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Ethnicity and Community The problem of ethnicity and community becomes the issue of the day. As it s claimed by Roger Sanjer, the United States is undergoing the process called a majority minority transition, with the historic European-ancestry white majority projected to fall beneath 50 % of the population in the second half of the current century (Sanjer, 2001). Indeed, to a great extent, all the authors of the articles under study, such as Emily Rosenbaum in her article "The Constraints on Minority Housing Choices, New York City 1978 - 1987 ", Robert Mc Caa in "Ethnic Intermarriage and Gender in New York City", and Mary C. Waters in "Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City share a similar position. The United States faces the years of great transition.
Roger Sanjer makes a forecast that in less than one hundred years, African Americans, Asian Americans and Latin Americans may outnumber Americans of European origin. There is an assumption that by 2080 the proportion of Americans of European origin will decline from its present 74 % to 50 % (Sanjer, 2001), while quantity of Americans of Latin, African, and Asian origin will increase (23 %, 15 %, and 12 %, correspondingly). There is also a concern that by 2035 only 49 percent of American children will be white. All the authors agree that the speed of this multiracial change is much faster than anywhere in the world.
To a great extent the pace of this change is faster in the cities and the nations coasts than somewhere in the suburbs and heartland. Both Robert Mc Caa and Mary C. Waters bring the evidence to this fact exploring the aspects of multiracial change and its influence on community in New York City. The authors support this assumption by the example of New York City, the city that crossed the so-called majority-minority threshold in the early 1980 s. Indeed, the neighborhoods in New York, such as Elmhurst-Corona, are known for their cultural diversity. As it is claimed by Roger Sanjer, Elmhurst-Corona's white population considerably declined during the past few dozens of years (from 98 per cent in 1960 to 18 % in 1990).
These changes occurred predominantly because of African American and immigrant newcomers and, by 1990, the population of Elmhurst-Corona comprised of 45 % Latin Americans, 26 % Latin Americans, and 10 % African Americans, thus making Elmhurst-Corona probably the most ethnically mixed community in the world (Sanjer, 2001). The authors of the articles undertook the attempt to explore and assess how far cultural diversity in New York had come in forming "an integrated body politic in which all perspectives are represented, and in which all people work together to find common ground (Sanjer, 2001). The authors of the articles explored the relationships between people, whose roots and cultural and historical backgrounds were in completely different constituencies. As is was stated by Sanjer, the subject of their studies, Elmhurst-Corona neighborhood in New York City, was, probably, the best-suited experimental field for research, as, although population in New York City included black and immigrant newcomers, the vast majority of the community was represented by long-established residents of white origin.
Although some of them were indifferent or antagonistic to Asian, African, and Latin Americans, and some of them were friendly enough to form new friendships with newcomers, all of them were aware of the inevitable changes around them. Interesting enough, but all authors placed emphasis on the fact that people of different races were treated differently. Probably, it occurred due to completely different conditions under which African Americans arrived in the United States. Historically many places, as well as the historically white local real estate sector, which has many business companies owned by the immigrants nowadays, had opened up to various immigrants and newcomers of Latin American, and Asian origin, but not to African Americans. Emily Rosenbaum from Fordham University also undertook the attempt to evaluate the housing and neighborhood characteristics able to predict the residential choices made by Hispanic and non-Hispanic mover households in New York City in a multi group context.
The author made an assumption that minority group competed for housing not only with whites, but also with the population of another origin. According to the results of the study, the indicators of poor neighborhood conditions and low-quality housing increase the likelihood that the household that moves in is a minority one, most likely Puerto Rican (Rosenbaum, 1994). The author also tried to find evidence to the assumption that location in the area which is dominated by a certain minority group increases the probability that the housing unit will be occupied by the household belonging to the same minority group. Similar to Sanjer's article, the author claims that the reluctance of Americans of European origin to live near African Americans were conductive to creation a highly segmented housing market, where the institutional agents and collective actions of the neighborhood were aimed to constrain blacks moving and living in the areas, which were less prosperous than those where the whites lived. Similar to Sanjer's opinion, Emily Rosenbaum claimed that there was an existence of discriminatory treatment and racial steering of minority seekers.
This discriminatory treatment has been related empirically to the racial segregation, thus being able to provide the explanation to the variety of racial housing inequalities remained after controlling for socioeconomic status (Rosenbaum, 1994). Again, the authors agree that when compared to whites, Hispanics and Asians, blacks relative inability to convert their status and income gains into improved living conditions, housing, and neighborhood were among such inequalities. All articles, to a greater or lesser extent, were dedicated to the aspects of ethnicity and community. There was also an assumption that the housing choices of Hispanic and black households were differentially restricted to the housing units and neighborhoods with lower quality and less prosperous compared to those of the whites (Rosenbaum, 1994). All the authors come to conclusion that destinations do differ by ethnicity and race net of the impact of characteristics of the households and housing units that define housing demands. Finally, the authors bring evidence of market and social forces that tend not only to segregate the white community from Americans of Asian, African, and Hispanic origin, but also being conductive to certain disparities in housing quality characterizing the renter population of New York City.
Finally, the studies conducted by the authors demonstrate that the minority and the white movers have different levels of access to such aspects like housing in varying locations and varying quality, net of differences in the minorities' and whites' income and household composition. Among other important things, the authors place emphasis on the fact that inequities in acquiring residence in high-quality locations (Rosenbaum, 1994) may be conductive to perpetuation of racial and ethnic disparities, because the place where the person lives largely determines the persons life chances. Finally, the fact that African, Asian, and Latin Americans are unlikely to move into the white-vacated units, or into the housing units, which are located in the suburbs inhabited by the whites, may serve the indicator of the micro level dynamic that serves as indicator of frequent and informal social conflict across ethnic and racial boundaries is restricted beyond the limits placed by differences in economic status (Rosenbaum, 1994). Finally, all the authors focus their attention on constraints that make simple and informal interactions between ethnic and racial groups impossible, along with the barriers to equal access within the urban housing market. References Mc Caa, R. (1993). Ethnic Intermarriage and Gender in New York City.
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 24 (2), 207 - 231. Rosenbaum, E. (1994). The Constraints on Minority Housing Choices, New York City 1978 - 1987. Social Forces, 72 (3), 725 - 747. Sanjer, R. (2001).
Color-Full before Color Blind: The Emergence of Multiracial Neighborhood Politics in Queens, New York City. American Anthropologist, 102 (4), 762 - 772. Waters, M. C. (1994). Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City. International Migration Review, 28 (4), 795 - 820.
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