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white flight
noun
: the departure of whites from places (such as urban neighborhoods or schools) increasingly or predominantly populated by minorities
Examples of white flight in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
His parents had joined in the 1950s, when white flight upended the population of their neighborhood, but the Campolos chose to remain.
—Trip Gabriel, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2024
His parents had bought their four-apartment home amid late ’60s white flight for $23,000, paying installments to the seller, who eventually forgave the balance.
—Siddhartha Mitter, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2024
In that case, a white flight attendant claimed that an unidentified individual had body odor and Black men were targeted for removal from the flight in a humiliating act of racial profiling, said the plaintiffs.
—Kizzy Cox, Essence, 12 Aug. 2024
The phenomenon of white flight — where white families fled inner-ring suburbs as Black families moved in — is apparent in the history of suburban school districts, Lily Altavena reports.
—Diamy Wang, Detroit Free Press, 28 July 2024
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Word History
First Known Use
1956, in the meaning defined above
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Cite this Entry
“White flight.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%20flight. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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