Colorblind retreat: how residents make sense of race and relocation from flood-prone areas

Abstract

Over recent decades, the United States federal government has funded the purchase and demolition of flood-prone housing across the country through a policy known as managed retreat. As this policy has touched down in areas where residents and government actors look to adapt to growing climate threats, managed retreat has entered housing markets long shaped by racial segregation and become entangled with the ideological frameworks that support and reproduce racial inequalities. To illuminate how these dynamics intersect, the present study conducted and analyzed nearly 100 interviews with residents from zones of retreat nationwide. Results reveal that colorblind racial ideology overwhelmingly structures how residents make sense of the policy’s implementation and related decision-making. We discuss how this colorblindness – the use of seemingly non-racial narratives to explain racialized realities – dovetails with political leaders’ avoidance of race-conscious policymaking to inhibit more equitable climate adaptation.