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Residential Segregation In America

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In America on average only 27% of African American Students’ class mates are Caucasian due to a divide between white and minority populations which has lasted for decades (Rivkin n.pag.). A system of racial division has evolved in the shadows and takes on many forms, most of which are fairly discrete. Racially separated communities have formed through a variety of mediums in a slow and persistent manner. However, the effects of a residential divide are direct, immediate, and numerous. A racist agenda within the development of American communities has further isolated the American people from each other by a means of systematic urban segregation. In a word, segregation is, “The act or process of separating a race, class, or ethnic group from …show more content…

This form of segregation is more common in rural and suburban communities, due to their already spread out and divided nature. An example of complete segregation would be if there were two towns both of which were comprised by mostly or exclusively one race.
Likewise, concentration segregation is when a specific group clusters itself within a specific section of a community (“Residential Segregation” n.pag.). This form of segregation is more common within cities and urban communities due to their compact and condensed nature. An example of racial concentration would be if there were a town in which all of the white residents lived in the southern most portion of that town while all other races lived in the northern, eastern, and western portions of the same town. On a related note, the formation of residential segregation is rather discrete but it is certainly well rooted and can be traced back to the end of slavery where White Southerners were forced to ratify the 13th amendment (George 12). In response a caste system was created in which, “Negroes were to remain a dependent laboring class; they were to be governed by a separate code of laws; they were to play no active part in the South’s political life; and they were to be segregated socially” (George 13). This desire to create a new system of inequality led to the separation …show more content…

One of the most ingenious and common tools of residential segregation is the United States highway system. When the United States highway system was conceived there were many thriving minority communities within American cities (“How Highways Wrecked American Cities” n.pag.). However, highways provided two major opportunities for a major population shift and consequential divide. First, highways gave Americans with enough capitol (mostly Caucasian white collar workers) the ability to live outside of cities while they commuted to cities to work. This meant that families in the upper income brackets, who were white, were able to isolate themselves from the families in lower income brackets, which included most African Americans and other minorities (“How Highways Wrecked American Cities” n.pag.). Also highways were a means of destroying minority communities. Highways sliced through American cities and in order to make room thriving minority communities needed to be pathed over (“How Highways Wrecked American Cities” n.pag.). All the while, white communities had the means to organize, protest, and protect themselves from the construction of highways and the destruction of their own

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