When Desegregation Reduces Interracial Contact: A Class Size Paradox for Weak Ties

  • Policies directed toward increasing interracial contact have the ironic secondary advantage of reducing the isolation of minorities.
  • Potential for interracial contact is greatest when the minority is somewhat concentrated without becoming a majority in any school.
  • All things being equal, there is evidence that increasing the potential for interracial contact does tend to increase the amount of interracial interaction to some extent.
  • Potential interracial contact may be reduced by breaking up concentrations of minority students in larger schools.
  • Desegregation can sometimes reduce the number of interracial weak ties that develop.