Racial Change and Social Policy

Five major trends in contemporary American race relations are specified and discussed: (1) the discontinuities of social change, with uneven progress within and across institutions; (2) two contrasting processes, one benefitting the black middle class and the other restraining the black poor; (3) the altered nature of racial discrimination, from blatantly exclusionary practices to more subtle, procedural, ostensibly "non-racial" forms centered upon demographic trends, housing patterns, and spatial arrangements; (4) racial attitude changes, with greater rejection of racial injustice among whites combined with continued resistance to the measures needed to correct the injustice; and (5) the shifting demographic base of American race relations, from the national era of 1915-1945, through the metropolitan era of 1945-1970, to the present era of movement away from large cities, the Northeast, and the Midwest. Each of these trends are shown to intersect in important ways with the structural linchpin of modern race relations: the maldistribution of blacks and whites throughout metropolitan areas. Finally, six practical guidelines for future racial policies in urban areas are offered.