AMERIKA

White communities prefer to risk repeat flooding rather than move to safer but more diverse neighborhoods

by Amy McCaig, Rice University

Distribution of owner–occupant FEMA HMGP participants, 1990–2017. 

Credit: Environmental Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acd654

Even after suffering flood damage, homeowners in mostly white communities prefer to accept higher risk of disaster repeating itself than relocate to areas with more racial diversity and less flood risk, according to new research from Rice University.

James Elliott , professor and chair of sociology, and Jay Wang, a senior spatial analyst at Rice's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, are the authors of "Managed retreat: a nationwide study of the local, racially segmented resettlement of homeowners from rising flood risks," published today in Environmental Research Letters.

To conduct their research, they tracked where nearly 10,000 Americans sold their flood-prone homes and moved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program—the largest managed retreat program in the country—between 1990 and 2017. The data included address-to-address residential relocation information, flood risks of different addresses, community-level racial and ethnic composition, average housing values and more.

"We found that across the U.S., the best predictor of the risk level at which homeowners voluntarily retreat is not whether they live in a coastal or inland area, or whether they live in a big city or a small town," Elliott said. "It is the racial composition of their immediate neighborhood."

He and Wang found that homeowners in majority-white neighborhoods are willing to endure a 30% higher flood risk before retreating than homeowners in majority-Black neighborhoods, after accounting for the various types of areas people live in (coastal, urban, rural, etc.).

"But, there are also some universal tendencies," Wang said. "One is that, regardless of location, most retreating homeowners do not move far."

Nationwide, the average driving distance between people's bought-out homes and new destinations is just 7.4 miles. Nearly three-quarters—74%—stay within 20 miles of their flood-ravaged homes.

"In other words, homeowners are not migrating long distances to safer towns, states and regions," Elliott said. "They are moving within their neighborhoods and between nearby areas."

The research also showed that despite being short-distance, these moves do reduce homeowners' future flood risks. Nationwide, the average reduction is 63%, from 5.6 on First Street's flood factor at origin to 2.1 at destination.

"This shows that sustained community attachment and risk reduction can go together," Wang said. "But, these dynamics remain deeply divided by race, especially for those living in majority-white communities."

More information: James R Elliott et al, Managed retreat: a nationwide study of the local, racially segmented resettlement of homeowners from rising flood risks, Environmental Research Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/acd654

Journal information: Environmental Research Letters 

Provided by Rice University 

When homes flood, who retreats and to where? The average move is only seven miles, and race plays a role

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity

Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience, Robert P. Jones delivers a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.

“This book is a marvel. It manages to quietly excoriate the insidious, entrenched attitudes that continue to sow racial hatred and division and to show the large and small ways that they continue. Devoid of moralizing, this powerful, heavily researched and annotated book is a must-read for religious leaders and academics.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)

“A concise yet comprehensive combination of deeply documented religious history, social science research about contemporary religion, and heartfelt memoir. . . . An indispensable study of Christianity in America.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“A refreshing blend of historical accounting, soul-searching reflection, and analysis of white supremacy within the American Christian identity. . . . Jones’s introspective, measured study is a revelatory unpacking of influence and history of white Christian nationalism.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Robert P. Jones’s searing White Too Long brilliantly argues that his fellow white Christians must dissent from their received faith and embrace a theology of racial justice. White Too Long is a prophetic call of redemption for folk who have too often idolized whiteness and worshipped America instead of the God of Martin, Fannie Lou and Jesse.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University; author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

“White Too Long is a powerful and much-needed book. It is a direct challenge to white Christians to finally put aside the idolatry of whiteness in order to release the country and themselves into a different possibility.  With clarity of moral vision, historical nuance, and the sensitivity of an artist’s pen, Jones has written a critical book for these troubled times.”
—Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies, Princeton University; author of Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lesson for Our Own

“In White Too Long, Robert Jones offers both searching personal testimony and a rigorous look at the facts to call white Christians to account for the scandalous ways white supremacists have regularly distorted and manipulated a faith dedicated to love and justice to rationalize racism. Jones is a rare and indispensable voice in our public conversation about religion because he combines painstaking data analysis with a sure moral sense. May this book encourage soul-searching, repentance, and conversion.”
—E. J. Dionne Jr., Columnist for The Washington Post; author of Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country

“White Too Long is meticulously researched and compelling throughout. It’s also a damning moral indictment of the way white supremacy has infected the white church in the United States from its very beginnings—which lays bare the need, now more than ever, for white Christians to systematically repent of white supremacy.”
—Jim Wallis, Founder and President of Sojourners; author of Christ in Crisis? Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus

“With integrity and vulnerability, Jones exposes the subtle but profound compatibility between white supremacist ideology and white Christian theology. This remarkably courageous, must read book helps white Christians in America finally face the question Jones had to ask himself, “Can you be “white” and Christian?”
—The Very Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary; Canon Theologian, Washington National Cathedral

“Robert Jones combines the passion of a memoirist, the rigor of a social scientist, and the tenacity of a historian to produce this piercing exploration of the dark ties that bind aspects of American Christianity to the nation’s original sin of racism. For anyone hoping to understand the cultural, racial, and religious fault lines that divide America today, White Too Long is timely, insightful and indispensable.”
—Ronald Brownstein, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Senior Political Analyst for CNN

Synopsis:

As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity’s role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christians—from evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast—have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.

With his family’s 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy. White Too Long demonstrates how deeply racist attitudes have become embedded in the DNA of white Christian identity over time and calls for an honest reckoning with a complicated, painful, and even shameful past. Jones challenges white Christians to acknowledge that public apologies are not enough—accepting responsibility for the past requires work toward repair in the present.

White Too Long is not an appeal to altruism. Drawing on lessons gleaned from case studies of communities beginning to face these challenges, Jones argues that contemporary white Christians must confront these unsettling truths because this is the only way to salvage the integrity of their faith and their own identities. More broadly, it is no exaggeration to say that not just the future of white Christianity but the outcome of the American experiment is at stake.