white flight

[hwahyt flahyt, wahyt]

noun

1. the movement of white people, especially middle-class and affluent white people, from urban neighborhoods undergoing racial integration to the suburbs.

white flight

noun

1. the departure of White residents from areas where non-White people are settling

Word History and Origins

Origin of white flight¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

In brief, Citicorp is seeking to build a new headquarters in New York, at a time when New York is mired in rampant street crime, white flight and financial collapse.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It was the lasting effects of losing so much tax revenue to a neighboring suburb due to white flight.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She was eventually hired by Compton Unified in 1967 and began an 17-year career as a social studies teacher in a school system that, at the time, had become nearly all-Black as a result of white flight.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

How he grew up in an era of “Jaime Crow” and how white flight happened “almost overnight.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

An American representative told the men at the time that the complaint had come from a white flight attendant.

Read more on New York Times