Racial residential segregation in the Kansas City area: a comparative study between Blacks and Hispanics

Abstract

There is considerable literature on racial residential segregation but there are few examples that examine similarities and differences between two ethnic groups within an urban area. Racial residential segregation among blacks and Hispanics in the Kansas City area is examined using two methodologies. One is an historical and cultural methodology that utilizes a theory of culture to explain differences. The second is a statistical methodology that uses data from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Censuses. The culture theory is predicated upon three axes of a cultural framework: philosophical rationalism versus philosophical skepticism, idealism vs. materialism and the individual as an abstract entity versus the social individual as a unit of analysis. Theories of change and spatial theory are also components of this cultural theory, and the culture theory is also applied to study developers, government, and majority population. Statistical differences are explored using dissimilarity indices and isolation indices and differences between the two ethnic groups are analyzed through Mann-Whitney U tests. The design for the statistical analysis is based on (1) gradients of density, density growth population growth, and linguistic isolation gradients, and (2) an analysis of city and county areas. It is found that the cultural framework is very useful in analyzing differences between blacks and Hispanics and understanding the development of policy. First, policy supports real estate developers in developing profitable and “ideal” communities in the Kansas City region. Secondly, black and Hispanic communities differ in the functions provided to their members. They historically have had a different level and type of contact with the majority population. Policy affects all groups, but is primarily directed toward blacks due to their proximity to majority neighborhoods and associated pressures on housing and labor markets. With the decline of manufacturing in the inner city and lack of minority access to suburbs, residential housing segregation has further deleterious effects on minorities. More recently minorities have increased their presence in the suburbs; patterns relating to indices and income characteristics in high growth areas are strongest for blacks and either very weak or mixed for Hispanics.