At the institutional level, sociological research has underscored the role of residential racial segregation as a primary institutional mechanism of racism and a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health (Massey and Denton 1993; LaVeist 1989; Williams and Collins 2001) and has helped shape local and federal policies. Sociologists have documented how segregation produces the concentration of poverty, social disorder and social isolation, and creates pathogenic conditions in residential environments (Massey 2004; Schulz et al. 2002; Williams and Collins 2001). For example, an examination of the 171 largest cities found that the worst urban context in which white individuals lived was better than the average context of black neighborhoods (Sampson, and Wilson 1995). These differences in neighborhood quality and community conditions are driven by residential segregation by race – a neglected but enduring legacy of institutional racism in the U.S. Considerable evidence suggests that because of segregation, the residential conditions under which African Americans, American Indians and an increasing proportion of Latinos live are distinctive from those of the rest of the population.
