"Every place has a Ghetto⋯": The significance of whites' social and residential segregation

The residential and social segregation of whites from blacks creates a socialization process we refer to as "white habitus". This white habitus limits whites' chances for developing meaningful relationships with blacks and other minorities spatially and psychologically. Using data from the 1997 Survey of College Students' Social Attitudes and the 1998 Detroit Area Study, we show that the spatial segregation experienced by whites from blacks fosters segregated lifestyles and leads them to develop positive views about themselves and negative views about blacks. First, we document the high levels of whites' residential and social segregation. Next, we examine how whites interpret their own self-segregation. Finally, we examine how whites' segregation shapes their racial expressions, attitudes, cognitions, and even their sense of aesthetics as illustrated by their views on the subject of interracial marriage. © 2007 by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.

Duke Scholars

Author Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Sociology