Spatial Stereotypes and Racial Inequality – UROP Spring Symposium 2021

Spatial Stereotypes and Racial Inequality

Odri Suero Medina

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Pronouns: She/Her

Research Mentor(s): Nick Camp, Assistant Professor
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Organizational Studies, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 5 (3pm-3:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 5
Presenter: 6

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Abstract

A study was done to understand the impact of how a space looks and how certain features of a space are associated with one racial group and how other features are associated with another racial group and on how race and space stereotypes support each other.. Through the use of coding we have created a survey that allows us to understand how people group certain aspects, such as the looks, of a city and use them to make an inference of what racial group of people lives in that city. In our study we have used the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as our representative city to see how people think when it comes to race and space. We sampled images from google street view and inserted them into our survey. With this survey we hope to understand if people associate one racial group with wealth and prosperity based on the pictures they are shown of that space and if they associate a different racial group with poverty and privation. Through understanding the assumptions of how people of a certain race may live in a different quality area than another, and through understanding how we may view a person differently based on the place they are see in we can find a way to better this disparity in where people live and also find ways to educate people and remove that bias that may come with associating one group with wealth and another with poverty.

Authors: Odri Suero, Nicholas Camp
Research Method: Survey Research

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