Describe
In preparation for this paper I listened to this American life’s 512th podcast house rules, reviewed 3 peer reviewed articles and also reflected on the circumstances of my own life. Before doing research on segregated housing I was completely biased on the topic, but prior to doing research I gained a whole new perspective on the idea. As a young black girl growing up in a black community I always wondered what was the reason for ghettos why is it that although racism has been abolished African Americans and Caucasians in most cases still live in separate neighborhoods, with Caucasian neighborhoods having better living conditions, schooling, and even opportunities. Growing up in a black community I grew up in a neighborhood with
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Listening to the podcast I identified with Jada when she was referring to the vast differences in her schooling, personally I never noticed the fact that schools in white communities were better until my 9th grade year when we received old computer monitors from a school in a white community, I watched the happiness on my teachers face as he set up the hammy down mac book computer monitors, old leftovers from a school in a white community. I questioned myself in that moment. Why is it that 2 schools both in mobile county public school systems don’t receive the same treatment? Are they better than we are? I feel like this is the question that every African American living in a minority neighborhood ask themselves at least once in their lifetime as they pass by white communities. There were many social work themes that came to mind while listening to the podcast, which includes dignity and worth of a person and discrimination. Based on the code of ethics, I’ve learned that social workers cannot condone any form of discrimination based on race. This core value is very important because as a social worker it is our job to treat people equally and to speak up when there are any forms of …show more content…
From the podcast I’ve learned that government policies and practices helped contribute to some of the racial segregation that we see today. We saw an example of this in the podcast when talking about redlining, the act of drawing a line around areas highly populated with African Americans to ensure that banks would not provide loans for those communities. Another example from the U.S. housing scholars shows that “the primary reason for the creation of public housing was to prevent blacks from moving in white areas of the city” (Hannah-jones 2015). So we see that segregation is something that was created by the government and that in most cases blacks are discriminated against when looking for housing in white communities. A common solution to racial segregation could possibly be integration, but discrimination and acts such as redlining makes it almost impossible for African Americans to get housing in white communities. Voborníková (2014) speaks on discrimination and residential separation by stating, “that it is impossible to integrate minorities into general society when residential segregation remains” (pg 43). While Racial segregation is still a prominent issue today another perspective from current articles show that in some cases blacks and whites favor same race neighborhood. According to Fitzsimons (2012) “60 percent of black
The loss of public housing and the expanse of the wealth gap throughout the state of Rhode Island has been a rising issue between the critics and supporters of gentrification, in both urban areas such as Providence and wealthy areas such as the island of Newport, among other examples. With the cities under a monopoly headed by the wealth of each neighborhood, one is left to wonder how such a system is fair to all groups. Relatively speaking, it isn’t, and the only ones who benefit from such a system are white-skinned. With the deterioration of the economic status of Rhode Island, and especially in the city of Providence, more and more educated Caucasians are leaving to seek a more fertile economic environment.
Charles, Camille (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual Review of Sociology, 167. Retrieved from http://jstor.org/stable/30036965.
While whites lived comfortable lives in their extravagant mansions and driving their fancy cars blacks had to live in a disease infested neighborhood with no electricity or in door plumbing. Approximately one thousand people lived in shacks that were squeezed together in a one-mile zone. The alleys were filled with dirt, rats, human wasted and diseases. Blacks lived in houses made of “old whitewash, a leaking ceiling of rusted Inx propped up by a thin wall of crumbling adobe bricks, two tiny windows made of cardboard and pieces of glass, a creaky, termite-eaten door low for a person of average height to pass through...and a floor made of patches of cement earth”(31). Living in such a degrading environment kills self-esteem, lowers work ethic and leaves no hope for the future.
In the Late nineteenth century the population was growing at a rapid pace. The country had people flooding the biggest cities in the country such as New York City and Chicago. These populations were gaining more and more people every single year and the country has to do something to make places for these people to live. The government would go on to create urban housing programs. These programs were created to make homes for these people to live in. At the time it provided a place for people to live but as the populations grew it became a more cramped and rundown area because of the large populations in one place. These reforms eventually led to these areas becoming dangerous, they were rundown, and it created a hole that was difficult for people to get out of.
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.
The development of the ghetto has been going on for centuries. In “De-spatialization and Dilution of the Ghetto: Current Trends in the United States,” author Peter Marcuse describe ghetto as a process that has been shifting and changing in the United States. He asserts that “the term ghetto can be used in many different ways, and no one of them is correct” (Marcuse 39). Marcuse addresses the three kinds of ghettos in the United States. First is the hard ghetto, which is the original “hood” where most. First is hard ghetto, which becomes the African-American neighborhood. It is described as chaotic, stigmatized, and dangerous. Second is the gentrifying diluted ghetto, which racially concerned ghetto, containing mostly middle class and diverse.
Segregation still exists in the world today, racial divides affect many individuals in the areas of healthcare, education, access to mortgages, etc. (Mago, Vijay K et al. “Analyzing the Impact of Social Factors on Homelessness: A Fuzzy Cognitive Map Approach.) Black americans are most affected by homelessness. In the article written by the New York Times, the rate of black families attending homeless shelters is 7 times higher than white families. (Nagourney, Adam. “Old and on the Street: The Graying of America's Homeless.) It is no secret that whites are given priority, and privilege over people of other races. Most African Americans grow up in poverty, and it is hard for them to move up in social class because they are not given as many opportunities as others. White men and women are given privilege over others, which causes an effect on society. According to
The word “ghetto”, can have many different meanings, such as a black residential area, or it can be referred to an area for the poor (Massey & Denton, 1993). Basically, a ghetto is a neighborhood or neighborhoods, which is only made for one particularly group of race (Massey & Denton, By creating the ghettos, African Americans were residential separated from other races. These ghettos were created to keep the African American race down. When it comes to income, most black families who lived in these certain areas were unemployed and very poor (William, 1980).
In Jonathan Kozol’s essay titled, “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Kozol touches on how racial segregation has not disappeared in big cities’ urban public school systems. In this essay we can see how both types of judgements; racial and academic come together to form a stereotype about intellectual success in our current educational system. On the other hand, he brings to our attention that it is the American citizen’s common belief that racial segregation in public schools doesn’t exist anymore. In Kozol’s work he discusses various schools in major cities he has visited and offers the reader personal anecdotes from interviews with students. One quote from a student that I found remarkably interesting is “we do not have the things you have. You have clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us?” (Kozol). This little girl is begging and reaching out to a white man because she thinks that he can help her. I am curious as to why she thinks that white schools have more than children at her school and if this is from first hand experience or from hearing from others. Does she think this way because her school demographics are composed mostly of one race? More importantly, I hope that someone did not teach her to think that
From slavery to Jim Crow, the impact of racial discrimination has had a long lasting influence on the lives of African Americans. While inequality is by no means a new concept within the United States, the after effects have continued to have an unmatched impact on the racial disparities in society. Specifically, in the housing market, as residential segregation persists along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, limiting the resources available to black communities such as homeownership, quality education, and wealth accumulation. Essentially leaving African Americans with an unequal access of resources and greatly affecting their ability to move upward in society due to being segregated in impoverished neighborhoods. Thus, residential segregation plays a significant role in
People who live below the poverty line, one-way or another encounter racism all over the world. Even in America where most people believe democracy is practiced more than anywhere else, racism does exist here and it shed light on the discrepancy persist in the city of Yonkers. In accordance with Briggs (1999), African American and Hispanic families have been a victim of racial segregation and had been placed in the inner city areas. In addition to this, there have been instances of vigorous political resistance where sites were proposed for the housing projects. Keep in mind that by building public housing throughout every community where the empty spaces are available could not resolve issues like segregation, housing, and poverty. Congress
Racial discrimination still lives in this country, especially in the housing market. This has become a major concern for racial minorities. The issues prevalence and persistence has created an almost overwhelming amount of socio-economic issues within racial minorities. This issue in particular has sparked many disputes on the topic of racism and whether it is even still an occurring issue. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has conducted several studies which revealed that discriminatory acts between potential home buyers and the property seller are still persistent. According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, HUD conducted a test to see if these claims were viable: “[The test consisted of] well- qualified white and minority (black, Hispanic, and Asian) testers who contacted housing providers to schedule in-person meetings and view available units. Tests were conducted in 28 metropolitan areas across the country in both rental and sale markets” (“National Low-Income Housing Coalition”). The results of this test supported these assumptions because minority renters and white renters were equally able to make an appointment for a particular property. However, minority testers were explicitly told that there were fewer options available. There were instances where the housing providers were not willing to meet with them. It has also been reported for “both Black/ White and Hispanic/White tests an average incidence of [twelve percent] of steering that promoted racial/ethnic segregation” (George and Godfrey, 254) .There are many theories about why this discrimination type occurs. The most reoccurring theory is that racial minorities are assumed to be high-risk applicants in the real estate market. These p...
African Americans have systematically been denied equal opportunities and this is particularly true within American inner cities. The social, cultural, and economic isolation of these urban ghettos has profound impacts and affects on its dwellers. This isolation and segregation has led to the evolution of profoundly divergent and dichotomous life chances for black and white Americans. The black urban poor are confronted with a lifestyle that promotes oppositional culture to the norms of society and challenged by an everyday exposure to violence, drugs, and crime. This paper attempts to explore the historical conditions that laid the foundation for the modern black urban ghetto.
Massey and Denton (1993) describe the systematic segregation and isolation of black Americans—at a level not experienced by any other racial group—as the cause of persistent poverty, and the key to the creation of racial inequality and the underclass. This residential segregation leads to heterogeneous communities, the black ghetto. These black ghettos have substandard resources, and living conditions far below any other group in America. The conditions and characteristics of these ghettos lock residents into a cycle of poverty and subordination for generations.
Racial discrimination in equal housing, an issue that dates back to the times of Civil Rights, is shown in society. We, as a society, are taking huge steps in the right direction. Through searches of fictional literature pieces(To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, A Raisin In The Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, and The House On Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros), and through common day researches of the society we live in, the thesis we present is, yes, there are still social injustices in our society revolving around racial housing inequity.