Friendship, Race, and Ethnicity

Friendships across racial and ethnic lines can be interpreted as barometers of social integration and social support in a given society. In the United States, while racial and ethnic integration has steadily increased since the end of legalized racial segregation in the 1960s, race and ethnicity continue to prove an important divider of friendship. Blau's theory of intergroup relations and Allport's contact hypothesis provide the main theoretical propositions guiding scholarly work on race/ethnicity and friendships. The significance of friendships along racial and ethnic lines, the conditions under which spatial proximity increases friendships between individuals of different racial/ethnic groups, and the consequences of interracial and interethnic friendship for attitudes and behaviors are discussed.