White flight
White flight is a term coined to describe the gradual movement of typically white working-class and middle-class Americans out of neighborhoods which African-American families are moving into. Although white flight continues to this day in the United States and many other places, the term often refers specifically to its mid and late 20th century nationwide occurence in the US.
The presumption was that African-Americans would bring with them the crime, drug use and gang activity of the "ghettos" from which they allegedly originated.
The fact that many of the blacks moving into these neighborhoods were themselves stable working-class and middle-class citizens, and often younger, college-educated married couples did little to alleviate white fears.
The same phenomenon has been seen where one ethnic group replaces another in a small geographic area.
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