Detroit Divided (Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality)

The passing of Detroit's manufacturing heyday stranded many workers who once earned good union wages. The authors explain why white auto workers adjusted to these new conditions more easily than blacks. With better access to education and suburban home loans, white men migrated into skilled jobs on the city's outskirts, while blacks faced the twin barriers of higher skill demands and hostile suburban neighborhoods. Some blacks have prospered despite this racial divide: a black elite has emerged, and the shift in the city toward municipal and service jobs has allowed black women to approach parity of earnings with white women. But Detroit remains polarized racially, economically, and geographically to a degree seen in few other American cities.