Separate translates to unequal, even for the most successful Black and Latino minorities, according to news reports.

Researchers at Brown University's US2010 Project, which analyzes trends in American society, used research from the 2010 U.S. census to find that Black and Latino households earning more than $75,000 a year tended to live in poorer communities than the average lower-income white household that makes less than $40,000 a year.

This was especially true in large metro areas in the Northeast and Midwest, which has a history of segregation, and lowest in the South and Southwest regions of the country, according to the study. Washington, D.C., and the suburbs of Atlanta were exceptions as they are home to large communities of affluent Blacks.

Researchers asserted their findings to the possibility that Blacks feel social pressure to stay within poorer communities.

"White middle-class families have the option to live in a community that matches their own credentials," sociologist John Logan, director of US2010 Project, told USA Today. "If you're African-American and want to live with people like you in social class, you have to live in a community where you are in the minority."

On a whole, the study found that Blacks live in neighborhoods that are typically 45% Black, 35% white, 15% Latino and 4% Asian, which researchers believe is in line with a national trend in diversified neighborhoods due to the increase of Asians and Latinos into the overall population.  

Lower performing schools, high crime rates and lower home values in poorer neighborhoods also explain the disparities, researchers say.

(Photo: REUTERS/Keith Bedford/Landov)