Residential segregation of West Indians in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area: the roles of race and ethnicity.by Kyle D. CrowderTo assess the relative roles of race and ethnicity in shaping patterns ofresidential segregation, this article utilizes indices of segregation and ageographic mapping strategy to examine the residential patterns of WestIndian blacks in the greater New York City area. The socioeconomiccharacteristics of neighborhoods occupied by West Indian blacks are alsoexamined and compared to those of areas occupied by African Americans. Theresults indicate that, on one hand, West Indians are largely denied accessto residential areas occupied predominantly by whites and are confined toareas of large black concentrations. On the other hand, West Indians appearto have carved out somewhat separate residential enclaves within theselargely black areas, and there is evidence to indicate that these areas areof somewhat higher quality than areas occupied by similar concentrations ofAfrican Americans. The discussion of these results focuses on the reciprocalrelationship between the formation of these distinct residential enclavesand the maintenance of a distinct West Indian ethnic identity.© COPYRIGHT 1999 Center for Migration Studies of New York Inc.The incorporation of West Indian blacks into the American economic and social structure long has been considered a crucial test of the deterministic power of race in our society. Touting their economic and occupational successes, several observers have pointed to West Indian immigrants as the black success story (cf. Glazer and Moynihan, 1963; Reid, 1969; Sowell, 1978) and, as Kasinitz (1988) points out, their level of success relative to African Americans is often considered a commentary on the roles of race and racism in shaping the social and economic plight of American blacks. Against this backdrop, a substantial body of literature has emerged focusing on the social assimilation of West Indians (Foner, 1985, 1987; Vickerman, 1994; Waters, 1994) and their socioeconomic success relative to African Americans (Butcher, 1994; Farley and Allen, 1987; Foner, 1979; Model, 1995; Model and Ladipo, 1996; Sowell, 1978), with conclusions often posed in terms of the relative roles of culture, ethnic resources, and racial attributes in shaping these outcomes.Receiving relatively little attention, however, has been the spatial assimilation of West Indian blacks and the degree to which their residential patterns differ from those of African Americans. The lack of attention paid to this topic is particularly interesting in light of the fact that residential assimilation, especially the attainment of residential proximity to the white majority and access to more affluent neighborhoods, is often considered an important aspect of the social incorporation of racial and ethnic minority groups (Alba and Logan, 1993; Gordon, 1964; Massey, 1985; Massey and Mullan, 1984). This study is intended to help fill this gap in the existing literature by focusing attention on the residential patterns of West Indian blacks in the New York metropolitan area(2) and comparing them to those of African Americans. In addition to supplementing the research on the incorporation of West Indian blacks in the city in which they are most concentrated, International Migration Review Spring 1999 v33 i1 p79(3) Page 1- Reprinted with permission. Additional copying is prohibited. -Information AccessC O M P A N YResidential segregation of West Indians in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area: the roles of race and ethnicity.this article offers an assessment of the relative roles of race and ethnicity in the determination of residential patterns by comparing two groups differentiated by ethnicity but both racially ascribed as black. Among the issues explored are the degree to which West Indians are automatically relegated to black neighborhoods by virtue of their race; whether or not they are more able than are African Americans to gain access to higher-quality neighborhoods; and, ultimately, whether their distinct ethnicity, socioeconomic characteristics, and unique mode of incorporation into U.S. society can alter the seemingly monolithic forces of racial segregation.RACIAL SEGREGATION AND WEST INDIANS IN NEW YORKIn recent years, a substantial body of research has attempted to document and explain persistent patterns of residential segregation by race, with the bulk of recent research focusing on the case of African Americans, by far this country’s most residentially isolated racial group. Overall, levels of black-white segregation remain high today despite recently higher rates of minority suburbanization (Galster, 1991; Logan and Schneider, 1984), the apparent liberalization of white attitudes towards integration (Farley, 1993; Farley et al., 1994), and the moderate changes in levels of segregation at the metropolitan level (Farley and Frey, 1994) as well as within census tracts (Lee and Wood, 1991). And, importantly, blacks remain most segregated from the white majority in those cities in which they are most heavily concentrated and "hypersegregated" in several of these major cities (Massey and Denton, 1987, 1993).While economic explanations have been advanced to explain the persistent segregation of blacks and other racial and ethnic groups, an overwhelmingly consistent finding of most segregation studies is that black skin represents a substantial barrier to residential assimilation which overshadows all other factors, including socioeconomic characteristics and ethnicity. For example, unlike the prevailing situation for Asian and Hispanic groups, metropolitan area levels of, and trends in, segregation of blacks from whites are apparently unrelated to the aggregate socioeconomic status and acculturation characteristics of group members in the area (Denton and Massey, 1988; Massey and Denton, 1987). And at the individual level, blacks appear less able than other groups to translate their human capital characteristics into access to higher-quality neighborhoods and residences near whites (Alba and Logan, 1993; Logan and Alba, 1993; Alba and Logan, 1991; South and Crowder, 1997), with even relatively well-off blacks often confined to racially isolated neighborhoods with less well-off blacks (Massey and Denton, 1993; Massey, Gross and Shibuya, 1994). Differences in the residential distributions of black and white Hispanics indicate that race also largely