Comments on: Least Segregated Cities for Asians

By: lala

lala — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:05:25 +0000

I should point out that just because they aren’t geographically segregated doesn’t mean they aren’t segregated. I live in Annandale, VA which has become known as “Koreatown” over the past ten years. Koreans in the area aren’t living in a separate part of town, so there aren’t separate Korean neighbourhoods and White neighbourhoods. However, Korean children are going to Korean schools, shopping at Korean supermarkets, and so forth. If I didn’t go out of my way to support the Korean businesses, I would have never spoken to a Korean even though they live in the same neighbourhoods as myself and my friends.

By: Rachel S.

Rachel S. — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:00:57 +0000

Drydock,
There are only 20 cities on the list, and Oakland ranks at number 10, so in reality it’s more in the middle of the pack.

I put ten up here for the other groups, so I also put 10 up for Asians, but that is a little misleading since every eligible city will make the list for Asians.

By: Radfem

Radfem — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 07:18:11 +0000

And Oakland seems to be one of the least segregated for Asians while at the same time have one the least exposure to whites. That doesn’t totally compute. Maybe somebody can explain it a little more.

Does this survey account for Asian-Americans who may be dispersed more evenly in communities where there are few Whites like communities that are predominatly Black and/or Latino but that might not necessarily or include being integrated into predominantly White neighborhoods.

My county or region ranked high again on the least segregated list. I think most of the Asian-Americans are more concentrated in the western part of the county. In my city, they’re different concentrations and they may be less segregated in the city by race, but the different ethnic groups themselves in some cases might be more segregated, i.e. the Laotian-American community and Sikhs for example.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:47:18 +0000

About 2 months ago, there was an article in the New Jersey Record (formerly the Bergen Record) about population shifts in our growing Asian communities and its impact on the county. It’s fascinating. I’ve lived in the area (I actually live in the next county north, but I work here) almost all of my life. You can take one small town and see that it was mostly white until the 80s, when a huge influx of Japanese moved in, and then by the 00s those Japanese moved to another town nearby and that town is now largely Korean, and so on.

By: sylphhead

sylphhead — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:45:53 +0000

I’d imagine Pacific Islanders are lumped in along with Asian Americans because of phenotypic resemblance. Of course, that complicates the matter for people such as Indian Americans, who follow more of the same cultural and demographic patterns as East Asians (thus making it worthwhile to analyze them together) than Pacific Islanders do, but physically resemble us less.

By: Rachel S.

Rachel S. — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:21:21 +0000

You know Maia that is an excellent point. It is true for all pan-ethnic categories–Black Americans, Latino Americans, European Americans. We are lumping very diverse groups together in the name of racial categorization.

The Pacific Island group is very small in the US, and off the top of my head I think the largest group in that category is Native Hawaiians. Given New Zealands proximity to Asian and the Pacific Islands, it also makes sense that well established communities for a multitude of API ethnicities would exist. I think the only places that would be true in the US would be Guam and Hawaii. Out of the Asian American ethnicities in the US–Chinese and Filipino are the biggest.

There is a certain arbitrariness to all racial categories and panethnic categories. It seems so obvious when it is another culture’s categories, but so natural when it is your own culture. That’s why I give examples of racial categorizations from around the world because it tends to perplex my students, getting them to be more critical of race.

By: Indy

Indy — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:21:01 +0000

I clicked through to the “Least segregated cities for black people” link, and found it suprising that where I’m from, Hampton Roads va, is listed regionally as being in the top 5 (it’s listed as Hampton Norfolk Newport News) which is odd, because I allways thought of Newport News as being kind of shitkicking racist.

//my guess is it’s due to the huge military presence.

By: SamChevre

SamChevre — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:53:16 +0000

Could one argue that since more established populations are more segregated (and I would guess that this result is robust to wealth), a certain level of segregation is a desirable feature to most people?

By: Maia

Maia — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:29:26 +0000

Can I say as a New Zealander this category seems very strange to me. In New Zealand the two biggest non-white migrant groups are Asians and Pacific Islanders, but their living patterns are very different. It’s limiting enough putting all people of Asian descent in one category, but to lump Pacific Islanders in there seems that it would hide more than it would illuminate.

I understand that it’s probably because Pacific Islanders aren’t large enough to constitute their own research, but is much gained by including them with Asian people?

By: Rachel S.

Rachel S. — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:25:24 +0000

I don’t know enough about the Bay area to give a detailed comment, but I think some would argue that areas such as Oakland should be combined with San Francisco to get a more complete picture of the entire metro area. THe same could be said for Orange County and Las Angeles or Long Island and New York city.

By: drydock

drydock — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:38:05 +0000

I’m not really sure what it means that San francisco is the most segregated for Asians. The city is 33% Asian. I guess Chinatown is segregated but if some Chinese immigrants get a big urge to see white people they can walk about 2 or 3 blocks. I’m sure they’ll spot a few.

And Oakland seems to be one of the least segregated for Asians while at the same time have one the least exposure to whites. That doesn’t totally compute. Maybe somebody can explain it a little more.

By: Rachel S.

Rachel S. — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:07:46 +0000

At least in major urban areas that’s true.

By: SamChevre

SamChevre — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:03:28 +0000

For each racial group so far, the more established and larger a population is, the more segregated it is on almost every measure.

I find that interesting.