With a public audience of a few hundred people, the Advisory Board met with both national pundits and local program developers to learn about and discuss the state of America's economy and its connection to race relations. He also praised the booming economy for getting blacks out of the ghetto. Dr. Douglas Massey, a University of Pennsylvania expert on segregated housing, put more emphasis on residential de-segregation. Studies show that late 20 th -century African Americans are more segregated than any other group in US history. In housing markets, he said, much more than housing is at stake for the residents - schools, peer groups, insurance, local amenities and public services are determined by where a person lives.
Residential mobility is part and parcel of economic mobility.
Dr. Matthew Snipp, a sociologist at Stanford University, pointed out that Native Americans face special challenges in overcoming poverty. Explanations like housing segregation are inadequate in explaining persistent unemployment rates of nearly 40 percent in some Native American communities. Their voices are usually neglected because they are too few in number and too spread out across the country. He said that a community-based development of local economic bases, including the creation of new jobs, would contribute greatly to reducing not only unemployment, but also racial tensions. Robert Woodson, director of a nationwide nonpartisan research organization on the forefront of empowering low-income Americans, insisted that continued emphasis on racial prejudice prevents discussion of institutionalized racism.