Houston's Emerging Exposure Between African Americans and Whites: Evidence of Spatial Assimilation or Place Stratification?

Empirical studies of spatial assimilation consistently reveal a significant racial gap in residential attainment between African Americans and whites. This persistent finding has led to a critique which argues that spatial assimilation theory should not be used when explaining the residential segregation of African Americans. However, that critique is often derived from interpretations based on cross-sectional data which do not take into account demographic context. In this paper I show that by using trend data and demographically appropriate measures, the gap between groups is consistent with interpretations derived from spatial assimilation theory. I present demographically adjusted exposure scores for educational categories of race and ethnic groups in Houston, Texas, between 1970 and 2000. This approach provides a finer distinction of the shifting dynamics of spatial assimilation over the study period. As expected by spatial assimilation theory, no amount of variation in socioeconomic status within the African American increased black exposure to whites in Houston in 1970. By 1980 higher status African Americans achieved greater spatial assimilation. The emerging pattern of spatial assimilation continues is apparent through demographically adjusted exposure indices through 2000. Interestingly, the pattern of African American exposure to the highest status whites slightly dips between 1990 and 2000. By relying on trend data and demographically appropriate measures, I demonstrate that spatial assimilation can be used to better understand changes in the residential mobility of African Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]