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Fund for an OPEN Society |
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because separate can never be equal. |
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A Case for Integrated Communities |
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Economic Benefits: Integrated communities benefit people of color and white people alike, creating equity. Stable integrated communities are good investments. In these communities, everyone competes for the available housing, thus keeping property values higher. In integrated communities, people of color benefit from economic opportunities which American society has accorded primarily to white people. For instance, the "segregation tax" - the 18% penalty in home value that African American homeowners pay when their house is located in a segregated black community -- does not apply in communities with stable mixed-race populations. Thus, a minority homeowner can realize more value in his or her home, passing that value on to heirs and thus creating family wealth for the future. Integrated communities place people of color closer to jobs and economic opportunity, rather than in disinvested sections of the urban core. Educational Benefits: A very real advantage of inclusive communities is that children who attend mix-race schools are better prepared to compete and excel in America's diverse workplaces and in the global economy. These schools most closely correspond to the environment in which students will earn their living after they graduate. Recent research has yielded surprising results which demonstrate the value of inter-racial schools beyond their similarities to the larger world: students actually realize cognitive benefits from learning in the same classrooms as students from other races and ethnicities. Patricia Gurin, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, has participated in and analyzed several longitudinal studies of college and university students which measure their learning skills, academic performance and social interactions in connection with the diversity of their fellow students. Overall, she concludes, "students learn more and think in deeper, more complex ways in a diverse educational environment." While many studies have demonstrated the value to children of color of not being in a segregated setting, there has been less work on the value of interracial classrooms to white students. Dr. Gurin found that "white students with the most experience with diversity during college demonstrated: · the greatest growth in active thinking processes as indicated by increased scores on the measures of complex thinking and social/historical thinking; · growth in motivation in terms of drive to achieve, intellectual self-confidence, goals for creating original work; · the highest post-graduate aspirations; and · the greatest growth in the values that students placed on their intellectual and academic skills. They also placed greater value than other white graduates on intellectual and academic skills as part of their post-college lives." Finally, Dr. Gurin cites additional research which demonstrates when young adults join the workforce, "members of heterogeneous groups offer more creative solutions to problems than those in homogeneous groups." |
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Contact Us
Email: open@opensoc.org NJ Office: 973.821.4198 PA Office: 215.546.0511 |
