The Neighborhood Segregation Process

What I learned this week which I found most interesting is the evolving situation of housing segregation in this country. If I would have been asked why our country is still so segregated I would say that this situation is due to the fact that we had Jim Crow laws in effect only 60 years ago and many communities have just not changed that much since then. What I wouldn’t have guessed is the widespread extent to which the races intentionally segregate themselves. Less than 50% of both blacks and whites say they want to live in a community of people who look like them. However when people actually choose their home 74% of whites end up in white communities and 66% of blacks end up living in black communities. (Chang, Alvin) Whether it is basic

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.

This essay will attempt to show evidence that supports the question ‘Does residential segregation shape the social life of cities and people’s sense of who they are’ by using different types of evidence, such as qualitative, which comes from interviews, focus groups, or even pictures and other artistic endeavours like murals. Whilst quantitative is obtained from statistics, surveys and records. Evidence will be looked at by what has appeared over time, looking at the growth of Manchester during 1800’s, with migration of people from the country side, to the city to take up jobs of an industrial nature and how segregation kept the wealthy and workers apart and the inequalities of conditions they lived in. Then at more recent evidence showing a case study of Belfast and the history of a single street Portland Road in London and how segregation can create connections as well as disconnections in people’s lives and how this shapes peoples sense of who they are.

The racial segregation between Worcester Metropolitan area and the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY metropolitan area is very similar. For both of the area, it shows that White-Black, White-Hispanic, White-Asian, Black-Asian, and Hispanic-Asian have a moderate level of segregation. Black-Hispanic have a low moderate level of segregation in both of the areas. The segregation of poverty and of affluence is greater in the Worcester Metropolitan area than it is in the Albany-Schenectady-troy, NY Metropolitan area.

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.

Equality was once a repulsive concept within America, today it seems to be a foregone conclusion. Indeed, we have made so many strides in the way that we view race that it seems a gross misstep every time that it needs to be addressed. Even our President, an African American who overcame tremendous odds to rise to the highest office does not have the answers to our issues with race, rather he calls on us all to “ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career.” For most, these questions point to sources outside of themselves, but perhaps there a bit of introspection is the answer. Systematic segregation can

In the Chicago Tribune article “Segregation declines in Chicago, city still ranks high, census data show”, Lolly Bowean, the author, stated in her report that “the average white resident in the Chicago area now lives in a neighborhood that is 71.5 percent white” (Bowean)***. Racial

In the article “Does Race Matter in Residential Segregation” a look at the continuing pattern of segregation expressed by whites in their avoidance of neighborhoods with minorities is examined. Although this phenomenon can be seen as a racially influenced action alone, it is strongly debated that differences in socioeconomic status between minorities are causing whites to make their decisions to leave. To determine if this is correct, the writers of this article conduct a factorial experiment, where they used phone calls to ask respondents a hypothetical scenario regarding the purchase of a home, while controlling variables that were uncontrollable in other experiments. The experiment offered the respondent a randomly generated combination

” Over 52% of blacks and 21% whites reside in central city neighborhoods” (Squires &Kubrin,

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.

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

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

Residential segregation exists because of personal choice, segregation by law, and discriminatory practices (Walker, 2007). Some neighborhoods have kept their racially homogenous identities, initiated by lawfully enforced segregation during the pre-Civil Rights era and many choose to live with those who look like them or whom they share similarities. Others have been victims of discriminatory housing practices by real estate agencies, banks and financial institutions, such as Wells Fargo, who offer minorities sub-prime loans and steer them toward non-white neighborhoods (Class Video, 2014). These discriminatory policies are also a reason that racial inequality exists between whites and minorities.

I suppose the majority of society would have the illusion that segregation in the United States died with the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and Brown v Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. What most fail to realize is the profound, and devastating effect segregation continues to have on minorities, particularly the African American communities. Throughout the relative young history of the United States, the Caucasian race has deemed themselves as smarter than the Afro-American. According to a scientist by the name of Agassi, “blacks are not created equal”, and he claims that they’re not fit to live in the same society as whites. This research essay attempts to inform readers on some major systemic issues that are prevalent today. Segregation is the reason why there is so much inequality among black and white communities. Segregation causes inequality for minorities and blacks in particular, they are deprived of important goods and services that are not offered and distributed fairly (Anderson). The areas of these communities which are most affected by the deprivation of goods and services include the real estate market, the blocking of capital through denial of loans and mortgages, redlining, access to health services, the funding of schools within the community, and the lack of commercial growth directly leading to unemployment and other social issues. To understand how

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended state and local laws that involved segregation, prohibiting legal discrimination based on ethnicity, color, race, sex, and religion. Now, after much time has passed, people can pose the question: how prominent is segregation in today’s society? In particular, Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, poses interesting dynamics concerning this question. For one, the city consistently has high crime and murder rates in specific areas, while other parts of the city show low rates in comparison. One researcher Richard Reeves states, "Even in a country marked by high levels of segregation, Chicago stands out" (qtd. in Luhby). Therefore, many would agree that laws prohibiting segregation didn’t necessarily get rid of it. These laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, did not bring together different groups of people, and most certainly haven’t prevented segregation regarding other facets of life, areas not so easily defined by the law. Segregation and the problems it creates, further leads to unfair disadvantages placed on members of certain communities. Here, through the examination of numerous texts and social dynamics, various aspects of segregation in Chicago will be explored to argue how segregation is still a dominant and troubling part of Chicago, and how it has drastic consequences.