Shedding Light on the Reasons for Inequality in Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhood and the End of Progress toward Racial Equality by Patrick Sharkey

Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating

Social and economic disparities are plaguing the city of Baltimore. There are numerous issues that the city of Baltimore is facing, many of which did not come to light until the case of Freddie Gray. On April 2015, a 25-year-old black man by the name of Freddie Gray fell victim to police brutality. After the discovery of his death and the unreasonable way he was treated, Baltimoreans began to protest. The anger and frustration began to escalate due to other social and economic problems the city faces regularly.

Is gentrification causing segregation in urban cities? The majority of modern day cities are in a state of steady gentrification. Many people believe that gentrification is making the city more modern, safe, and appealing to other people. However, these people in their naivety fail to comprehend the hidden consequences and impact of gentrification on various ethnic groups and low-income families. Gentrification is a master of disguise that hides itself with assumed correlations to everyday people. One such assumption is that gentrification will increase the socioeconomic diversity of a neighborhood.

Race affects the geographical location where people live. Several authors have examined the relationship between race and residential location within cities, and have come to the conclusion that race clearly determines where one resides. The thesis developed in this paper is that people of colour or Blacks usually occupy those areas in the city that are considered high risk, either in terms of how close they are to environmental hazards or in terms of how they are located in low lying areas. The concepts that will be dealt with in this paper are those of environmental racism, racial residential segregation and environmental justice. Social construction is seen as relegating people of colour to certain neighbourhoods, and while it may be accepted as the way things are, a closer assessment of the situation through research studies show that there is nothing casual about the observations, but that there is a system of racism that underlies the decisions that are made, and that accounts for the residential location of Blacks in certain parts of the city. This paper examines this idea by looking at many cities throughout the United States, which point to the same trend, to the location of lack in places of environmental hazard, whether topographical or industrial.

Throughout history, the poor and undesirable classes of societies were always placed in separate living areas. For the undesirable poor and African Americans of America, the ghetto was created to keep them out of certain settlements. In his book, Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power, Kenneth B. Clark describes the ghetto as having an "invisible wall" that surrounded it. People who live in ghettos have their social dynamics, behaviorism, and overall health negatively impacted by racism and segregation. Life in the ghettos is considered to be both harsh and dangerous due to the high crime rates and violence.

The other two readings were very similar because they expressed even after the 14th amendment and the Jim Crow Laws Blacks were under surveillance by the police. Starting with “Who Looks Suspicious? Racialized Surveillance in a Predominantly White Neighborhood” by Maria R. Lowe. Overtime Whites have gained this belief that Blacks are threatening and violent criminals. With that being said this drew more attention toward Blacks because even after slavery police were looking for any small reason to throw them back in jail. Their fear comes from generations of stereotypes of Black people allowed Whites to be able to carry guns to secure their safety. This ties back to watch system organized by Whites allowed predominantly white neighborhoods to

According to Massey and Denton (1988), residential segregation “is the degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban environment”(282). Now this is a pretty general definition, but it gives basic but good insight as to what residential desegregation is talking about. In this paper, I will mostly be focusing on residential segregation as it relates to the black and white populations in relation to one another, although I will be referencing some other races briefly to create a better understanding of concepts or ideas.

The main themes of Larson’s book are very clear in his prologue; they include the three main conflicts of good versus evil, daylight versus darkness, and the Black City versus the White City. Throughout the book Larson supports all three theme s with his overall story and characters. For example, he supports his theme of good versus evil seen in Chicago during the late1800s through his story of Holmes; Holmes is seen as a murderer to readers, however, within the story Holmes is blindly seen as a great magical man to many characters. The underlying story of Holmes also contributes to the support of good versus evil because as the fair becomes a great and majestic statement for the United States, Holmes is the contradiction to the good the fair is supposed to be doing because he is contributing to the rate of disappearances and deaths in the greatest city of the time.

The problems of race and urban poverty remain pressing challenges which the United States has yet to address. Changes in the global economy, technology, and race relations during the last 30 years have necessitated new and innovative analyses and policy responses. A common thread which weaves throughout many of the studies reviewed here is the dynamics of migration. In When Work Disappears, immigrants provide comparative data with which to highlight the problems of ghetto poverty affecting blacks. In No Shame in My Game, Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants are part of the changing demographics in Harlem. In Canarsie, the possible migration of blacks into a working/middle-class neighborhood prompts conservative backlash from a

During module #3 I was very shocked at some of the findings I discovered. I never realized how much the role of race in urban America and the way it has affected and shaped the spatial organization of cities. Being asked this question prior to this module I would of had no idea what was going on. I never thought about poverty, race, where people live and why they live there, or even crime in areas like I do now. It shocks me to see how much cities and people living in the cities are struggling from poverty and how race is a major factor in all of this. Thinking back on Davenport, and what has been going on in my home town has really helped me connect all the things we have learned in class to my life. Poverty, crime, race, and where

Viewing the complex matter of gentrification succinctly, it helps to uncover how multifaceted it is; in that gentrification involves the oppression, marginalization, displacement of vulnerable populations, particularly, the poor, and the black who are often already negatively impacted by the effects of classism, and racism. Gentrification threatens to erode the communities and livelihood maintained by these set of people because their displacement becomes a precondition for the total transformation of the area.

Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums, predicts the direction in which the world’s cities are headed, and how the changes in living conditions are only going to deteriorate if certain trends continue. The title of his book explains Davis’s vision for the future of cities as he feels there is enough evidence pointing towards an exponential rise in slum populations across the world’s largest cities. Additionally, he expresses his opinion on many issues regarding the rapid rise in developing cities’ slum populations, although he offers very one-sided arguments geared towards those who feel the current system is causing more problems rather than improving current conditions. This causes Davis to overlook the problems of slums as resolvable through different modes of assistance such as international aid programs. Instead, he views aid programs as the root cause of imbalance created during industrialization. Throughout the book, Davis presents information that confirms his preconceptions towards the slums. Therefore, all the evidence that is presented by him portrays confirmation bias as Davis fails to mention anything about the resolution of the problem of the growing number of slums and instead sees this problem as unavoidable. Particularly, Davis’ writing, although intended for the general population, is more geared towards critics who have similar ideas. Instead of providing the means through which the economy could be improved and the problem of slums could be resolved, it is

Poverty and oppression is a serious condition that is prevalent even in today’s modern society. Women and children are exposed to poverty and subjected to a life of injustice. One of the countries where such problems still occur is in India. Despite the country’s modernization, there lies an undercity where the disparity of wealth is transparent. These social problems are thoroughly described in movies and literature such as Slumdog Millionaire and Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Catherine Boo, the author describes slum life for a set of individuals and the hardship that their social conditions confined them to. Another movie that gave insight to slum life in India is Slumdog Millionaire

In this paper, I compare and contrast Slumdog Millionaire and Salaam Bombay in their portrayals of Indian children who live in slums. Several themes emerge from both the movies that I will discuss in this essay. Gilbert (2007) mentions that according to World Bank/UNCHS, Hundreds of millions of urban poor in the developing and transitional world have few options but to live in squalid, unsafe environments where they face multiple threats to their health and security. Slums and squatter settlements lack the most basic infrastructure and services. Their populations are marginalized and largely disenfranchised. They are exposed to the diseases, crime and vulnerable to natural disasters. Slum and squatter settlements are growing at alarming rates,

Main features and characteristics of the slums are poor connectivity to the main city, lack of proper sanitation conditions and lack of electricity and are densely populated and generally have a very high occupancy rate. Slums are usually characterized by urban “breeding grounds” for social