Massey and Denton’s book, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass, hits strong on this topic of “residential segregation”. Massey and Denton, both went hand and hand with what Jackson was saying. This is a well organized, well-written and greatly researched book. The two authors among the help of other outside sources, researched the several main factors that have forced different groups of people into their “ghetto”. There are many reasons for the creation of ghettos such as oppression, economics as mentioned in the book, all except one main reason. Some people just prefer to live with people like themselves
During the 20th century, African American starting leaving the south. They left behind the racial segregation, discrimination, and violence in search of greater economic opportunity. This was the forming of the “Great Migration” of 1.5 million African Americans that happened between 1910 and 1945. Also another 6.5 million moved north and west between 1945 and 1970. Since the 1960’s, many black urban immigrants have achieved success where as some have been left behind. It was known that if the first generation failed to find employment, skills, and upward mobility, the next generations to come most likely failed too. The residential racial segregation continues according to some statistics showing that the average white person lives in a neighborhood
Her characters like Walter and Ruth are forced to live in a cramped house because they don’t have the money to move out. Walter has to work as a chauffeur driving people around all day for a low wage. Just like in that time period when African Americans could not get high paying jobs, this aided in the racial problem because it kept blacks from being able to move into white neighborhoods. Another method used to keep blacks out of White neighborhoods was contract buying. “When selling on contract, the speculator offered the home to a black purchaser for a relatively low downpayment- often several hundred dollars would suffice. For bringing the home within the reach of a black purchaser, however, the speculator extracted a considerable price.” (Jamelle Bouie,How we built the ghettos, page 2) This is like when Lena the mother of Walter and beneatha bought a new house and only had to put a small down payment on it in order to buy the
General Purpose: To inform my audience of Gentrification in the Norther part of Chicago around the 1960s.
Lance Freeman, an associate professor of urban planning in Columbia, wanted to investigate if there was any displacement going on in two predominantly black neighborhoods that was briskly gentrifying. Much to his dismay, he couldn’t find any correlation between gentrification and displacement. What was surprising to Freeman was his discovery, “poor residents and those without a college education were actually less likely to move if they resided in gentrifying neighborhoods”. (Sternbergh, 19) Freeman adds, “The discourse on gentrification, has tended to overlook the possibility that some of the neighborhood changes associated with gentrification might be appreciated by the prior residents.” (Sternbergh, 19) Essentially, we can concur that a blighted neighborhood that goes through gentrification doesn’t displace the current residents living there, but in fact makes the residents want to stay. With gentrification the area becomes safer, more businesses open up and the neighborhoods become a welcoming, family friendly place to live. Without gentrification a blighted neighborhood stays, as is, a neglected area that doesn’t attract businesses or
Housing discrimination and segregation have long been present in the American society (Lamb and Wilk). The ideals of public housing and home buying have always been intertwined with the social and political transformation of America, especially in terms of segregation and inequality of capital and race (Wyly, Ponder and Nettking). Nevertheless, the recent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and in Baltimore due to alleged police misconduct resulting to deaths of black men brought light on the impoverished conditions in urban counties in America (Lemons). This brings questions to the effectiveness of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in devising more fair-housing facilities (Jost). Thus, we need a new housing policy that will address not only the discriminate housing problem, but also urban poverty in general.
Segregation have created separate housing complexes for Blacks and Whites. Borrowing money for houses is not allowed for Black residents. As cities and suburbs became separated by both race and class, there are more services which leads to more falling apart in several of the inner neighborhoods in the city. These new rules are included in the Housing Act of 1949. This act is created to make the public point of view about housing better. The three things that was used to accomplish these goals are clear the slums, more housing loan choices and the development of new public housing complexes. St. Louis loved urban renewal more violently than any other city in the United States. In St. Louis, the first public housing program was started in 1939
There were a variety of national issues that occurred due to the development of public housing.
On a normal scale, measuring the association between two subjects, one would assume gentrification and school segregation are not related in any sense. In fact, most would argue that school segregation ended in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education. This assumption would be incorrect. Deep within the American society lies a new kind of segregation that is neither talked about nor dealt with. Segregation is a result of gentrification—the buying and renovation of houses in deteriorated neighborhoods by upper-income families or individuals—thus, improving property values but often displacing low-income families. It is this displacement that causes segregation in cities like Cleveland, Ohio and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. However, if the meaning of gentrification is changed, and people work towards making sure the upper-income families and the underprivileged are able to live together in the same community, segregation would subside.
They argue that institutional racism in the housing market enacted by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), private loan and real estate institutions and actors, and white residents effectively and permanently isolated African Americans. Institutionalized racist practices of the housing market such as redlining and steering, coupled with white flight and structural disinvestment in African American neighborhoods, effectively isolated African Americans and further contributed to the creation of black ghettos. Thus, residential segregation concentrates poverty, erodes institutional and economic support, and ultimately causes its residents to normalize their problematic social environment of high levels of joblessness, teenage pregnancy, drugs, and violence. If the segregation of African Americans were to be resolved by their economic achievement and class mobility, middle-class African Americans should be able to enter white neighborhoods of comparable income levels. However, as Massey and Denton show, once the threshold of “too many black families” is crossed, white flight occurs and poorer black families move into the neighborhood, creating (and expanding) racially segregated
The idea of equality for all people, regardless of their race, is instilled in the American society of today. Unfortunately, this idea has not always been present, which ultimately has caused many issues for America’s society in the past. As discussed in the book Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia, David L. Kirp focuses on the inequality that was found between the low-income blacks and the middle class whites in a South Jersey town, Mount Laurel. At the time, the whites had a goal of running the blacks out of the town by making the costs of housing expensive enough where blacks could not afford it. This lead to unequal treatment for the blacks who lived in Mount Laurel compared to the whites when it came to housing opportunities.
The individuals who were being victimized the most and the lack of justice the 1968 Fair Housing Act did were new to me. As stated in the ninth chapter, middle-class African-Americans were the ones being victimized by mob actions. In my mind, every African-American was being victimized. I did not take into consideration that only a select few African-Americans were able to have the opportunity to move into white neighborhoods. These African-Americans could afford the housing since they often had higher occupational and social status than their white counterparts. Correspondingly, the 1968 Fair Housing Act, made racially defined violence a federal crime. The goal of this act was to provide equal housing opportunities to African-Americans and
Nichols enhanced and streamlined the use of restrictive covenants. Using the fears of property values decreasing, Nichols added a racial restriction into the deeds. In all of the deeds for the land he developed was this restriction, “None of said lots may be conveyed to, used, owned or occupied by negroes as owners or tenants.”1 While this might seem like an isolated instance, restrictive covenants occurred all over the United States in the early 20th century. J.C. Nichols employed an addition that would enhance the covenant and make it more appealing to the “desired” homeowner; that addition was a self-renewing contract every 25 years.2 The reasoning behind the 25 year automatic renewal of the contracts was to ensure that the restrictions stayed in place for a longer amount of time. The only way to stop the automatic renewal was to have the homeowners that owned the most property write to the Register of Deeds stating that they want the restrictions removed, but that may only happen after every 25 year
Golash- Boza explains, “Residential segregation happened when different groups of people are sorted into discount neighborhoods” (271). It is because of housing segregation
This essay will discuss how neoliberal processes during redevelopment sustain and increase health inequities. It will highlight key neoliberal processes in urban redevelopment and examples of their impact on economic, political, and institutional social capital and subsequent public health effects. Examples of social movements challenging several neoliberal processes will be provided as one path toward changing the roots of health inequities.