Study Finds Army Vets Are More Comfortable With Racial Residential Integration Than Non-Vets

us_army_logoPrevious studies have shown that the U.S. Army has become one of the most racially integrated institutions in the nation. (See for example the 1996 book, All That We Can Be: Black Leadership And Racial Integration The Army Way by Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler).

A new study by sociologists at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut finds that soldiers’ experiences with racial integration in the military result in veterans being more willing to live in racially integrated neighborhoods once they return to civilian life. The data shows that White veterans have 3.2 percent fewer non-Hispanic Whites in their neighborhoods than those who have not served in the military.

The authors write that “in a society where racial residential segregation remains largely intractable for some marginalized groups, it is important to ask where we can find an exception to the rule and then ask why. In this paper we have addressed the first part of that question, showing that White U.S. veterans do not behave similarly to the average White civilian. This is a positive trend that has gone largely unnoticed.”

The study, “Residential Segregation: The Mitigating Effects of Past Military Experience,” was published in the November 2016 issue of the journal Social Science Research. It may be accessed here.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

University of Maryland Reports on Its Historic Ties to Slavery

"This new research report is an important first step in confronting and disrupting the narrative of our shared history. It challenges us to see through the privileged half-truths we’ve long held as a university and to create a more inclusive and truthful documented history," said Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, co-chair of The 1856 Project.

Yale University Commits $10 million Toward HBCU Partnerships

Yale University issued a formal apology three weeks ago regarding its historical ties to slavery. In response, the university has pledged $10 million towards an initiative that aims to expand collaboration with historically Black colleges and universities.

Gallup Survey Finds Black Students More Likely Than Their White Peers to Withdraw From College

A 2023 survey conducted by Gallup in partnership with the Lumina Foundation has found that 40 percent of currently enrolled Black students have considered stopping their coursework in the past six months, compared to 31 percent of White students.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Featured Jobs