Remarks on Rushing's Paper on Hospital Commitment

places, the protestations of a relatively small number of community "oldtimers" notwithstanding. Approximately one out of every five American households change location every year. If such moving behavior were evenly distributed among the population, a complete transition of a community could occur over a mere five-year period without anybody fleeing from anybody. It takes somewhat longer because such moving behavior is not evenly distributed and because a declining proportion of the replacement purchasing and renting is by whites moving into a changing area (cf. Rapkin and Grigsby 1960). I suspect that some "racial moving" does occur, but less and less. This is the racial-change pattern which I think I witnessed in South Shore and which I think may be the general emerging pattern of the 1970s. To get back to Felson's question, segregation will persist but white flight may not be the cause. As I argue elsewhere (Molotch 1972, chap. 10), the policy implication is that stable racial integration is essentially contingent upon elimination of discrimination and all other forces which inhibit blacks from gaining access to good housing. I doubt there are any shortcuts. HARVEY MOLOTCH University of California, Santa Barbara