A new report reaffirms Milwaukee’s top spot as the overall most segregated metropolitan area in the United States. The report was prepared by professors John Logan and Brian Stults at Brown and Florida State. Logan and Stults analyzed 2010 Census data with a dissimilarity index, which determines the percentage of one group that would have to move to a different neighborhood to eliminate segregation.
Milwaukee shares the infamous distinction LA, Philly, and Detroit.
Here’s the list of America’s top ten segregated cities:
1. Milwaukee
2. New York
3. Chicago
4. Detroit
5. Cleveland
6. Buffalo
7. St. Louis
8. Cincinnati
9. Philadelphia
10. Los Angeles
To what extent are the troubling rankings and the patterns to which they point truly based on race? American racism is hardly dead and buried, but in our society race often obscures the equally pernicious workings of socioeconomic class inequality.
The realities regarding socioeconomic class stand behind the troubling statistics regarding residential segregation by race in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The poor – black, white, or Hispanic – live almost completely within the City of Milwaukee.
