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The South Side And Social Inequality In A Global Age

Decent Essays

With the unrest that our nation is facing, it is easy to see that discrimination is alive and well in 2017. The national anthem protests are only one of many events that highlight the issues that are still at hand. In both the South Side and Social Inequality in a Global Age both authors bring up examples of social stratification that have laced society in both the past and the present.
I always understood that everyone was ranked, black, white, or brown; your color always gave a first impression. Coming from a small rural town, the South Side really opened my eyes to the discrimination that lies in cities (more specifically -Chicago). The main thing that came to my attention when reading about the housing discrimination was the city’s lack of effort to listen to the (minority) population they were trying to help. The CHA did what they thought would work and as Moore showed, these projects failed more times than not. To say that you want to help is noble, but to neglect the wishes of the people gets you nowhere. Some of the residents Moore interviewed had enjoyed living in the high-rises because they felt a strong sense of community, yet to kick them out and demolish the building and begin ‘Plan B’ shows no respect for the opinions of the residents. To me, the whole feeling of the CHA was one of “they cannot help themselves, therefore they do not know what they want and we must decide for them”. Yet the people did know what they wanted. Robert Taylor even did extensive research and found that “low rises with grassy areas” were the best way to help the impoverished. Yet at the end of the day their opinions weren’t accounted for and this loss of power in the decision making shows their stratified position.
When it comes to stratification by ethnicity, chapter 5 shows how the United States has pretty much cycled through each newcomer as an “outsider”. Irish Americans used to be considered lesser because they were stereotyped as aggressive and unambitious. These people had the same fair white skin as their neighbors, yet were considered equals to blacks (who were considered inferior) (pg 125). However, the Irish solved this problem by “becoming white” by losing their traditional dialect and dressing like their

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