The paradoxes of integration - Essay Example

However, this has not really been the case in most parts of America. There have been challenges with the campaign to get Blacks, Whites, Asian and people of mixed races to co-exist in the same geographical area. Gould states that: Clearly, most White people do not really stay in neighborhoods that has a large African-American population. This is because some White Americans have prejudice and stereotypes that make the associate Black people with some anti-social behaviors. Gould calls this situation ‘white avoidance’ and it largely refers to the fact that most White Americans decide not to move into an integrated neighborhood (p4).

In the past few decades, the new wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America has also shown that America is a multi-cultural setting (Oliver, 2). This suggests that the need for integration to solve racial tensions and differences now exceeds just the Black-White conflict which has existed in America for some time. Although there are signs that Americans choose a neighborhood based on the background of their neighbors, Katz and Lang identify that there are some additional key indicators that Americans look at when choosing a neighborhood they live in.

they include: “job opportunities, their children’s schools, their commute, their future home worth, their healthcare, and their places of worship and congregation.” (p1) This suggests that most Americans look at certain factors other than the skin color or the racial background of their neighbors, there is evidence that racial differences play a major role in choosing a neighborhood an American will live in. People more often than not, settle on neighborhoods that is made up of people of their racial or ethnic background.

A survey by MCSUI conducted between 1992 and 1994 (Oliver, p103) indicated that about 50% of Asians and Whites will prefer to live in neighborhoods containing people of