Making Metros White (Again)? The effects of U.S. metropolitan reclassification on racial compositional change
Topics: Urban Geography
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Keywords: Metropolitan areas, county reclassification, racial diversity, predominantly White neighborhoods
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 03:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 05:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 48
Authors:
Richard Wright, Dartmouth College
Mark Ellis, University of Washington
Nicole Tiao, Independent Scholar
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Abstract
This analysis cautions scholars to be more attentive to what constitutes the “metropolitan” over time. Between 1990 and 2010, the Office of Management and Budget brought 91 metropolitan areas into existence and altered the boundaries of almost half of the others. As metropolitan area reclassification frequently leads to the incorporation of peripheral, majority White, counties, this paper analyzes the effects of these territorial alterations on aggregate metropolitan racial diversity, changes in the aggregate counts of White people in metropolitan areas, and differences in the counts of census tracts in which White people form significant majorities. Using census data from 1990, 2000, and 2010, we show that reconfigured boundaries tend to produce metropolitan areas that are relatively more White and relatively less diverse than when we fixed the boundaries based on their 1990 delineations. In addition, the effects of using 2010 metropolitan boundaries rather than those from 1990 boosts the counts of predominantly White neighborhoods at the expense of other types. The reclassification process appears superficially to be race neutral, as it entails the periodic evaluation of intercounty linkages. We point out, however, that racialized residential processes help forge these new patterns of economic and social interaction.
Making Metros White (Again)? The effects of U.S. metropolitan reclassification on racial compositional change
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Virtual Paper Abstract
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