Cassi Pittman, postdoctoral fellow in sociology, will speak on The doctor and the drug dealer: how cultural affinities and racial identity inform Blacks' racial residential preferences.
ABSTRACT:
Researchers have found that predominantly black neighborhoods are consistently ranked the least desirable option of all possible places to live. Blacks, however, diverge from other racial groups in their assessment of majority black neighborhoods, often viewing them favorably.
To advance our understanding of blacks’ racial residential preferences and why blacks’ assessment of black neighborhoods varies from other racial groups, Pittman argues that it is important to consider (1) how blacks' cultural orientations and racial identity influences their neighborhood preferences and (2) that neighborhoods are more than just places to live, they are important sites of cultural consumption, maintaining both social and symbolic dimensions for their residents.
Pittman draws on an analysis of qualitative interview data collected from 55 middle and working class blacks residing in the New York City metropolitan area with the goal of examining the influence of culture on blacks’ racial residential preferences. By comparing the perceptions and experiences of blacks living in predominately black neighborhoods to those living in predominately nonblack neighborhoods she finds that there are important racialized, symbolic, and status considerations that underlie blacks' determination of a neighborhood’s desirability. Both black and non-black neighborhoods provide their residents a distinct set of experiential cultural and racial advantages and disadvantages. However, when deciding where to live, upwardly mobile blacks often make a choice between maximizing either their race or class-based cultural taste and preferences, as they are unable to satisfy both sets of taste and preferences in either black or non-black neighborhoods.
The event is free and open to all.
For information, contact Kathleen M. McGraw, mcgraw.36@osu.edu.
