Diversity and Disparities, edited by sociologist John Logan, assembles impressive new studies that interpret the population, labor market, and housing market changes in the U.S. over the last decade. The book, now available for free download in its entirety from the Russell Sage Foundation, raises concerns about the extent of socioeconomic immobility in the United States today, showing how the U.S.—while more diverse than ever before—has also witnessed a significant rise in economic inequality. Drawing on detailed data from the decennial census, the American Community Survey, and other sources, the leading social scientists featured in the book chart the deepening disparities among different groups in the U.S.

In their chapter on residential segregation, Kendra Bischoff and Sean F. Reardon explore the rise of class segregation within racial groups as higher-income Americans move away from others into separate and privileged neighborhoods and communities. They find that since the 1970s, black and Hispanic families have lived in increasingly income-segregated communities. As the graph below shows, four decades ago, income segregation among African Americans in metropolitan areas was lower than that of other racial groups. By 2009, it had risen to the highest—65% greater than that of white families:

As Bischoff and Reardon explain, the overall decrease in racial segregation in the U.S. opened more residential opportunities to middle-class minorities, who increasingly moved away from ghettos and other enclaves. This change deepened the separation between affluent and poor blacks and Hispanics in particular, and exacerbated the impoverishment of minority neighborhoods that had once been mixed-income. Whites, on the other hand, have seen much lower levels of income segregation, with many low-income whites still able to avoid living in areas of “concentrated disadvantage.” As the authors note, poor whites tend to live in neighborhoods with higher average incomes than even middle-class black and Hispanic families.

Other chapters in Diversity and Disparities similarly analyze the ways in which the opportunities available to disadvantaged groups have become more unequal, focusing on areas such as immigration, unemployment rates, and the effects of the Great Recession on home ownership and wealth of different racial and economic groups.

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