'Lingering Effects' of Discrimination: Tracing Persistence over Time in Local Populations

Peter A. Morrison, RAND

I address a legal issue susceptible to demographic analysis: To what extent does past discrimination result in effects that linger in current times-—for example, narrowing residential choices, blunting educational aspirations of those affected and their offspring, and hindering contemporary political participation. Lingering effects of past discrimination might persist directly or derivatively. A Latino home buyer in the 1940s whose choices were restricted to narrow portions of a city by racially restrictive covenants then in existence, and who remained there ever since, would exemplify a direct effect. A contemporary Latino home buyer's reluctance to settle outside that area would exemplify a derivative effect. Such effects can be evaluated empirically, applying standard demographic concepts and data sources. I offer several illustrations of how applied demographic analysis can either confirm, cast doubt on, or rule out the contemporary existence of a specific “lingering effect.”