Although it seems like everyone has been falling in love with the concept of “diversity”, it is undeniable that we, as humans, seek affinity. This is the strong point made by David Brooks in his Atlantic Magazine article “People Like Us”. Specifically, he argues that no matter the great concern around minorities, and the increasing effort to favour their integration in society, what people are really looking for is segmentation. Yet, what if people are forcefully segmented? If they are not given a choice of where to live, and where to buy their house in. This has been the topic of great controversy in the housing market for decades, with real estate brokers accused of perpetrating policies of racial steering. A practice in which real estate …show more content…
Even though administrations have put a lot of effort in trying to integrate minorities into diversified neighborhoods, new data shows middle-class and upper-class African-American families tend to congregate into prevalently black neighborhoods. Brooks attributes this phenomena to various reasons, ranging from racism to psychological comfort. He goes on stating that neighborhoods tend to develop their own “personality”. Once people find a town that shares their same values, they will move in and attract similar individuals. Giving life to a ripple effects that makes the place always more like itself. Following this train of thought we can state that an African American family of either low or high income will prefer to move to an African American neighborhood rather than a white counterpart. This kind of attitude, encountered by Brooks in his research, creates a deliberate de-facto …show more content…
Brokers tend to act by instinct following their past experiences. They cannot be accused of racism just for basing their choices on what they think to be the most probable outcome; in other words, if they are used to African American families requesting to inspect houses in black neighborhoods, as stated by Brooks, they will most certainly propose a new African American client an house in a black neighborhood rather than a predominantly white one. It is easy for an outsider to be mislead into thinking the brokers are acting on the base of racial prejudice, but now it is time for the theoretical morals to face reality: people only like what they feel comfortable with. We would all certainly benefit from the variety of a diversified neighborhood, however people are not yet capable of living into true diversity, and even if this goes against the latest trend, they might not even like
Gentrification is defined as the process by which the wealthy or upper middle class uproot poorer individuals through the renovation and rebuilding of poor neighborhoods. Many long-term residents find themselves no longer able to afford to live in an area, where the rent and property values are increasing. Gentrification is a very controversial topic, revealing both the positive and negative aspects of the process. Some of the more desirable outcomes include reduced crime rate, increased economic activity, and the building of new infrastructures. However, it is debated whether the negatives overwhelm the positive. An increase in the number of evictions of low-income families, often racial minorities can lead to a decline of diversity
Many of these ethnic groups still reside where their relatives first lived when they arrived many years ago, whereas a majority of the ethnic groups have dispersed all over the Chicago land area, creating many culturally mixed neighborhoods. Ultimately, all of these ethnic groups found their rightful area in which they belong in Chicago. To this day, the areas in Chicago that the different ethnic immigrants moved to back in the 1920s are very much so the same. These immigrants have a deep impact on the development of neighborhoods in today’s society. Without the immigrants’ hard work and their ambition to establish a life for their families and their future, Chicago would not be as developed and defined as it is now.
Prior to this, I had never heard of any benefit of gentrification; rather, I had the typical preconceived notion that Freeman discusses: gentrification is a demonic force that inflicts suffering in all poor people in a gentrified neighborhood. However, reading excerpts from “There Goes the ‘Hood” encourages me to rethink my position. One of my questions from the reading pertains to the “race” part of the author’s argument. Although Clinton Hill and Harlem are both predominantly comprised of African Americans, I wonder how low-income white residents feel about gentrification. I am curious about this because a friend of mine, a white Irish, was displaced from her home in Sunnyside, Queens last summer because of increasing rent. From this experience, I think that seeing low-income whites’ outlooks on white gentry would be interesting. Furthermore, I question the validity of the author’s selection on some of the participants for his interview, particularly those whom he recruited in a conference on gentrification (page 12). One could imagine that community members who attend such a conference would hold strong opinions about gentrification. However, would not this contradict his earlier point that “the most active and vocal residents are not necessarily representative of the entire neighborhood and are likely different” (page 7) and thus undermining the integrity of some of his
“Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture.” (Grant) In layman’s terms, gentrification is when white people move to a black neighborhood for the sake of cheaper living, and in turn, raise up property values and force black neighbors to leave because of a higher price of living. Commonly, the government supports gentrification with the demolition of public housing in areas that are developing with more white neighbors. This is causing a decreasing amount of African Americans to be able to afford to live in the neighborhood as their homes are taken away from them, forcing them to relocate. Whilst gentrification normally has negative connotations, there are several people who believe gentrification brings about “an upward trend in property values in previously neglected neighborhoods.” (Jerzyk) On the other hand, this new trend in property value and business causes those...
Charles, Camille (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual Review of Sociology, 167. Retrieved from http://jstor.org/stable/30036965.
The United States’ government has always had a hand on our country’s housing market. From requiring land ownership to vote, to providing public housing to impoverished families, our government has become an irremovable part of the housing market. The effects of these housing policies can affect American residents in ways they might not even recognize. As several historians have concluded, many housing policies, especially those on public housing, either resulted in or reinforced the racial segregation of neighborhoods.
concerns racial equality in America. The myth of the “Melting Pot” is a farce within American society, which hinders Americans from facing societal equality issues at hand. Only when America decides to face the truth, that society is not equal, and delve into the reasons why such equality is a dream instead of reality. Will society be able to tackle suc...
In addition to continuing need for affirmative action, attention must be given to lessening racial segregation, and to improving the lot of the black poor. Without residential segregation—and the social segregation that it engenders—African American communities would not, as they do now, bear nearly the full burden of disproportionate black poverty… [The black poor] would have access to suburbanized jobs, better schools, and safer streets]. (Pattillo, 217,
Housing segregation is as the taken for granted to any feature of urban life in the United States (Squires, Friedman, & Siadat, 2001). It is the application of denying minority groups, especially African Americans, equal access to housing through misinterpretation, which denies people of color finance services and opportunities to afford decent housing. Caucasians usually live in areas that are mostly white communities. However, African Americans are most likely lives in areas that are racially combines with African Americans and Hispanics. A miscommunication of property owners not giving African American groups gives an accurate description of available housing for a decent area. This book focuses on various concepts that relates to housing segregation and minority groups living apart for the majority group.
Gentrifications, a short article by Sherman Alexie, contains many thought-provoking concepts about the racial issues in today’s society, despite the tangible comedic feel. Through his work Gentrifications, Alexie employs both allusions and imagery in order to communicate that racial prejudice exists on both sides. Allusions serve to help the audience understand the depth of his words, and imagery creates a description that draws the reader in, which in turn causes them to consider his point further. Indubitably, his argument about such a sensitive issue today proves to be very interesting.
For instance, Brooks himself confesses that he has himself in the past gravitated towards places where he believed he could be most comfortable in and where he also felt he could be his true self. He further states, that the majority of his friends are middle-income level Caucasians and conservative Christians. Brooks’ main argument in the essay is that many individuals in the United States often do not even bother to show that they would like to build diverse communities. The essay, Brook says, is about the public discourse on race and is meant to make us ponder about the stereotypes and assumptions we have when we think about diversity or people from other ethnicities. It is also meant to make us look where we fit in the diversity debate? Are we truly for the integration of
The fancy American Dream has drawn people from all over the world to the United States to push for their upward social mobility. They have a dream and they want to make it come true. At this time Immigrants, into the major cities of the U.S, making them a melting pot. That melting pot has a different ethnic, social and cultural background, some of which contradict each other, while others are very harmonious. Race is often an obstacle to cultural communication and understanding. For this problem, Sherman Alexie his short story “Gentrification”, and Alex Tizon, with his story “Land of the Giants”, have a lot to say about how race is Obstacle to intercultural communication and understanding and that affect people misunderstand.
As of 2010, the average African American lives in a neighborhood that is 45% Black ( Lubin, Rebecca Baird-Remba and Gus). One possible explanation is that people like to “self-segregate” themselves. This is because people, specifically white, feel more comfortable when surrounded by people of their own race because they are “like them” ( Lambert Lecture). In 2004, a study was done to see what percentage of white people would either stay, leave, or move into a neighborhood as the number of minority families increased. In a sample of 15 houses, if 14/15 houses were white in the neighborhood then 93% of white respondents say they feel comfortable and would stay in the neighborhood, 2 % said they would leave, and 88% said they would move in ( Lambert Lecture). This shows that when just one Black family moves in, 7% of white families now feel uncomfortable and 12% would not move into the neighborhood. When the number of white houses drops to 12/15, the number of white respondents that feel comfortable drops to 83%, 8% will leave, while only 79% would move in ( Lambert Lecture). When the number of Black families increases 7 of the 15, only 51% of white respondents even feel comfortable living in that neighborhood. 39% of the white families would actually leave the neighborhood, while 35% would move into the neighborhood( Lambert Lecture). This experiment showed conclusive evidence that as the number of “people like us” goes down, the less comfortable people feel and the more likely are to move out. This is sufficient evidence that people in general like to self segregate themselves because they are more comfortable with their own kind of people. There are many problems with the fact that there is residential segregation. The biggest problem that is argued is that the neighborhoods that are predominantly white are typically a lot nicer than the minority neighborhoods(Lambert
For instance, the Asian American population has, on average, the highest level of education and the highest income among all races. Due to this, the racial discrimination this group had to endure throughout history is overlooked. Nevertheless, the manifestation of this inequality can be observed by the Asian communities still present in the United States, such as Chinatown in San Francisco. These communities appeared after white people brutally attacked and killed Asians because they felt the Asians were stealing their jobs and lowering their wages, driving Asians out of cities and forcing them to rely on each other and their own businesses for survival (Croteau & Hoynes, 2013). In addition, since Asians were not considered qualified for American citizenship throughout most of history, they are often still considered foreigners today. Another example of inequality today can be seen through real estate and the wealth gap between whites and minority groups. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 ended the discrimination against non-whites in the housing industry, but racial inequality still remains. When white neighborhoods began to integrate non-whites, white people sold their homes after their realtors instilled the fear of their homes decreasing in value. Realtors bought white homes for less than they were worth, and sold them to non-whites at inflated rates, a process known as “block-busting”.
Jacobs views diversity as the number of ways in which limited areas of space are allocated, as opposed to having an inherent racial or cultural connotation. Jacobs emphasizes that various types of business and residences are the elements of prospering city neighborhoods. Jacobs begins to explore three main myths. These myths are arguments often cited by city planners against diversity. To begin, the first myth that Jacobs attempts to discredit is that diversity is unattractive. She repudiates this assertion by saying that the opposite is in fact true, in which homogeneity is unappealing. I believe that it is quite detrimental when city planners attempt to create a contrived atmosphere of diversity in order to conceal the existing homogeneity. This is accomplished by artificially building different shapes and styles of buildings to give outsiders the impression of diversity. Jacobs underscores the flaws of contrived diversity in the following excerpt: