Hate Thy Neighbor

Despite increasingracial tolerance and national diversity, neighborhood segregation remains avery real problem in cities across America. Scholars, government officials, andthe general public have long attempted to understand why segregation persistsdespite efforts to combat it, traditionally focusing on the issue of “whiteflight,” or the idea that white residents will move to other areas if theirneighborhood becomes integrated. In HateThy Neighbor, Jeannine Bell expands upon these understandings byinvestigating a little-examined but surprisingly prevalent problem of “move-inviolence:” the anti-integration violence directed by white residents atminorities who move into their neighborhoods. Apprehensive about their newneighbors and worried about declining property values, these residents resortto extra-legal violence and intimidation tactics, often using vandalism andverbal harassment to combat what they view as a violation of their territory. Hate Thy Neighbor is the first work to seriously examine therole violence plays in maintaining housing segregation, illustrating howintimidation and fear are employed to force minorities back into separateneighborhoods and prevent meaningful integration. Drawing on evidence thatincludes in-depth interviews with ordinary citizens and analysis of FairHousing Act cases, Bell provides a moving examination of how neighborhoodracial violence is enabled today and how it harms not only the victims, butentire communities. By finally sheddinglight on this disturbing phenomenon, HateThy Neighbor not only enhances our understanding of how prevalentsegregation and this type of hate-crime remain, but also offers insightfulanalysis of a complex mix of remedies that can work to address this difficultproblem.