The few, the proud . . . the diverse.
America has relatively few stable communities in which blacks and whites have lived together with a fair degree of neighborhood integration for an extended period of time–25 years or more.
The Chicago area actually has a significant share of such communities: Hyde Park, Beverly, Evanston, Oak Park and Park Forest are the best-known names.
The city itself also has communities in which diversity is emergent, communities which are changing but seemingly not resegregating at a rapid pace: Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park are obvious examples.
It’s not surprising, then, that researchers at Chicago’s Loyola University–which has its main campus on the border of Rogers Park and Edgewater–are spearheading a national effort to find out what elements contribute to sustaining neighborhood diversity.
“We want to know why we have a few relatively stable, diverse communities,” Loyola sociology professor Philip Nyden told a national conference held at the university recently. “Will we see walled-off and gated communities in the future, or will we have mixed ethnic groups, races and incomes?”
Few at the conference expressed confidence that diverse neighborhoods are the wave of the future, despite the fact that the nation as a whole is clearly becoming more diverse.
Many demographers expect that whites will no longer be a majority of the country’s population by the middle of the next century. And Hispanics are expected to outnumber blacks as the country’s largest minority group by the year 2005.
“In the 21st Century, there will no longer be one color line but multiple lines–black, white, Hispanic and Asian,” said Joe Darden, a professor of geography and dean of urban affairs programs at Michigan State University.
“Any prospect for integration of blacks and whites is nil,” he contended, blaming racism for the gulf. “But for Hispanics and whites, and Asians and whites, the prospect is more hopeful.”
Despite that grim view, which kicked off the conference, participants came up with some reasons why certain communities have remained diverse, which they hope to turn into guidelines to provide pointers for other communities facing racial, ethnic and socioeconomic change.
Some factors are predictable, such as strong community leadership and active involvement of religious groups. Some are perhaps less so, such as the presence of especially appealing, distinctive homes.
Nyden presented a study dividing diverse communities into the “self-conscious,” where diversity is an intentional product achieved through work by an array of bridge-building neighborhood organizations; and the “laissez-faire,” where outside economic and social processes have led to the presence of different groups.
The self-conscious communities tend to be middle class, activist and mostly (but not always) above the area average in income, according to Nyden’s study. Their diversity tends to involve only two different groups, almost always whites and African-Americans.
Laissez-faire neighborhoods where integration came about more or less accidentally tend to include more than one ethnic group, and the community organizations are likely to be ethnic-group oriented (such as Chinese mutual aid societies). Median income is usually on the low side, partly because many residents are recent immigrants.
The study focused on neighborhoods of cities rather than suburbs, and found that almost all of the cities with diverse neighborhoods had minority group populations above the national averages, had experienced significant white flight, and had suffered from economic decline.
Another study by Temple University researchers analyzing the West Mount Airy neighborhood in Northwest Philadelphia suggested a combination of socio-economic, institutional and environmental factors were crucial in maintaining diversity there.
African-Americans began to move into West Mount Airy in the late 1950s, but the population has remained fairly integrated while adjacent communities have become predominantly black, or remained predominantly white. In 1990 the population of nearly 14,000 was about 52 percent white and 45 percent, black–little changed from 1980.
The Temple report said West Mount Airy has a higher income level and educational and professional status than is prevalent in the rest of the city, both among whites and blacks.
“This helped to reduce fears, because people shared many of the same socio-economic characteristics,” said Theresa Singleton, a Temple graduate student. She also cited a “liberal tendency” in the community as a positive factor in preserving diversity.
As environmental factors, Singleton cited a diverse housing stock “from row houses to huge mansions,” a suburban-like setting, and the presence of a spectacular, rambling, forest-preserve-like park.
The institutional factors included active community organizations led by dynamic leaders who dealt specifically with racial integration issues, particularly with regard to real estate practices such as racial steering and the proliferation of for sale signs.
Groups also raised funds to promote racial balance in schools and helped set up an art center and the first integrated day camp, Singleton said.
Temple professor Barbara Ferman said one great strength of the community is “its willingness to engage in dialogue” over divisive issues.
She added, however, that in many cases where community disputes break out, it is difficult to separate class and race divisions. People often impute racial motives to decisions that are economically motivated but might have racial consequences, she said.
And she noted that there is less social integration than the residency figures might suggest. Whites tend to shop at swankier food stores, whereas the shoppers at the major supermarkets are almost all black, Ferman said.
Further, the public schools may be resegregating. Of two public elementary schools, one is almost two-thirds black and the other is 83 percent black, she said. Many higher-income whites in Philadelphia traditionally send their children to private Quaker schools, Ferman noted.
Indeed, integration in public schools often has been difficult to maintain in the long-term diverse neighborhoods discussed at the conference.
“All of these (diverse communities) have school systems which are becoming overwhelmingly minority,” said Gary Orfield, a Harvard education professor who has written issues of race and demography. “That’s a central challenge.”
Another example:s Memphis’ Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood, a community of about 11,000 which is 55 percent black and 45 percent white. After first desegregating about 25 years ago, two of three public schools in the area now are non-diverse.
One of the resegregated schools has had problems with violence and high dropout rates, according to Michael Kirby, a researcher at Memphis’ Rhodes College, which is in the neighborhood. School authorities have resisted working with neighborhood groups, he added.
Among whites, Kirby said, “there is considerable use of private schools and of a magnet college preparatory school.”
Like West Mount Airy, Vollintine-Evergreen has income levels above the area median, a distinctive housing stock (and a campaign to get National Register of Historic Places designation) and areas of special natural beauty. It also has very active community leadership, Kirby said.
Other self-consciously diverse communities discussed were Sherman Park in Milwaukee and Park Hill in Denver.
Those veering toward the “laissez-faire” were Fruitvale and San Antonio in Oakland, Calif.; Southeast Seattle; and Houston Heights, Jackson Heights (Queens) and Fort Greene (Brooklyn) in New York; and Chicago’s Uptown, Edgewater, Rogers Park and Chicago Lawn.
Many at the conference noted that even in diverse areas, there isn’t a lot of socializing between members of different ethnic or racial groups, with the exceptions of youth sports teams, some shopping, and community groups making a deliberate effort to share leadership.
But others noted that socializing might not be necessary.
“Maybe we are raising the bar of successful diversity too high,” said Philip Kasinitz, professor at Hunter College.
“By and large, if people don’t kill each other, that’s not an insubstantial accomplishment,” he added. “You don’t have to have everyone love each other for things to work.”
Don DeMarco, former community relations director for Maywood and assistant village manager in Park Forest, said one key for communities to maintain diversity is the way they present themselves to outsiders.
“If you try to promote diversity themes, that has an underwhelming appeal for whites,” said DeMarco, who runs a Philadelphia non-profit mortgage company set up to advance equal housing opportunity.
“You can talk about diversity to people who are already there. But with the folks who want to move in, those same messages don’t work.”
He said successful messages to outsiders would relate to themes like prestige, high property values, the number of National Merit Scholars in the schools and the presence of influential people.
“Diversity is a subtext,” he said.
