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Title: Why are the Twin Cities so Segregated?
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2017
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Abstract: Why are the Twin Cities so segregated? The Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area is known for its progressive politics and forward-thinking approach to regional planning, but these features have not prevented the formation of some of the nation’s widest racial disparities and the nation’s worst segregation in a predominantly white area. On measures of educational and residential integration, the Twin Cities region has rapidly diverged from other regions with similar demographics, such as Portland or Seattle. Since the start of the twenty-first century, the number of severely segregated schools in the Twin Cities area has increased more than seven-fold; the population of segregated, high-poverty neighborhoods has tripled. The concentration of black families in low-income areas has grown for over a decade; in Portland and Seattle, it has declined. In 2010, the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region had eighty-three schools made up of ninety percent nonwhite students; Portland had two. The following article explains this paradox. In doing so, it broadly describes the history and structure of two growing industry pressure groups within the Twin Cities political scene: the poverty housing industry (PHI) and the poverty education complex (PEC). It shows how these powerful special interests have worked with local, regional, and state government to preserve the segregated status quo and in the process have undermined school integration and sabotaged the nation’s most effective regional housing integration program. Finally, in what should serve as a call to action on civil rights, this article demonstrates how even moderate efforts to achieve racial integration could dramatically reduce regional segregation and the associated racial disparities.
Url: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=mhlr
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Authors: Orfield, Myron; Stancil, Will
Periodical (Full): Mitchell Hamline Law Review
Issue: 1
Volume: 43
Pages: 63
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Education, Housing and Segregation, Race and Ethnicity
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