Opportunity, Diversity, and the New American City: A Program of Research in Interethnic Attitudes, Residential Segregation, and Labor Market Discrimination

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This is a study of inter-ethnic attitudes, residential segregation, and labor market discrimination. It will analyze data collected by the 1993-1994 Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality, which was expressly designed to link inter-ethnic attitudes and beliefs to labor market outcomes and to processes of racial residential segregation. This survey involved large samples of the non-Hispanic white (N = 863), African American (N = 1119), Latino (N = 988) and Asian American (N = 1055) adult populations of Los Angeles County. The substantive core of the survey was three-fold: (1) development of a detailed portrait of the human capital attributes and labor market behaviors of individuals; (2) mapping the residential integration relevant knowledge, intentions, and preferences of respondents; and (3) understanding general patterns of inter-ethnic attitudes and beliefs. The research to be done draws systematically on measures of the degree of ethnic identity, inter-ethnic stereotypes, perceptions of group zero-sum competition, personal and collective perceptions of racial and gender-based discrimination, folk explanations of inter-ethnic economic inequality, and views on affirmative action. These measures will be used to map the meanings that characterize self-understanding and inter-ethnic relations for the black, white, Asian, and Latino residents of one of the most ethnically diverse cities of the world. Then the research will explore how these views affect and are affected by labor market factors and racial residential segregation. %%% The scientific aim of this research is to understand the social psychological processes that may reinforce or reduce urban ethnic inequality and the associated inter-ethnic tensions. It will examine the complex series of interconnections among labor market processes, racial residential segregation, and inter-ethnic attitudes that undergird modern ethnic inequality. Success in this research will help policy makers understand the causes of persistent urban po verty, especially as experienced by segments of the African American, Latino, and Asian American communities.