Poorly Performing School Districts, not Prejudice.

Jamelle Bouie

Jamelle Bouie is a Slate staff writer covering politics, policy, and race.

As I noted in a Wednesday column, “... only 25 percent of white respondents said they would live in a neighborhood where one-half of their neighbors were black.”

At the same time, this polling doesn’t tell us why.
I implied prejudice, but there are other options.

It could be ethnocentrism—positive feelings about your racial compatriots.

Or it could be a class difference, where whites avoid black neighbors—and black neighborhoods—out of real or perceived differences in the quality of homes, schools, services, and amenities.

And if so, there’s a related question: Do blacks act similarly, avoiding black or significantly black neighborhoods for the same reason? 

If he wants an honest answer, let me give him one: 
plenty of people, black and white, value the quality of their local school districts.  For whatever reason -- culture, poverty (even in the middle classes?), the legacy of slavery *cough, cough* -- when the population of a public school district begins to shift to majority black students, the test scores and quality of the classroom education received in those schools often drop.*

Even in "good" solidly middle-class districts, it seems when the black population tips to majority numbers, the collective school district either does not value keeping the quality of the academic programs up (b/c of the stigma of "acting white"?). or is incapable of it.  White people, and black, as well as others, see the decline in school quality, and then the accompanying decline in property values, which so often are based on the quality of the public schools.  (More and more in this country, you need a 21st century education to compete, if you're not in the inheriting classes...)

Retirees, empty nesters, singles and gays without children, can remain living in these neighborhoods.  But too often, young white -- and black -- families read the tea leaves and sell.  Private schools at the large high school level can be an option for families with school-age children remaining in the district, if the public elementary "feeder" schools are still capable of providing a disciplined academic base to build upon.

But who -- black or white --is willing to sacrifice their own children's education and potential futures by sending them to a majority black public school with dismal test scores, non-challenging curricula, and disciplinary troubles in the hallways? **

Speaking honestly, and with significant background study of the issue:  That's one reason, Mr. Bouie, perhaps why "only 25 percent of white respondents said they would live in a neighborhood where one-half of their neighbors were black.”

They simply can't afford it.

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* Why?  Back to Mr. Bouie, and the stats analysis, on this one...
** Believing this behavior to be racist, and not rational, is too easy and misses the point...