Would You Like to Live on An Island?

 

In class this week, we learned that the Black Ghetto was constructed through a well drafted institutional practices, private behaviors, and public policies by which whites sought to contain the growth of urban black populations. After the construction of Ghettos, blacks were forced to live there and doing so, they experienced an extreme level of social isolation. For a better understanding, we always looked back on Chicago to understand how systematic segregation works. For example, we discussed how the development of infrastructure divided the East from the West and how after the Housing Act of 1949 was passed, public housing was purposely built in certain areas to keep low-income blacks out of more stable neighborhoods, and redlining just to name a few. We even talked about some public housing sites, like Robert Taylor, Henry Horner, and Cabrini Green, but I think there is another that we should shed light upon. This particular one is Altgeld Gardens. Altgeld Gardens was built in 1945 and it consists of 1,971 rowhomes in Riverdale IL. Although it is considered to be in Riverdale, it is still part of the Chicago Housing Authority. Looking at the location of this complex, isolation just screams out to me. They are surrounded by literally nothing. Altgeld Gardens is located South of Chicago and expands from 130th-138^th streets between Greenwood and St. Lawrence (respectively).  The Gardens is about 19.6 mi away from Downtown Chicago, which can take up to 34 minutes in a car depending on traffic. However, on public transportation, that ride can be over an hour. I mention travel times because there is only one bus that travels back and forth from 95^th in the Dan Ryan, that travels on south Michigan Avenue all the way up to 130^th street into the gardens. So traveling to a job or anywhere else for that matter becomes draining. They have one and only one local store where they can get food, which is not a good variety or quality for a high price because of the convenience. Luckily, there are 4 schools within the neighborhood, but there is not much variety between them. For example, one of the high schools is a charter and one is a military academy. Charter schools go by lottery so there is no guaranteed acceptance and we cannot assume that military school is for everyone.  Environment wise, Altgeld is located in near numerous manufacturing plants, former steel mills, and waste dumps. Because of this many residents have been and still are concerned about the number of deaths annually from cancer and other diseases. I couldn’t find any direct numbers as to how many people occupy Altgeld or crime rates, but from personal experience I know that the community is no stranger to crime. I was first introduced to Altgeld Gardens when my mother began working at a child care center located with the community. It was my first time really in any type of “project housing.” Riding through the Gardens, looked like a lot of the things we saw in There Are No Children Here, as far as people just hanging out all over everywhere because they really had nothing else to do, and nowhere else to go. I can recall my mother telling me about a resident telling her she had never been downtown Chicago before. In this day in age, it is almost hard to believe that anyone who lives at least 20 miles from a metro city has never even visited it before. I also believe the residents of Altgeld have lost hope to make anything of themselves. My mother often talks about how sometimes programs and resources are provided to the community, for example job training, but after a session or 2, they just stop showing up so programs just pack up and leave. It seems as though they have just become content with their circumstances and that’s just the way it is. Kind of how LaJoe felt in There Are No Children Here. 

Map of Altgeld  http://www.thecha.org/residents/public-housing/altgeld-gardens-and-phillip-murray-homes/ 

Post about environmental issues http://wethepeoplemedia.org/altgeld-gardens-environmental-issues/

Video of Altgeld https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03YqVvvi4Y8

Society's Segregation

The United States has had many problems with segregation. When black families migrated from the north to the south they moved into the inner city than to the suburbs. According to Massey and Denton in the book American Apartheid, "Suburbs that accept black residents tend to be older areas of relatively low socioeconomic status and high population density," (1993:69). When blacks were able to move to the suburbs they were put into these places. This somewhat reminds me of the movie raisin in the sun. The scene where the person for the white community came to speak to the Youngers to basically tell them not to move into the neighborhood and offer them money. This reminds why black people are seperated into their own neighborhoods, because of the "white communities" making it hard for other people to move into the suburbs.
In the lecture there was a video about Muhammad Ali. There was something he said about having children with his own people. One might explain this because the way he grew up everything was segregated. If he went and had relations with someone other then his own people then he would have received a lot of black lash. Everything now is different because there are a lot of interracial couples and there may be some back lash but not as much as it was before.
The article, "Segregation declines in chicago, but city still ranks high, census data show," explains that segregation has declined in Chicago but it is still racially segregated. It is the most segregated city according to William Frey a demograhpic. This article relates to the lecture that was presented on Thursday because the question that was asked was, "what do I think of when I think of racial segregation?" I also think of transportation when I think of racial segregation. Black people had to sit in the back of the bus and they had a whites section on the train. also it reminds me of Homer Plessy who was a biracial man but looked as if he was a white man. He sat in the white section on the train and ended up getting convicted of violating the law providing seperate cars. He was a man that inspired other civil rights activist after the incident. This chapter made you look at the details of where the lines are drawn for neighborhoods as far as segregation goes.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-segregation-declines-neighborhoods-change-met-20160103-story.htmlhttps://lcrm.lib.unc.edu/blog/index.php/tag/segregated-transportation/

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

Transportation Segregation

American Apartheid is very bold in its literature about segregation. Today, the United States is shifting away from public transportation because people want more individual flexibility. Interestingly this falls into our topic of segregation in this class. I have taken transportation geography and never realized how much public transit displays segregation. Transportation shifts have slowly started to show how segregated cities really are. Transportation from buses to taxis show that segregation is still very prevalent in today’s times.

Many motorists are driving to work or place to place by themselves. In cities there is still public transportation throughout the metropolitan regions, but it shows a different side to the city. Many public transportation systems such as buses show how real segregation is today. One bus route can show the clarity of this segregation issue. Bus routes usually runs north to south or east to west. First, getting on the bus you see many white affluent and white collar people. (In Chicago and many other cities, this would be the Northern part of the city.) As the ride progresses (South) there is a certain point where whites slowly trickle out and on come blacks. There is usually a point where the switch flips and now it is all blacks that are not as affluent and are blue collar. Just riding a public bus can show how the geographic location matters and where clustering and concentration starts to occur. Segregation is very noticeable just by riding a single bus route.

Another reading mentioned the same thing, but with taxi drivers in the city. New York is a good example of this. In the article called “Why Not Having a Car has Taught Me about Segregation” it mentions a study from 2011 when college students posed as taxi riders. It found that 27% of the time, taxi drivers refused to drive into Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and northern Manhattan.”  One of the taxi drivers even said that “The last time I was in this neighborhood was 10 years ago.” This is another example how easy it is to spot communities that have been so isolated or concentrated. If experienced taxi drivers don’t know how to drive through these certain areas or don’t want to drive through these areas, there must be some conflict of interest involved at a more internal level.

The last article I came across “Transportation Segregation: Los Angeles vs Chicago” hinted another argument on how transportation demonstrates segregation patterns. It is different between the cities though. The article states “Chicago is a very segregated city, and its public transit system is segregated by areas, but not particularly segregated by form. Los Angeles is comparatively desegregated, yet despite its extensive network of buses, its public transportation is very segregated.” This shows that segregation can come in different forms. Chicago’s bus routes, which I mentioned above, are a good image and example of segregation by location. One bus ride can show you the cities racial distribution in a nutshell. Another alarming stat from this article mentions that “In Los Angeles, 92 percent of bus riders are people of color. Their annual median household income is $12,000.” There is a very large minority population in Los Angeles, but 92% is extremely high for any place. Overall, metropolises differ in how they present segregation, but shows that segregation is widespread and real.

Transportation is about building a community. While there are many diverse communities out there, there are many public transportation networks that display the concept of segregation in our modern day world. Many different modes of public transportation show us how racially clustered or concentrated certain locations are. From Bus to Taxi to Automobile, the mode of transit can easily show how segregated some spots are and where the high segregation areas are. Transportation segregation will continue to persist unless we acknowledge it. 

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/July-2012/Transportation-Segregation-Los-Angeles-Versus-Chicago/

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/08/not-having-car-segregation/

Separate, Unequal, and Ignored

Separate, Unequal, and Ignored

I found an interesting article titled, “Hypersegregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Black and Hispanic Segregation Along Five Dimensions” by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton.

Something interesting that I found was that blacks are more segregated on any single dimension of residential segregation, and that they are also more likely to be segregated on all five dimensions simultaneously, which never happens to Hispanics, let alone whites.

             Seeing the drastic difference between neighborhoods separated by streets is mind blowing to me. I grew up in a city called Sterling two hours away from downtown. I was never really aware of the drastic racial segregation and social status difference of individuals within suburbs, neighborhoods and blocks in Chicago. The video we watched last week that talked about the homeless in the city was perfect, as it showed how many of the homeless live just a few blocks away from downtown. It seems as if politicians are constantly focused on "the city" and leaving out the poorest parts of town. Yes, it is important to keep downtown maintained as it brings tourist and what not but, individuals living around the area year round also deserve change. Ignoring the issues of white flight, red lining, segregation and racism will only continue to create violence and hate crimes.  

            The five dimensions that were mentioned in this article, during class and in our assigned readings were: Evenness, exposure, clustering, centralization and concentration. I will briefly describe all five. As you read the definitions and examples of all five dimensions think of the ways in which separation and inequality tie to all five and what disadvantages come along with them. 

Evenness is the degree to which the percentage of minority members within residential areas equals the citywide minority percentage (Massey, 1989). Having less evenness within cities equals more segregation in that area. You can think of it as having an “even” amount of individuals with different races in a certain area. 

                                             

     

  

Exposure is the degree of potential contact between minority and majority members; it reflects the extent to which groups are exposed to one another by virtue of sharing neighborhoods in common (Massey, 1989). As we talked about in class, there were and still are many neighborhoods in Chicago that have low income, minority families in one section of town and are restrained to that area surrounded with others in similar situations. As we read, this can cause many issues as individuals are not getting a chance to interact with individuals of other races and in return this can cause conflict, violence and crime. 

Clustering is the extent to which minority areas adjoin one another in space; it is maximized when minority neighborhoods form one large, continuous ghetto and minimized when they scattered widely in space (Massey, 1989). An example of this would be when Benita and I talked about the Henry Horner Homes and how individuals were “clustered” in a building that was not capable of housing so many individuals at once. This can be hazardous, unhealthy and unsafe.

Centralization is the degree to which minority members are settled in and around the center of an urban area, usually defined as the central business district (Massey, 1989).

Concentration is the relative amount of physical space occupied by a minority group; as segregation rises, minority members are increasingly concentrated within a small, geographically compact area (Massey, 1989) An example of this could be Little Village, this is a small town where there is a high concentration of Hispanics.

Additional links: 

Segregation comes in a variety of different forms and these short video clips are an example of that:

https://youtu.be/oBXS8hUWAJc

https://youtu.be/_9aTj8-5ZZQ

Massey, Douglas S., and Nancy A. Denton. "Hypersegregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas:         Black and Hispanic Segregation along Five Dimensions." Demography 26.3 (1989): 373. Web.

Segregation: Has anything really changed?

Throughout, the first couple of Chapter’s in the American Apartheid, Massy and Denton have really went into depth discussing racial segregation, and black ghetto’s in the past 40-50 years. He stated how there was a time of when Whites and Blacks had little to no contact with each other, we were completely separated from each other. But, then things began to turn around, with the civil rights movement and the major changes against racial segregation that were taking place. Everything was starting to look better for blacks and other minorities. But, just as quick as things were changing for the good they went back to changing for the worst again. Massey and Denton also discussed what they titled the construction of the ghettos. Ghettos can be described as places in disarray, they are not what the majority of people would like to live in, or raise a family in. For me imaging what exactly the ghettos were like is rather difficult. I came from a white middle class/upper-middle class neighborhood. 

 

When I was thinking about this an example came into my head that depicted racial segregation and the ghetto in a comedic way. The example is the movie Malibu’s Most Wanted. I’ll say it again this is far from a serious real life example of what segregation and the ghetto is really like. But, it does a fairly good job of showing the difference between an upper class white neighborhood and a black “ghetto” neighborhood. The video links provided below show the differences between the all-white upper class neighborhood and the majority black “ghetto”. In the American Apartheid Massey and Denton stated, “Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans” (Massey and Denton p. 4). This statement really goes along with the example portrayed in Malibu’s most wanted. The main character thinks he’s this gangster rapper from the ghetto, but in reality he know nothing about the harshness of the actual ghetto. He lives in Malibu, California his father is an upper-class who’s running for governor.

                   

Massey and Denton also talked about the issue of racial segregation. Today politician’s and law makers act as if there is nothing wrong, they act as if we are a society living in perfect harmony. Meaning that every individual is equal to everyone else. But, the truth is we are still far from that. We still have segregation within cities, there are entire community’s divided from each other. There still are schools which are majority white that continue to thrive, while their counterparts continue to struggle. Still today this day we have very affluent white neighborhoods with an abundance of resources. Yet, a few miles down the road there are African American neighborhoods with the vast majority of the residents living in poverty or on welfare. So tell me has racial segregation really changed? Politicians and law makers sit back and choose not to acknowledge the problem of racial segregation, that doesn’t mean there still isn’t one to this day. Going back 40 or 50 years ago to the 1970’s or 80’s segregation was blatant, everyone knew and acknowledged segregation. However, today our society is in denial about segregation, it still clearly exists, yet we choose to ignore it and push it to the side. To me ignoring the issue will create more of a problem than the problem itself. In order for anything to change or get better our society must admit there still is a problem. But, to be honest I doubt that will ever actually happen. 

Links:
1. https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-the-resegregation-of-americas-schools/#james
2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLcF84iotVg
3.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaxcC-O3t7s

That's So Ghetto: A Change in the Definition

The word ghetto has changed over time from a noun to an adjective. How many people know the true definition of the word anymore? I am sure you have heard someone describe a thing or an act as “ghetto”, but what does that even mean? The true definition of the word ghetto is a neighborhood where a group of like people lives exclusively (Wilson, pg. 18). That does not seem to match the known use of the word today. How did the meaning or view change? Is it the media, pop culture, discrimination? I am not sure this question will ever be answered. As a sociology major this change frightens me because it is obvious it is on a societal level. I am a white female who grew up in a rural area, but my education has allowed me to know the difference between the two. I believe this is also the difference between right and wrong and discrimination and acceptance.

            Even as I sat at work earlier thinking about what to write a coworker used the term ghetto to describe someone’s appearance. It is funny how when you are focused on something examples start to appear without even looking for them. In a professional setting of course I did not jump down her throat (although I really wanted too). At least with her I have seen her use this judgmental tone with any people and not just minorities. Probably not a good thing that her discrimination covers such an immense amount of people, but at least it is not just racial.  Being a very open person who wants to learn and do things the right thing I find people’s ignorance to be hard to handle sometimes. I am not saying I am perfect and have not judged someone before by many means; I would just like to think that my image of people is not based on ridiculous stereotypes. People may say being a white female give me no experience with this, but I think my understanding and my willingness to help change stereotypes should be appreciated.  Not all white people are the same and I cannot express that enough. Do I think the word ghetto will ever be commonly known by its true definition again? Probably not, but it cannot hurt to educate as many people as possible. I think that is exactly what Wilson is trying to do through his research and writings.

            I think evidence of ethnic ghettos show how the definition originated. Of course ghettos were used to cluster the Jews in Europe which was discrimination just as the blacks are pushed into ghettos in large Metropolitan areas, but other ethnic ghettos where different ethnicities that all seem “white” prove that people of different ethnic groups can live together as long as they appear the same. These ghettos were not in the same conditions and disarray as black or Jewish ghettos, which show the definition does not have to always be negative. On the contrary the dismantling of black ghettos and Jewish ghettos can prove how the new definition might have come to be. I think when people use the term ghetto as an adjective they mean possibly disheveled or unkempt. Of course this is not the case for everyone and some people truly just use it in the most ignorant and politically incorrect way possible. This reminds me of a skit on Saturday Night Live when Elizabeth Banks hosted and a group of girls talked about “how ghetto” stuff was. I have attached the link to this video with the warning that not all people feel the same way. You will notice that they actually say "Do you really mean in the Ghetto?" which shows the place versus a descriptive word.

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/27/306829915/segregated-from-its-history-how-ghetto-lost-its-meaning

https://youtu.be/s3tPfXGKrnE