residential segregation

Meaning: Residential segregation is the physical separation of social groups, most often by race, ethnicity or income, into different neighborhoods. It arises from institutional practices such as redlining, discriminatory lending, restrictive covenants and exclusionary zoning, and also from individual choices such as white flight. Because neighborhood shapes school funding, job access, housing quality and exposure to pollution, segregation turns group differences into unequal opportunity and often into health disparities.

On the MCAT: Passages describe a city or study in which one group lives in concentrated poverty, then ask you to link place to outcomes such as lower school quality, fewer healthy food options, greater exposure to environmental hazards or worse health. It is a standard example of institutional discrimination and of how social stratification persists across generations. A figure may show a map or the dissimilarity index, the share of a group that would have to move for even spread.

Common confusion: Students often treat segregation as just personal preference or assume it ended with explicit housing laws. De jure segregation was required by law, but de facto segregation persists through lending, zoning and individual choices. It differs from concentrated poverty, though the two often overlap.