White flight

The term "White flight" can be used to describe any pattern of White residents relocating away from a specified place, although it most commonly refers to movement from urban to suburban areas in the United States. The motivation for this migration is often attributed to the presumed association of inner cities with high crime rates, high taxes, and urban decay. However, studies indicate that a direct racial component is involved, as White flight is preceded or accompanied by an influx of people of color to the original area. Sociologists debate whether racism or the underlying socioeconomic factors are the prime driver of the phenomenon, and various models and theories have been proposed in explanation.

While White flight prominently occurred in many major cities immediately after World War II—associated with growing urban Black American populations—some have argued that it began between city neighborhoods even earlier in the twentieth century. This racialized suburbanization had a number of negative consequences. Besides decreasing the population of the city in favor of the suburbs, it diminished the tax base of the cities, creating a cycle of urban decline. The more affluent inhabitants, with sufficient money to relocate and the greatest capacity to pay taxes, exited the city, rendering municipal governments susceptible to fiscal crises. Recognizing this threat to their stability, municipalities have tried to lure more prosperous suburbanites back into the city by renovating urban neighborhoods. (In some cases this process of gentrification has its own racial and economic drawbacks, displacing lower-income residents and communities of color.)

White flight increases the degree of de facto racial segregation, leaving behind urban districts populated by a preponderance of poor and minority residents. Social and economic trends then often reinforce boundaries, as communities develop reputations and attract similar residents while others stay away or are kept out. For example, people of color were historically often denied the chance to move to more affluent, White-dominated suburbs through redlining and other discriminatory practices. Even when and where fair housing legislation came into play, it often had little effect on the overall pattern. Indeed, research suggests that as significant numbers of people of color settle in suburbs, the White population flows to further, more ethnically homogenous suburbs. The fact that this effect is seen even when urban decay is not a factor highlights the role that racial prejudice plays, whether overt or otherwise. In the 2010s, experts who had studied previously unavailable digitized census information from between 1900 and the 1930s argued that patterns of White flight illustrating the role of racial prejudice could be seen even earlier than post–World War II. The researchers claimed that, based on their analysis of ten cities in the northern United States during these decades, which encompassed the period known as the Great Migration in which Black Americans moved in large numbers from southern states to seek better opportunities in northern states, many White individuals relocated from one neighborhood in the city to another solely because they did not want to live with Black people. They added that, due to this individual behavior and the persistence of racial prejudice, this pattern would have occurred even if wide-ranging regulations had then been in place to prevent institutional racialized practices such as redlining.

Mobility is also a significant factor in White flight. More affluent White residents typically have access to automobiles, and benefited from the major post–World War II development of the US interstate highway system and general road infrastructure improvement. Therefore they were able to relocate out of inner cities but still maintain flexibility to reach jobs. Many suburban dwellers commute into the city to work but leave at the end of the business day, reducing their investment in the urban area. In contrast, those left in the original community may be more dependent on public transportation. The great cultural value that American society places on freedom of mobility only reinforces preexisting socioeconomic disparities.

White flight is generally identified and studied according to trends observed in the second half of the twentieth century. However, much as it has been shown to have occurred as early as the first decades of that century, it also persists in the twenty-first century, although potentially in new and evolving forms. It also feeds into other issues such as environmental racism, self-segregation, and multiculturalism. Studies conducted in the 2020s continued to indicate that White flight and segregation persisted and were still driven, to some extent, by racial stereotypes in addition to education and economic conditions shaped by years of these demographic patterns.

A 2021 study by the American Psychological Association (APA) suggested that White Americans were still predisposed to moving from their domiciles as their neighborhoods became more diversified. Researchers found that respondents indicated a change in local demographics to be threatening if they were no longer the majority demographic. Different racial groups were associated with different types of threats. The study suggested Asian Americans were thought to be a greater threat to the cultural character of a locale. African Americans were held to be a danger to the locale's resources. Latino Americans were deemed the largest cultural threat.

Although some have criticized the concept, most sociologists continue to consider White flight a complex racial, economic, and political problem. Others have likened White flight to evidence that racial segregation in the United States continues to thrive.

Bibliography

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Woldoff, Rachael. White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhood. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2011.