American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass - Softcover

Douglas S. Massey; Nancy A. Denton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674018214 ISBN 13: 9780674018211

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1993

Synopsis

This powerful and disturbing book clearly links persistent poverty among blacks in the United States to the unparalleled degree of deliberate segregation they experience in American cities.

American Apartheid shows how the black ghetto was created by whites during the first half of the twentieth century in order to isolate growing urban black populations. It goes on to show that, despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, segregation is perpetuated today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. In some urban areas the degree of black segregation is so intense and occurs in so many dimensions simultaneously that it amounts to "hypersegregation."

The authors demonstrate that this systematic segregation of African Americans leads inexorably to the creation of underclass communities during periods of economic downturn. Under conditions of extreme segregation, any increase in the overall rate of black poverty yields a marked increase in the geographic concentration of indigence and the deterioration of social and economic conditions in black communities. As ghetto residents adapt to this increasingly harsh environment under a climate of racial isolation, they evolve attitudes, behaviors, and practices that further marginalize their neighborhoods and undermine their chances of success in mainstream American society. This book is a sober challenge to those who argue that race is of declining significance in the United States today.

About this title

About the Authors

Douglas S. Massey is Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, with a joint appointment in the Woodrow Wilson School.

Nancy A. Denton is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York.

Reviews

A major contribution to our understanding of both racism and poverty. One hopes that the book will be read, not only by other scholars and policy analysts, but by a broad spectrum of citizens and by all the leaders of the nation.

Richly documented. A splendid book. American Apartheid explores a topic that many of us have come to take for granted, presents a fascinating array of data that have never been assembled in one place and compellingly argues that segregation is crucial to understanding what has happened to American blacks.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674018214
• ISBN 13: 9780674018211
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312