Segregation yields real psychological safety benefits that complicate any push to integrate

Evidence

There is, however, safety in segregation, and things are unlikely to improve dramatically until people feel safer. Residential segregation increased as a direct result of large population movements in response to intimidation, as families moved from religiously mixed areas into safe havens dominated by their coreligionists (Whyte, 1990). … While segregation may be a pernicious influence on prejudice, recent North American research has found that among African Americans it is associated with greater feelings of ingroup acceptance, which itself predicted psychological well-being (Postmes & Branscombe, 2002). However, this study also reported that segregation was associated with perceived rejection by outgroup members. Clearly, societal solutions must achieve some kind of trade-off between the benefits and costs of segregation. — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 104

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the reader’s question about whether glorification can be reversed: this suggests intergroup desegregation interventions would run against populations that feel safe in homogeneity, a barrier to reconciliation-driven reversal.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in the asymmetry between sliding into defensive group investment (seeking safety via like-others) and reversing out of it via contact. — connects to: Integration benefits minorities most and marginalization harms them most; The mental health of discrimination victims equals that of nonvictimized groups — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1060; Some prejudice-induced defenses like ingroup solidarity protect mental health (+9 more)

Related

• Segregation sustains conflict by institutionalizing mutual ignorance and suspicion (similarity 0.83)
• Segregation became the assumed natural norm while integration seemed unnatural (similarity 0.78)
• Ingroup distancing protects well-being but feeds prejudice that worsens interracial relations (similarity 0.78)
• Hostile integration pressure makes voluntary self-segregation preferable for lower-status groups. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Ethnic minority residential clustering actually protects physical and mental health #corroborates (0.95) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 338
• Integration benefits minorities most and marginalization harms them most #contradicts (0.85)
• The mental health of discrimination victims equals that of nonvictimized groups #contradicts (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1060
• Segregation sustains conflict by institutionalizing mutual ignorance and suspicion #complicates (0.85) — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 104
• Some prejudice-induced defenses like ingroup solidarity protect mental health #corroborates (0.80)
• Victims’ defenses against prejudice can protect rather than damage mental health #corroborates (0.80)
• Residential segregation is central to reproducing social inequality #qualifies (0.80) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2433
• Segregation functions as a stratifying distance mechanism, not just hostility expression #expands (0.78)
• Urban segregation’s psychological comfort exacts physical costs we call the urban crisis #complicates (0.75) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1034
• Strong community ties inherently enable exclusion and intergroup violence. #complicates (0.75)
• Voluntary Black separation differs fundamentally from discriminatory segregation #qualifies (0.70) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 872
• Segregation became the assumed natural norm while integration seemed unnatural #expands (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 447