Place-not-race?: The inadequacy of geography to address racial disparities

Emerging in policy disputes concerning affirmative action for non-Anglos is the notion of substituting geographic "place" for "race" as the principal standard for distributing social policy dollars to develop poverty-stricken urban non-Angle populations. Through demographic analysis at progressively smaller geographic scales this article shows that proposition that "place" can be the sole criterion for government policies designed to relieve urban non-Angle poverty is problematic. Place-based programs do not take into account the racial diversity of impoverished areas, thereby diminishing the ability to target non-Angle populations. Nor do they take into account the differing economic and educational profiles of racial groups in an impoverished area which tend to disproportionately distribute a place-based program's opportunities in favor of Anglos.