Preserving the White Picket Fence: Interracial Conduct in an Integrated Neighborhood

Abstract

<p>My dissertation identifies and deconstructs the interracial codes of conduct produced and enacted by three distinct racial-ethnic communities in an integrated neighborhood. My analysis of Creekridge Park is based on data collected via in-depth interviews, a neighborhood survey, and participant observation. By addressing the particularities of an integrated neighborhood, this project augments traditional index-based studies of segregation research and examines how the concept of social distance can explain the quantity and quality of encounters between Black, White, and Latino/a residents. I also evaluate the social environment of an integrated neighborhood by documenting and questioning the attitudes, behaviors, and relationships of neighborhood residents. Finally, I analyze the data using modified grounded theory, an iterative process that uses data and existing theory to develop conceptual models. Overall, this project emphasizes the importance of race as a social marker of status, privilege, and marginalization; the limits of diversity as an emancipating ideology; and the importance of power as a conceptual tool in analyses of White and nonwhite experiences in integrated settings.</p>