The Integration Debate: Competing Futures For American Cities - Softcover

"Drawing together writings by academic and professional experts from fields including law, education, public health, criminal justice and public policy, The Integration Debate is an eye-opening examination of the policy, legal and historical foundations of efforts to achieve more balanced living patterns in the United States." -- Next American City, 2010

"This excellent collection of articles highlights a fundamental truth about American society; namely, that our underlying social problem is not segregation per se, but racism...The Integration Debate makes an important contribution to the long debate over the nature and impact of segregation." -- Journal of the American Planning Association, Winter 2010, Vol. 76, No. 1

"This information-rich volume contains 17 chapters from some of the nation's leading scholars, activists, lawyers, and others offering their opinions and research findings about racial and ethnic discrimination regarding the politics of discrimination and segregation, including legal ramifications and findings for achieving more integration of racial and ethnic minorities in major US cities...this very current compendium is useful for anyone interested in urban development (such as housing and urban neighborhoods and communities), race, and ethnic relations (especially with regard to poverty, discrimination, and integration). Summing Up: Recommended." -- Choice, June 2010

Racial integration, and policies intended to achieve greater integration, continue to generate controversy in the United States, with some of the most heated debates taking place among long-standing advocates of racial equality.

Today, many nonwhites express what has been referred to as "integration exhaustion" as they question the value of integration in today’s world. And many whites exhibit what has been labeled "race fatigue," arguing that we have done enough to reconcile the races. Many policies have been implemented in efforts to open up traditionally restricted neighborhoods, while others have been designed to diversify traditionally poor, often nonwhite, neighborhoods. Still, racial segregation persists, along with the many social costs of such patterns of uneven development.

This book explores both long-standing and emerging controversies over the nation’s ongoing struggles with discrimination and segregation. More urgently, it offers guidance on how these barriers can be overcome to achieve truly balanced and integrated living patterns.