In recent years and over the course of the past fifty year history dating back to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, the city of Chicago has been a center stage for violence, protest, racial clash, and inevitably segregation. Since the days that Martin Luther King Jr. led marches in some of Chicago’s most historic moments, the city’s sizable black population has hardly witnessed an upturn in their quest for equality. In fact, many studies have identified a pattern of poverty, violence, bias, and pre-mature mortality. All of which have led to the systematic oppression of an entire population in one of the nation’s largest cities. As a result, over the course of the past fifty years in Chicago, poverty has expanded, neighborhoods have become …show more content…
To provide insight on just how segregated the city is, in order to even out the demographics of the city’s neighborhoods, some 72% of black or white residents would have to move to a different census tract, this according to a commonly used segregation measure called the index of dissimilarity (Luhby, 2016). Because of this, it is apparent that the lives of black and white Chicago residents could hardly be more different. In addition, these statistics are not new, in the not so distant past, the city had hushed housing and mortgage policies that kept black residents confined to Chicago’s lower class neighborhoods, for this reasons, many of Chicago’s black families rented for generations past as a result of the lapse in ownership opportunities. So, as a result it is summed up well by Chicago city planner Lauren Nolan who contests that "The scars of segregation, redlining, housing policies and discrimination are still very visible today," and perhaps are best seen on Chicago’s south side where streets still remain borders between race and income …show more content…
In recent years the on-going clash between the Chicago Police Department and the city’s black youth have epitomized in the shooting of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer seventeen times. Since, the city has witnessed large and violent protests and further endured racial out lashes and anti-police sentiment. As a baseline for understanding, this violence too is subject to only a few Chicago neighborhoods mostly on the city’s south and west sides where poverty is high and opportunity is slim. Some startling statistics involving race and the Chicago police verified by Chicago’s police accountability task force has concluded that in Chicago, African-Americans are shot nine times more than whites. In addition, blacks are stopped eight times more frequently than any other race (Johnson, 2016). Further, according to the study almost 300 African-Americans were shot by Chicago cops between 2008 and 2015, compared with 55 Hispanics and 13 whites. Since the McDonald shooting and the police scrutiny that has followed, violence in Chicago have risen astronautically in the year 2016 to date with 1,587 shot and 270 dead in only six
The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)
Today we live in a society where it is acceptable for a white and black family to be neighbors, even close friends. This situation has not always been the case. During the 1950’s, the time that the Younger family was living in Chicago, whites and blacks were living completely separate lives and a majority of the blacks were living in poverty. Although there are significant improvements we have made, there are still things that remain the same. Many African Americans in Chicago today are still living in poverty, just like they were over 50 years ago. Two important changes have occurred during these years. Our race relations between whites and blacks have improved tremendously. Today it is completely acceptable for two different colored families to be living next door to each other. The second significant change is not as positive. The homicide rates per 100,000 people have gone up by almost 10 times the amount it was in the 50’s. Many sociologist believe that the cycle of multigenerational poverty causes violence in the mostly black communities, therefore raising the homicide rates. Even though as a city we have improved our race relations there are still problems such as the rising homicide rates and percent of people living in poverty.
In Drawing the Color Line: Race and Real Estate in Early Twentieth-Century Chicago, Margaret Garb shows how Chicago was divided up based on race and social status. She shows the readers what happens upon the black tenants’ arrival to the white-only neighborhoods, and she shows how the white homeowners dealt with it.
Brent Staples’ essay, “When the Paranoids Turn Out to be Right,” acknowledges the issues of racism and racial profiling committed by police. In “Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun,” Geoffrey Canada also expresses views on this issue when he asserts that police fail to protect and serve individuals in poor neighborhoods. Staples contends, “Among the day-to-day acts of discrimination that shadow African Americans, none are more stressful or dangerous than those committed by police, some of whom treat black people as criminals until proved otherwise.” (Staples. 380) Although statistics show that the looming presence of narcotics and violence is more prevalent in urban neighborhoods, police should apply the same effort to protect individuals in these
Recent events that have highlighted racial tension in the United States have had even a larger number of opinions that vary regarding why the nation continues to struggle with such a challenging issue. In our text Chapter 6 titled “The City/Suburban Divide” (Judd & Swanstrom, 2015, p. 136) identifies a subject that very well may contribute to the tension. A reference to the “urban crisis” describes a landscape that is littered with “high levels of segregation, inequality and poverty, along with racial and ethnic tensions.” (Judd, et al., p. 165) Many scholars argue that the crisis was a result of the demographic changes the nation experienced following World War II as advancements in technology and infrastructure aided White Mobility. The term “White Flight” has been used to describe a massive relocation early in the twentieth century when the White Middle-Class population left the cities for suburban areas following the great migration.
A young man’s brutal death at the hands of the police is found justified in a court of law due to his “suspicious” appearance: a black hoodie and his hands in his pocket. An elderly woman is fatally shot in her home for her relation to a suspected criminal. A married man with two toddlers is choked to death after a minor traffic stop by an officer who later claimed that his unarmed victim was wielding a gun. These people all have a few commonalities: the color of their skin, their presumed guilt at first sight, and their ultimate unjustified death administered by the law force. These are not uncommon occurrences. Due to the staggeringly disproportionate rate of African-Americans killed by the police, and the underlying rampant racial profiling, police brutality towards blacks in America must be called to light.
Beverly is one of the most integrated areas in hype-segregated Chicago. Like that of Hyde Park or Rodgers Park, except Beverly obtains this diversity without the presence of a university. As well, “Beverly has retained its reputation as one of Chicago’s most stable middle-class residential districts” (Skerrett 2005). Black families during the 1950s and 60s started moving south as there was the historical “white flight”, leaving these communities mainly black. Beverly, however, was the expectation, as many black families did not come immediately here (Moore 2014). Demographically today, Beverly is 57% white, 35% black, and 5.6% Hispanic, making it the 15th largest white community in the city of Chicago, with most of these individuals are of
Income inequality has a direct relationship with middle class Americans’ destructive and poor lifestyle. In the poor areas of South Chicago, the black communities suffer “higher crime rates, poor performance in school, and family management,” said Robert Sampson, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago. Similarly, Harvard University sociologist William Julius Wilson found “patterns of racial exclusion” and “concentrated poverty” among the middle-class Americans in South Chicago “are much more likely to be exposed to crime and other manifestations of social dislocation and social problems…” Poor minority groups are not only affected by destructive and poor lifestyle due to income inequality but also, poor whites are affected. Poor
Residential segregation is a wide spread topic of discussion throughout cities across the United States. With population in larger cities growing, the separation of groups into neighborhoods is common — placing different standards of living on each section depending on the wealth and race of the inhabitants. In There Goes the Neighborhood: Racial Ethnic, and Class Tensions in Four Chicago Neighborhoods and Their Meaning for America William Julius Wilson and Richard P. Taub explore a new areas of Chicago and the residential segregation taking place there by creating a
Racial segregation has had a long history in Chicago. While separation by nationality had always been apparent in the city, with neighborhoods typically being dominated by a certain ethnicity, no group of Chicagoans experienced the degree of segregation that African Americans faced in everything from the housing districts to public services. Forced to live only in designated areas by de facto segregation, redlining, and other tactics, they had limited chances to escape the cycle of danger and discrimination of the city. Confined to only their deteriorating neighborhoods,they had little chance.
Police shootings of young Black males that ultimately result in their death have become an all-too-common occurrence in this country. The deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner have highlighted police relations with this population. Before viable solutions can be established, a number of areas need to be addressed that relate to the historical context in which police relations with this group exist that impact current relations between the police and young Black males, why their lives are seemingly given less value by society than those of their White counterparts, the role that spirituality and religiosity play that may help to make connections between them and the police, and the benefit of the Black church in fostering amicable police relations with young Black males.
Fifty years past after the Chicago Freedom Movement, and much has changed in Chicago. In 1966, a far southwest side neighborhood was 99.9 percent whites is now split between African-Americans, Hispanics, and with a few whites. African-Americans have come to hold positions of power throughout the world including the highest office in land. However, a lot has stayed the same too. Chicago is still one of America’s most segregated cities. The problems from the Chicago Freedom Movement have even gotten worse: gun violence, no jobs, and economic problems, and struggling schools. However, it is obvious that much has changed over the last fifty years. Now, everyone can drink from the same water fountain, no one has to sit at
People can not put on the news without seeing at least one story about social inequality or injustice, if everyone knows about these inequities why are they not being solved? Inequities are not limited to America, social inequity is a global problem making it extremely important to raise awareness of the topic. Inequities such as racism and sexism impact teenagers in America, but to counteract this persecution authors can use various genres of literature to promote tolerance and reduce the effects of inequities. Racism and sexism violates people’s rights in schools, the workplace, and almost every place in the world. Through the words of authors, society can learn the harmful effects of these inequities, and learn how
Most colored people have it hard in the first place, but to top it off, access to sufficient housing is unfair. In Chicago, the city is ranked in the top ten of residential segregation for housing. Despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, this is still occurring.
The link between spatial mobility and social mobility is inextricable in the United States. Since the beginning of the 20th century, whites have used “institutional practices, private behaviors, and public policies” to confine blacks to the urban ghetto (Massey and Denton 10). Segregation has concentrated poverty in black neighborhoods and built “a set of mutually reinforcing and self-feeding spirals of decline” (2). This has led to substantial inequalities in every measure of wellbeing: health, wealth, education, employment, access to public goods/services, political representation, etc. (Anderson).