Poverty in Oklahoma City

[soonerguru]

Not most segregated - least segregated. It is one of the reasons I love this town. It pains me that my grandkids in NYC live in the city where their schools are the most segregated in the nation. Interesting that the most liberal areas are most segregated and the conservative places are least.





I'm not really sure why it is important to try to make the case that Oklahoma City has the most segregated poor. I mean, what is the point, even if it was actually true and not just a misread? The poster was correct - the claim that we had a high level of segregated poor made no sense. If you want to see segregated poor, look to places with high costs of living - that forces the poor into blighted areas because that is all they can afford.

Penny, it was just awkwardly worded. It was correct, though. Would have been more accurate to say OKC is the 8th LEAST segregated metro by income.

[PennyQuilts]

Penny, it was just awkwardly worded. It was correct, though. Would have been more accurate to say OKC is the 8th LEAST segregated metro by income.

Very poorly written article and organization of information, for sure.

To perhaps quibble, it wasn't just "income," - it was limited to a focus on the poor. Based on this article, we know that of the largest cities, our poor are among the least segregated - we have white poor as well as minority poor. I appreciate that if you are poor in OKC, it is less likely to be just about race. Since our minority stats are on par with most of the country, particularly when you add in the large number of Native Americans, that's a nice reality.

However, this article doesn't tell us if our wealthiest are more or less segregated than other places. I suspect NYC, whose poor are among the most segregated, i.e., they have far more minority poor than white poor, might also have a LESS segregated higher income that compared to some other places. I say that because it is a city with many successful people from all over the world. In contrast, I suspect OKC has a pretty segregated higher income group - mostly white.

The take away I get from most of these studies is that if you live in a big city, you tend to have a lot more economic inequality but racial aspects vary widely.