Investigating the United States’ Racial Structure through the Evaluation of Residential Distribution

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dc.contributor.advisorEmerson, Michael O.en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLopez Turley, Ruth N.en_US
dc.contributor.committeeMemberDenney, Justin T.en_US
dc.creatorHowell, Juniaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-09-11T16:29:18Zen_US
dc.date.available2014-09-11T16:29:18Zen_US
dc.date.created2013-12en_US
dc.date.issued2013-04-22en_US
dc.date.submittedDecember 2013en_US
dc.date.updated2014-09-11T16:29:18Zen_US
dc.description.abstractDiversification of the United States population over the past 45 years has sparked a debate about the contemporary racial structure. Some theorize Latino and Asian immigrants will eventually integrate into the White community, like the European immigrants before them. Others suggest their classification as “people of color” means they will integrate into the Black community. Still others theorize the United States is moving towards a three-tiered racial hierarchy. Racial residential segregation has been demonstrated to be an influential factor in reproducing racial classifications. Yet the use of residential distribution data to test hypotheses of racial structure has been limited because, I argue, segregation indexes are based on particular racial structures, none of which effectively capture multiple tiered hierarchies. Thus, this paper investigates the contemporary racial structure manifested through residential distribution by comparing computer simulations of hypothesized distributions to the observed distributions of Asians, Blacks, Latinos, and Whites in all census tracts in the United States in 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Finding that residential segregation contributes to the mounting support for Bonilla-Silva’s theory of a three-tiered racial hierarchy, this paper argues that future research on residential segregation needs to utilize an index that effectively measures segregation in multigroup populations. Through an evaluation of the most widely utilized indexes and conceptions of segregation, this paper introduces the Summary Index of Multigroup Segregation (SIMS), which builds off the Segregation Index to give an overall measure of segregation similar to Theil’s Information Index but that can be compared across populations with different group compositions. The SIMS calculates the proportion of the total population that would need to move for the area to be completely integrated. If commonly adopted, the SIMS can enable researchers to compile studies to further investigate the factors contributing to multigroup segregation and the implications of multigroup segregation.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.citationHowell, Junia. "Investigating the United States’ Racial Structure through the Evaluation of Residential Distribution." (2013) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/77164">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/77164</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/77164en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectRaceen_US
dc.subjectResidential segregationen_US
dc.subjectTheil's Information Indexen_US
dc.subjectDissimilarity Indexen_US
dc.subjectSegregation Indexen_US
dc.subjectMultiracial Segregationen_US
dc.titleInvestigating the United States’ Racial Structure through the Evaluation of Residential Distributionen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentSociologyen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineSocial Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelMastersen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen_US
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