That makes this challenge a lot harder to resolve than if we had tried a century ago
But even if we had tried a century ago, would it have mattered? The article just stated that "we'd have gotten segregated cities anyways because of behavior that's beyond the reach of regulation."
racial preferences still shape where people choose to live today.
Fear of what is different?
behavior that's beyond the reach of regulation
Good way of explaining why we still see segregation in our communities
restrictive covenants
What is a restrictive covenant?
Fair Housing Act
What does this act say? When was it passed?
"we would still have very segregated cities, because a certain number whites were unwilling to live with blacks."
Segregation is still present today. A great example of this is the segregation and disparities we see in inner city public schools.
Shertzer and Walsh are pointing to another set of factors — not the policies of institutions, but the behavior of individuals.
Racist behaviors. But I do not see how this is novel information? This time period is teeming with examples of racist behavior not motivated by institutional policies.
That makes this earlier form of white flight even more striking; their new homes didn't necessarily have lower taxes or better school districts, factors that complicated the motivations of later generations of whites.
OK... so this era of White flight is striking because they were leaving for purely racist motivations. Not because there were also better reasons to move out of the city (lower taxes, better schools).
"Whites left the neighborhood as a result of blacks arriving," Shertzer says, "not for other reasons."
So... racism? Is that what they are considering a "casual" reason for leaving?
As blacks arrived in northern neighborhoods, more whites left.
I can understand why White people were able to move from neighborhoods. However, how were cities legally able to keep African Americans from moving in to certain neighborhoods?
relevant to American cities that are still racially divided today
Which cities? I think the cities that are racially divided today would be similar to the ones that were segregated in the past (Chicago, New York, Detroit).
"White flight" is usually described as a post-World War II phenomenon
I wonder why "White flight" is typically associated with this time period? I think I remember learning about a GI Bill that encouraged this once the soldiers returned home from war.