Page 1 of 10 Can You Avoid Segregation?

Civil Rights Hero Rosa Parks Civil Rights Hero Rosa Parks

Everyone knows that prejudice can lead to segregation -- to the separation of groups by race, gender, or other social categories. It was this type of segregation that Rosa Parks fought in 1955 when she refused an Alabama bus driver's demand that she move to the rear with other Black riders.

But why does segregation still occur today in schools and other places where people support social equality? Nobel Laureate Thomas Schelling proposed an answer in the 1970s, writing that racial discrimination arises not only from behavior that is "heartless, selfish and illegal" but "from the magnification of small incentives into massive results."

To find out what he meant, click "Continue" below.