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AirTalk

New Report Finds Major US Metro Areas, Greater Los Angeles Among Them, Are More Segregated Now Than 30 Years Ago

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 01:  People rest while riding a Los Angeles Metro Rail train amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 1, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. As of last week, L.A. Metro ridership was down an estimated 81 percent on rail and 68 percent on buses amid the spread of COVID-19. L.A. Metro’s trains and buses are cleaned daily and the agency is now encouraging riders to social distance and only board for ‘essential’ trips.  (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
People rest while riding a Los Angeles Metro Rail train amid the coronavirus pandemic on April 1, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.
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Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Despite the racial reckoning going on in America right now, and despite the fact that attitudes towards race, inclusion and representation are different now than they were 30 years ago, new research from UC Berkeley shows that a large majority of American metro areas are more segregated now than they were in 1990. The new report from Berkeley’s Institute covers a number of topic areas, but among the key findings were from the national segregation report component of the project, which found Los Angeles to be the sixth-most segregated metro area with more than 200,000 people.

Today on AirTalk, we’ll talk with the lead researcher on the new report and a local historian to talk about how we see the findings of the report play out in Southern California.

Guests:

Stephen Menendian, assistant director and director of research at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, which works to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change; he tweets

Eric Avila, professor of history, urban planning, and Chicano/a studies at UCLA