the theoretical framework that is employed to make sense of the adverse positionality of Black middle-class neighborhoods. Racialized social structure theory posits that individuals are placed in racial categories that are hierarchically arranged, which, at the neighborhood level, translates to White and Black householders advancing their material interests in competing ways. These competing interests are asymmetrical in terms of power relations, which means that the neighborhood choices of the Black middle-class are constrained by the routinized ways that the racialized social structure diminishes their claims to middle-class status. The first and second articles primarily utilize the 2016 American Community Survey to compare Black middle-class neighborhood attainment across similarly sized v urban areas and to analyze the spatial proximity of Black middle-class households and households considered poor, respectively. These articles find that the segregation levels faced by the Black middle class affect how many Black middle-class households live in prototypical middle-class neighborhoods and show that durable geographical patterns are interwoven with the racial characterizations of neighborhoods, both yielding disadvantages to neighborhoods with growing Black populations. In the third article, the perspectives of middle-class Blacks are brought to the forefront and uncover that a great deal of ownership is expressed by respondents in terms of the home buying process and their neighborhood lives and a relationship is found between familial class background and neighborhood preferences. Overall, Black middle-class neighborhoods in Louisville are socioeconomically heterogeneous, but this heterogeneity is largely shaped the inverse relationship between the number of Black households and economic advantage. This translates to Black middle-class households making neighborhood choices that are constrained by trade-offs between living in neighborhoods conducive to wealth-building or living in neighborhoods that are less economically advantaged, but allow for more social comfort. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………..……………………………………. iv ABSTRACT ………………..……………….…………………………………………… v LIST OF TABLES……………..……………….………………………………….……. ix LIST OF FIGURES…………….………………………………………………………… x LIST OF GRAPHICS………..……..……………………………………………………. xi INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………..…………………….1 THE CASE OF THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS…………………………..…………….4 RACIALIZED SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND THE BLACK MIDDLE CLASS……….13 The Racialized Social Structure in Black Middle-Class Neighborhood Life……….. 21 Dissertation Overview………………………………………………………………. 26 ARTICLE I:.…………………………………………………………………………….. 30 Literature Review……….…………………………………………………………… 31 Methods and Analysis ………………………………………………………………. 37 Findings …………………………………………………….………………………. 44 Discussion ……………………………………………………………………….…. 71 Conclusion.…………………………………………………………………………. 76 ARTICLE II:…………………………………………………………………………..... 82 Literature Review ………………...…………………...……………………………. 83 Methods and Analysis ………………………………………………………………. 88 Findings …………………………………………………………….………………. 90 Discussion….…………...….……………………….………..……………………. 117 Conclusion …………………….………………………………..…………………. 119 ARTICLE III:……………………………….…………………………..………………123 vii Literature Review …………………………………………………………………. 125 Methods and Analysis.………..……………………………………………………. 131 Findings…………….….……………………………..……………………………. 139 Discussion and Conclusion………………………….…………………..………… 188 DISCUSSION………………………………………….……………………………… 192 CONCLUSION……………………………………….……………………………….. 203 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………… 210 CURRICULUM VITA………………………………………………………………… 222 viii LIST OR TABLES PAGE Table 1………………………………………………….…………………………….… 37 Table 2……………….…………………………………….…………………………… 38 Table 3………………….………………………………….…………………………… 44 Table 4…………………….……………………………….…………………………… 46 Table 5…………………….……………………………….…………………………… 48 Table 6……………………….…………………………….…………………………… 52 Table 7……………………………………….…………….…………………………… 64 Table 8………………………………………………….………………….…………… 67 Table 9………………………………………………….…………………...………… 103 Table 10………..……………………………………….………………………………109 Table 11………………..……………………………….………………………………110 Table 12…………..…………………………………….………………………………112 Table 13…………..…………………………………….………………………………140 Table 14…………..…………………………………….………………………………181 ix LIST OF FIGURES PAGE Figure 1………..……………………………………….………………………………. 47 Figure 2………………...………………………………….…………………………… 48 Figure 3………………….……..………………………….…………………………… 49 Figure 4……………………...…………………………….…………………………… 51 Figure 5…………..……….……………………………….…………………………… 52 Figure 6……………..……….…………………………….…………………………… 53 Figure 7…………………..…………………………….………………….…………… 56 Figure 8…………………..…..………………………….…………………...………… 57 Figure 9………..……………..…..…………….……….……………………………… 58 Figure 10………………..……………..…….………….……………………………… 59 Figure 11…………..………………..……………….….……………………………… 60 Figure 12…………..………………………..………….………………………….…… 61 Figure 13…………..…………………..……………….………………….…………… 63 Figure 14………………..……………..……………….…………….………………… 65 Figure 15…………..………………..…………………..……………………………… 66 Figure 16…………..………………….……..………….……………………………… 68 Figure 17…………..…………………………...……….……………………………… 70 Figure 18………………...……………..……………….……………………………… 92 Figure 19…………...………………..………………….……………………………… 93 Figure 20…………..………………………..………….…………….………………… 94 Figure 21…………..………….………..……………….……………………………… 94 Figure 22………………..……………..……………….………………………………106 Figure 23…………..………………..………………….………………………………107 Figure 24…………..………………………..………….………………………………108 Figure 25…………..…………………..……………….………………………………110 x Figure 26………………..……………..……………….………………………………112 Figure 27…………..………………..………………….………………………………113 Figure 28…………..………………………..………….………………………………114 Figure