preview

Racial Marginalization

Good Essays

After the First World War, Chicago just like other American cities was experiencing a huge surge in the number of immigrants that played a significant role in its renowned neighborhoods. As the immigrant communities trickled into Chicago, most of them settled in specific areas mostly for the purposes of cultural integration and identity. A classic example is the members of the Africa-American community who settled in the Southern Side of Chicago and formed intense black neighborhoods (Pacyga, Chicago, 253). Consequentially, most of the people in the ethnic neighborhoods coalesced around each other for the purposes of social support as well as other social fears such as the glaring problems of racism that had taken deep roots in the American society more so before the civil rights movement had taken off. However, there has been more changes in the city such as the increased economic marginalization that has made the largely ethnic neighborhoods to be multi-ethnic as members of other ethnic groups such as the Latinos, Mexicans and even the whites have integrated in to the low-class black neighborhoods that have eventually led to the surge in Chicago slums. There have also been policies that have been adopted by Chicago mayoral office holders that have been aimed at undoing the racial marginalization that had played a major factor in the setting up of various Chicago neighborhoods. Thus, unlike in the past, the ethnic factor in the creation of neighborhoods has less

Get Access