Racial Segregation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

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Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, riding on a bus, or renting or purchasing a home (Wikipedia, 2017). Segregation is defined by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance as "the act by which a (natural or legal) person separates other persons on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds without an objective and reasonable justification, in conformity with the proposed definition of discrimination (Explanatory memorandum, Para. 16). A narrative of racial segregation between property-owners and tenants has long served as an explanation for the isolation of African-Americans in certain neighborhoods in large cities. For centuries, many Americans subscribed to the view that blacks were of a permanently inferior in nature (Franklin, 1). As slavery came to be concentrated in the southern states, it builds its defenses of the institution along the lines of the inferiority of the Negro. According to John, the whole body of thought was set to demonstrate that the faculties of the black man, as compared to those of the white, made …show more content…

Seattle’s neighborhoods today are moderately more integrated than in years past. Today the persistence of racial separation can involve, among other things, a complicated mix of individual preferences, housing discrimination, and economic opportunities. A recent study from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that of equally qualified white and non-white home-seekers, whites were given preference in learning about more available houses than people of color. And a housing study by a University of Washington graduate student found that whites prefer to live in white

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