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| Urban street scene Photograph by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters citylab.com |
It is Monday, the first full week since the Brexit. No doubt we will be covering this subject from an architecture, historic preservation, urban planning and design perspective. For now, we are going to look at race and the creative economy. Specifically, with the help of Richard Florida's CityLab article "The Racial Divide in the Creative Economy," we are going discuss how race factors into the creative class. Although, the creative class tends to skew Caucasian, Mr. Florida shows places around the United States where African-American creatives are doing as well their Caucasian counterparts.
Just about every pundit, Mr. Florida included, has made the argument that "class is an increasingly important source of division and distress in American social, economic, and political life." However, Ta-Nahisi Coates and sociologist William Julius Wilson tell us that race trumps class when it comes to destructive realities of concentrated poverty. Richard Florida's own research has focused on how the new class structures, at the foundation the post-industrial economy, spurred by his experience of the Newark riots. Mr. Florida writes, "More than a decade ago in The Rise of the Creative Class, Identified a negative connection between race and the creative economy-specifically, the negative association between high-growth, high-tech, firms, and the non-white share of the U.S. urban population."
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| The Rise of The Creative Class revisited Richard Florida citylab.com |
Throughout the United States, 73.8 percent of all creative professions are held by non-Hispanic white, compared to the paltry 8.5 percent by African Americans. As a means of of comparison, "...non-Hispanic whites make up roughly two thirds of the population (64 percent) compared to 12 percent for blacks. While 36 percent of all workers nationally are part of the creative class..., 41 percent of white workers hold creative class jobs, while just 28 percent black workers do."
What does the look like geographically? Are there some metropolitan areas that have a more racially equitable creative class than others?
To understand this, Mr. Florida partnered with Todd Gabe from the University of Maine to locate the racial distribution of the creative class across the United States and the approximately 380 metropolitan ares. In particular, they looked the number of African American and Caucasian workers aged 16 and over in creative occupations for the year 2013. The team used American Census categories for management, business, science, and the arts profession, which as Mr. Florida notes, "...differs somewhat from my original definition of the creative, which is based on more fine-grained occupational data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics."
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| "Black-Share in Occupations" Marting Prosperity Institute citylab.com |
The Geography of the Black Creative Class
The map at the left present the geography of the African American creative class across the United States. The areas in purple represent metropolitans where there is a higher percentage of African American creative; the light blue shaded areas are metropolitans where African American are not as likely to hold creative occupations. Pay attention to the large blocks of purple in California, Texas, and Washington D.C.
Top Ten Large Metros
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Percent of Black Workers in Creative Occupations
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Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
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40.9%
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San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
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39.0%
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Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
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35.8%
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San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
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34.9%
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Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
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34.2%
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Raleigh, NC
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34.1%
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San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
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34.1%
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Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA
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34.0%
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Austin-Round Rock, TX
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33.9%
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San Diego-Carlsbad, CA
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33.7%
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Bottom Ten Large Metros
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Percent of Black Workers in Creative Occupations
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Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV
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23.3%
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New Orleans-Metairie, LA
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24.4%
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Memphis, TN-MS-AR
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24.5%
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Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
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24.6%
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Pittsburgh, PA
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24.7%
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Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
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24.9%
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Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY
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25.1%
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Cleveland-Elyria, OH
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25.1%
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Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
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25.2%
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Rochester, NY
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25.5%
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Top Ten Large Metropolitans and Percentage of African American in Creative Class Occupations
Martin Prosperity Institute
citylab.com
The long table above, breaks down the top ten large metropolitans with the greatest and lest number of African American creatives. The Washington D.C. metropolitan areas ranks number one with "40.9 percent, followed by three California metros: San Jose (39 percent), Los Angeles (35.8), and San Francisco (34.9 percent). Rounding out the top ten are: Baltimore, Raleigh, North Carolina Research Triangle, San Antonio, Sacramento, Austin, and San Diego. If you notice, half the top ten are in Blogger's home state of California and based in leading knowledge and technology hubs. New York and Chicago round out the top twenty with about 30 percent for African Americans holding creative jobs. Atlanta, with a large African American middle class, ranks 15th with 32.3 percent.
The bottom ten is taken up by the Sunbelt and Rustbelt state metropolitans. The top bottom ten metropolitan area is Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada with 23.3 percent of African American creatives. This area is follow by the New Orleans-Metairie, Louisianan metropolitan areas with 24.4 percent of African Americans in creative professions. The remaining top bottom ten is taken up by heritage industrial metropolitans: Memphis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Rochester.
If you consider metropolitan areas of all sizes, a few have greater shares of African American workers in creative occupations. They include Lewiston, Idaho; Columbus, Indiana; Wausau, Wisconsin; Idaho Falls, Idaho; and Santa Cruz, California which have a 50 to 60 percent share of African American creatives. However, metropolitans such as: St. George, Utah; Wenatchee, Washington; Casper, Wyoming; Grants Pass, Oregon; and Sheboygan, Wisconsin have the lowest percentage of African American creatives-zero to five percent.
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| Share in Occupation-Caucasian Martin Prosperity Institute citylab.com |
The Geography of the White Creative Class
The next map on the left is the geography of the Caucasian creative class. Notice that the entire map is shaded in purple, "...meaning the most metros have a white creative class share in excess of 35 percent."
The next table, below, lists the top and bottom ten large metropolitans with the highest and lowers percentage of Caucasian creative workers. Once again, the traditional knowledge and technology hubs: Washington D.C., San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, Boston, and the Raleigh, North Carolina Research Triangle are the numbers one, two, and three respectively. This time, Houston, New York, and Los Angeles are in the top ten as well as the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire corridor. Richard Florida writes, "In most of these leading metro, the white creative class is considerably higher than the overall creative class share of the workforce, indicating how skewed the creative class is to white workers.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
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61.9%
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San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
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58.5%
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San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
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57.5%
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Austin-Round Rock, TX
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52.9%
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Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
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52.6%
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Raleigh, NC
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52.5%
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San Diego-Carlsbad, CA
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49.6%
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New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
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49.2%
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Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX
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49.0%
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Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
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49.0%
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Bottom Ten Large Metros
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Percent of White Workers in Creative Occupations
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Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV
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34.5%
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Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
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35.7%
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Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY
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37.5%
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Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
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38.0 %
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Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
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38.1%
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Pittsburgh, PA
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38.3%
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Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
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38.6%
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Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
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38.9%
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Jacksonville, FL
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38.9%
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Cleveland-Elyria, OH
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39.3%
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Top Ten Large Metropolitan and Percentage of Caucasian in Creative Class Occupations
Martin Prosperity Institute
citylab.com
The top bottom ten now includes the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California metropolitan and Jacksonville, Florida as well as the traditional industrial and Rustbelt metropolitans: Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. However, once again the Caucasian creative class is 10 to 20 points greater than the overall share for these places. Specifically, the Caucasian creatives in these these top bottom ten metropolitans ranges from the 35 to 40 percent or "...the equivalent of some of the highest overall creative class shares in the nation."
When we factor in small- and medium-sized metropolitans, smaller university town like DurhamChapel Hill, Boulder, Ann Arbor, Charlottesville, and Ithaca lead with about 50 to 58 percent of Caucasian creative professionals. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the smaller Rustbelt and Sunbelt metropolitans in states such as Arizona, Illinois, and Indiana with about 27 percent.
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| Geography of African American and Caucasian shares Martin Prosperity Institute citylab.com |
Comparing the Black and White Creative Class
The next question is "How do the black and white creative classes compare across U.S. metros?
Overall, the number of Caucasian creative professionals is in excess of 40 percent in more than a quarter of all the metropolitan areas ("27.8 percent, or 106 metros") and "...over 70 percent of large metros (37 of 51 metros)." On the other hand, the number of African American professionals exceeds 40 percent in a paltry "...5.7 percent of all metros (20 metros total) and just one large metro).
The map above left maps the ratio of African American and Caucasian creatives for metropolitans throughout America. Richard Florida explains, "A ratio of 1 means that black and white workers are just as likely to hold creative class jobs. Ratios greater than 1, outlined in darker shades of purple on the map, indicate metros where black workers are relatively more likely to have creative class jobs than their white counterparts. Ratios less than 1, highlighted in blue on the map, highlight where white workers are relatively more likely to hold creative class jobs." Pay attention to the wide bands of blue sprinkling of purple on the map. Across most of the country, the number of Caucasian creative professionals exceeds that of their African American counterparts.
Top Ten Large Metros
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Ratio of Black to White Creative Class
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Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
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0.87
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Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
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0.78
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Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA
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0.77
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Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA
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0.76
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San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
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0.73
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Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
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0.71
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Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
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0.70
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Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
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0.70
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Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
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0.70
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Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
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0.70
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Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
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0.70
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Bottom Ten Large Metros
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Ratio of Black to White Creative Class
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Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
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0.58
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Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
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0.59
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New Orleans-Metairie, LA
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0.59
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Memphis, TN-MS-AR
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0.59
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Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
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0.60
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San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
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0.61
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Rochester, NY
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0.61
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Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
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0.62
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New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
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0.62
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Kansas City, MO-KS
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0.63
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Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
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0.63
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Richmond, VA
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0.63
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Top Ten Large Metropolitans and Percentage of African American and Caucasian Creative Professionals
Martin Prosperity Institute
citylab.com
The table above presents the break down of creative class, along racial lines, for the top ten and top bottom ten large metropolitan areas. What is noteworthy is none of the 51 large metropolitans have a ratio of greater than 1. Mr. Florida explains this phenomena, "That means there is not a single metro across the country where the share of black workers in the creative class exceeds the share for white workers." To wit, the Riverside-San Bernardino area is ranked number one with a ratio of .87. Point of interest, it also ranks among metropolitans with the lowest percentage of creative professionals in the country. Filling out this list are Phoenix, Sacramento, Portland, San Antonio, Tampa, and Charlotte.
On the opposite end of the list, the top bottom ten metropolitan include a combination of historically industrial areas like Milwaukee, service economies like New Orleans and Miami, and primary knowledge and technology hubs like the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Denver, and New York. Further, many of America's main technology and talent centers also fare poorly in the African American-Caucasian ratio: "Washington D.C,'s ratio for instance is .66, Boston's is .65, and L.A. Chicago's .68."
Richard Florida reports, "Across the nation, there are just 22 metros where black-white creative class ratio exceeds 1 (meaning that a greater share of black workers have creative class jobs, as compared to the share of white workers). These are pocket metropolitans: Lewiston,Idaho-Washington (2.03); Wausau, Wisconsin (1.62); Columbus, Indiana (1.55); Billings, Montana (1.49); and Idaho Fall, Idaho (1.47). What all these metropolitans have in common is that smaller out of the way places where there is less competition in the creative economy. The flip side of this coin are the 150 metropolitans (40 percent) where the ratio is .65 or less and about 300 metropolitans (79 percent) where it is .80 or less.
Characteristics of Black and White Creative Metros
What are the social, economic, and demographic characteristics of metropolitans with bigger or smaller concentrations of the African American creative class? How does this look side-by-side with metropolitans with greater shares of Caucasian creative class?
At first glance, there seems to be no difference between the two. Mr. Florida cautions us, "While there is a connection between the two (with a correlation of.44), they don't always tend to follow the same patterns." How so, you may ask. First point, African American creatives does not just flourish where Caucasians creatives do. While there is a positive connection between the African American creative professions and the overall creative class (.39), Mr. Florida reports, "...this association was significantly stronger between the overall creative class and the white creative class (.77). Both black and white creative class are negatively associated with the share of workers in blue-collar working class jobs (with correlations of .32 and .62, respectively).
One might think that the African American creative class would be linked with the percentage of African Americans in a metropolitan area. However, this is not the situation. Mr. Florida disabuses us of this notion, "...in fact, we find a weak negative correlation between the black creative class and the black share of the population."
Richard Florida's own research has documented a close connection between the creative class and the affluence of metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, this is not case for African American creatives. Next point, "There is no statistical association between the black and economic output per person, a key measure for the underlying productivity of metros." To wit, there is a weak connection between income and African American creatives (.14), "...but it please in comparison to the association between income and the white creative class (.56)."
Why is this the case? The answer is African American creatives do tend to be somewhat greater in metropolitan areas with larger numbers of high-tech firms (a correlation of .27 to the concentration of high-tech firms and .18 to innovation predicated on patents). This contrasts with Mr. Florida's previous finding of a negative link between high-tech firms and non-Caucasian population. Be that as it may, "...these correlations are quite a bit smaller than those for the white creative class and high-tech firms (.68) and innovation (.44)."
Further, the population of African American creatives is larger in metropolitans with highly educated inhabitants. The numbers bear this out: positively associated with college graduates (.31), but this number is significantly less than for the Caucasian creatives (.78).
Richard Florida's own researched has long accentuated the link between diversity and the creative class. He writes, "Indeed, the black creative class is associated with two key measures of of diversity and tolerance: the share of adults who are foreign-born (.34) and the share who are gay and lesbian (.36)." However, before you start applauding, a word of caution: "...these correlations are substantially less than for the white creative class (.55 for foreign-born and .67 for gays and lesbians)."
The Martin Prosperity Institute's own analysis revealed that the population of African America creatives is greater in more dense metropolitans (a correlation of .32 to population-based density), bust is still smaller than the correlation for Caucasian creatives (.58). While the creative class overall is proportional to the size of a city and metropolitan, the MPI only found a weak association between African American creatives and the size of a metropolitan based on demographics (a correlation .17, compared to a .54 correlation for Caucasian creatives).
Another conclusion found that African American creatives are "...also larger in more compact, less sprawling metros." This demographic is negatively associate with the number of workers who drive to their place of employment alone-a measure of sprawl (.34)-once again this is less than the correlation for Caucasian creatives (.54). Mr. Florida points out, "Interestingly enough, the black (.25) and white (.26) creative class are similarly associated with the share of workers who walk to work, a key in indicator of a more compact, denser area."
Richard Florida's previous study also revealed a significant and sizable correlation between the general creative class and both inequality and segregation. However, African American creative have no statistical connection with income inequality based on the Gini coefficient-"...compared to a correlation of .40 for the white creative class." African American creatives are moderately associate with MPI's measures of overall economic segregation (.20), this far more modest than the correlation for Caucasian creatives (.66). Mr. Florida writes, "Here our analysis finds that the black creative class may serve to mitigate both inequality and segregation to some degree. From a policy perspective, this means that efforts to boost the black creative class may combat inequality and segregation."
One final word on the subject of race and the creative economy. This is a fascinating subject, worth a deeper read than yours truly has space to give. Richard Florida save the goods points-the creative economy, income inequality, and segregation for the end instead of leading off with them. Further, Blogger believes that another comparative study, looking at Latino and Asian American creatives, might give a fuller picture of how race factors into the creative economy. It would also be interesting to look at gender and the creative economy. He also mentions gay and lesbian creatives, how is this a factor in the creative economy? It would be interesting to see what the education and job break down is-i.e. how levels of education and creative jobs are spread out among the creatives. Perhaps, another study for another day.
Richard Florida reports, "Across the nation, there are just 22 metros where black-white creative class ratio exceeds 1 (meaning that a greater share of black workers have creative class jobs, as compared to the share of white workers). These are pocket metropolitans: Lewiston,Idaho-Washington (2.03); Wausau, Wisconsin (1.62); Columbus, Indiana (1.55); Billings, Montana (1.49); and Idaho Fall, Idaho (1.47). What all these metropolitans have in common is that smaller out of the way places where there is less competition in the creative economy. The flip side of this coin are the 150 metropolitans (40 percent) where the ratio is .65 or less and about 300 metropolitans (79 percent) where it is .80 or less.
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| White House Af-Am Ed tweet twitter.com |
What are the social, economic, and demographic characteristics of metropolitans with bigger or smaller concentrations of the African American creative class? How does this look side-by-side with metropolitans with greater shares of Caucasian creative class?
At first glance, there seems to be no difference between the two. Mr. Florida cautions us, "While there is a connection between the two (with a correlation of.44), they don't always tend to follow the same patterns." How so, you may ask. First point, African American creatives does not just flourish where Caucasians creatives do. While there is a positive connection between the African American creative professions and the overall creative class (.39), Mr. Florida reports, "...this association was significantly stronger between the overall creative class and the white creative class (.77). Both black and white creative class are negatively associated with the share of workers in blue-collar working class jobs (with correlations of .32 and .62, respectively).
 |
| Culture and Industry slideshare.net |
Richard Florida's own research has documented a close connection between the creative class and the affluence of metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, this is not case for African American creatives. Next point, "There is no statistical association between the black and economic output per person, a key measure for the underlying productivity of metros." To wit, there is a weak connection between income and African American creatives (.14), "...but it please in comparison to the association between income and the white creative class (.56)."
 |
| Culture and Industry 2 slideshare.net |
Why is this the case? The answer is African American creatives do tend to be somewhat greater in metropolitan areas with larger numbers of high-tech firms (a correlation of .27 to the concentration of high-tech firms and .18 to innovation predicated on patents). This contrasts with Mr. Florida's previous finding of a negative link between high-tech firms and non-Caucasian population. Be that as it may, "...these correlations are quite a bit smaller than those for the white creative class and high-tech firms (.68) and innovation (.44)."
Further, the population of African American creatives is larger in metropolitans with highly educated inhabitants. The numbers bear this out: positively associated with college graduates (.31), but this number is significantly less than for the Caucasian creatives (.78).
 |
| Creative economy word cloud forbes.com |
Richard Florida's own researched has long accentuated the link between diversity and the creative class. He writes, "Indeed, the black creative class is associated with two key measures of of diversity and tolerance: the share of adults who are foreign-born (.34) and the share who are gay and lesbian (.36)." However, before you start applauding, a word of caution: "...these correlations are substantially less than for the white creative class (.55 for foreign-born and .67 for gays and lesbians)."
The Martin Prosperity Institute's own analysis revealed that the population of African America creatives is greater in more dense metropolitans (a correlation of .32 to population-based density), bust is still smaller than the correlation for Caucasian creatives (.58). While the creative class overall is proportional to the size of a city and metropolitan, the MPI only found a weak association between African American creatives and the size of a metropolitan based on demographics (a correlation .17, compared to a .54 correlation for Caucasian creatives).
 |
| Creative professions creativityworksvc.com |
Richard Florida's previous study also revealed a significant and sizable correlation between the general creative class and both inequality and segregation. However, African American creative have no statistical connection with income inequality based on the Gini coefficient-"...compared to a correlation of .40 for the white creative class." African American creatives are moderately associate with MPI's measures of overall economic segregation (.20), this far more modest than the correlation for Caucasian creatives (.66). Mr. Florida writes, "Here our analysis finds that the black creative class may serve to mitigate both inequality and segregation to some degree. From a policy perspective, this means that efforts to boost the black creative class may combat inequality and segregation."
One final word on the subject of race and the creative economy. This is a fascinating subject, worth a deeper read than yours truly has space to give. Richard Florida save the goods points-the creative economy, income inequality, and segregation for the end instead of leading off with them. Further, Blogger believes that another comparative study, looking at Latino and Asian American creatives, might give a fuller picture of how race factors into the creative economy. It would also be interesting to look at gender and the creative economy. He also mentions gay and lesbian creatives, how is this a factor in the creative economy? It would be interesting to see what the education and job break down is-i.e. how levels of education and creative jobs are spread out among the creatives. Perhaps, another study for another day.
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