Is Segregation Only An American Thing?

After reading chapter three in American Apartheid by Massey and Denton, it really blew my mind the staggering statistics of just how segregated urban America really is. When we think of urban cities, we think of how diverse it is, but something that usually stays in the shadows is just how segregated many major cities are. Massey and Denton used tables and indices to talk about how segregated urban America is, and compared it to European indices, but there was no other reasoning or physical information on how the two stacked up, so I got to thinking. How bad is the segregation in Europe? Moreover, why is it that segregation is not mentioned more when talking about historical perspectives? I mean, yeah, I get that we live in America but that should not diminish the potential for further studies in other countries to see what, if anything, Americans can do in order to break the mold of segregation and become more integrated as a society as a whole.

First of all, I guess something important to note, is that unlike the American segregation maps found all over the internet and in a multitude of texts and other scholarly books, I could not, for the life of me, find one single map of European racial segregation. Strange? Not really. Why, you might ask? Consider the following article: http://www.citylab.com/housing/2014/09/in-europe-and-america-segregation-continues/380408/. So what is going on in Europe that is (or is not) happening in America? One major factor, according to the article, is the layouts of the cities. It seems to be the case, when looking at typical city maps, that American cities are more spacious, occupying more area than the typical European city, which are generally more compact, with residents living in closer quarters. The divide creates, in American cities, isolation for low-income groups and areas for minorities to reside. The opposite is true in Europe. Since the cities are so dense, it creates more of a sense of integration, leading to a more desegregated community.

So what other areas is America seemingly lacking in, in terms of becoming more desegregated? Something else strongly supported in the article is the idea that, by and large, certain policies are to blame (to be thanked in Europe). American policies are more directed towards assisting the people enter low-income housing, which then forces those people to live together in similar conditions, creating a caustic environment. Europe, however, is doing the opposite of America, yet again. In the article, it mentions how France is giving tax breaks to businesses in order to bring them to the neighborhoods, thereby “chipping away” at racial segregation and creating less of a divide amongst the populations the reside in these neighborhoods.

It seems that America could take note of what other European countries are doing in order to end segregation, or at least to begin to diminish it. While there are some new initiatives being put in place (in the article), it seems that without swift movement by future policy makers, the United States will continue to lag behind in both equality and desegregation.

Another article about American segregation:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35255835