Racial diversity causes isolation, mistrust

by Tironius, created Wednesday, July 18, 2007, with permalink

Harvard professor shows how diversity leads people to 'hunker down'

Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam has written an intriguing paper (PDF) that correlates race and isolation, that in heterogeneous communities compared to those with mostly homogeneity, people experience higher levels of mistrust in other races, mistrust in actual nearby neighbors, and—most interestingly—mistrust in even their own race.

According to a year-2000 survey (that also uses census data), people who live in neighborhoods in cities like mine, San Francisco, with more races experience

Some aspects were not effected e.g. religious involvement.

• Less a likelihood of giving to charity
• Fewer close friends
• Less happiness and perceived quality of life
• More TV couch-potatoes
• Lower confidence in local government & leaders
• Less a likelihood to vote, yet more awareness in politics and the participation in protest marches

1. egalitarian |iˌgaləˈterēən| adjective of, relating to, or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities

Also, heterogeneous communities are larger, more mobile, less egalitarian[1], more crime-ridden. And, people in heterogeneous areas tend to be poorer, less educated, and less likely to speak English. The survey accounts for certain variables, also. Among equally poor, equally rich, or equally crime-ridden neighborhoods, more races still begets higher mistrust. Not just physical locations, mind you, but this mistrust pattern occurs in all conceivable classes and social groups: rich and poor, black and white, conservative and liberal.

Labels: Race