A recent study by the Manhattan Institute that heralded the “the end of residential segregation”—a claim that was widely celebrated in mainstream press, has also been found to mask important demographic and economic trends. The study is entitled “The End of the Segregated Century: Racial Separation in America’s Neighborhoods 1890-2010.”

Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute finds that this study “uses a measure that masks other important trends,” including the intensification of poverty in urban neighborhoods since 2000, and the disproportionate impacts of the foreclosure crisis on African American and Latino homeowners.   See Rothstein’s full critique.

The Manhattan Institute study was also imprecise in the way that it only sorted black and non-black groups rather than examining specific groupings, including non-hispanic whites, Hispanics/Latinos, African Americans, and Asians. The Manhattan Institute’s method of sorting only black and non-black inflates the progress of integration and ignores how housing segregation is a problem for Latinos and Asians, as well as African Americans. The reality of housing segregation in the Gulf South states is far from ended. Cities such as Miami, Birmingham, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Houston, and Dallas all have high levels of residential, school, and economic segregation. Cities like Austin, San Antonio, and Orlando show encouraging levels of integration. The Urban Institute provides a mapping of racial equity that examines housing segregation, neighborhood income gaps, employment gaps, homeownership gaps, and education gaps for the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas.