Racial Residential Segregation

Even though schools have been legally integrated for several decades, educational segregation still exist; it is a direct result of residential segregation and it keeps minorities at a disadvantage in this country while ensuring the dominance of the white race. One’s residence dictates the school they attend, and this school determines the eduction one will receive, and the education they receive will shape their future. Educational segregation ensure that the dominant group will remain dominant in our society. The goal of this paper is to analyze from a sociological perspective educational and residential segregation and to look at the controversy it causes in American society.

Decades of racial discrimination, insufficient urban planning, and unsuccessful labor policy left African-Americans disportionately unemployed and situated in ghettos across the United States. (Hahn 25) The lack of opportunity led a number of individuals within those communities to join gangs to secure income, social status, and protection. (Hahn 25) Instead of integrating these individuals into the “prosperous mainstream,” the police has separated and trapped minorities within these communities.(Hahn 25)Working with the desperate, angry,and wronged communities daily paired with racist social beliefs led to racial generalizations by cops. (Hahn 25)

This photo is of the Frances Cabrini row houses on the Near North Side of Chicago. It shows public housing projects that were built in the cities black ghettos. The city is completely segregated into racial sections, this segregation and the way it’s divided has remained almost unchanged since the 1960’s (Bogira). These neighborhoods were established back after the wars were over and jobs were harder to get. African Americans were denied access to unions and the ability to buy houses in certain areas were impossible due to redlining.

As outlined in chapter 10 of the course text, inequality in housing and wealth is a major problem. The United States is described to be the most unequal countries in the western hemisphere. But with the inequalities when it comes to wealth, the United States is one of the richest countries in the world. Wealth is the sum total of a person’s assets. These assets include, cash in the bank and value of all properties, not only land but houses, cars, stocks, and bonds, and retirements savings.

Food deserts are becoming a growing issue not unique to the United States. In 2010, it was estimated that 23.5 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, lived in an urban or rural food desert (Let’s Move, 2015). A food desert can be defined as a geographical area where communities lack access to healthy, inexpensive food options. The limited access to an affordable healthy diet presents a major challenge to residents living in food deserts. Instead of people’s main source of food being from a supermarket, communities will rely on eating at restaurants, fast food chains and convenience stores as their main sources of nutrition.

Diversity issues are critical element taken place within an individual. Diversity is defined as the state of being diverse which is expressed in beliefs and behaviors of individuals, families, communities and in societies. Issues related to age, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, culture, sexual orientation and disability can strongly affect a social worker’s assessment of a client as well as intervention chosen. Social –Economic Justice According to Barker (social work dictionary 2003) social justice is an ideal condition in which all members of a society have the same basic rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits.

One of the most impactful films we watched in class was the video of Michelle Alexander’s lecture on her book, The New Jim Crow. I’ve heard bits about the book beforehand but watching the award winning author speak on it was truly eye-opening and the information she gave was phenomenal. The topic of her book and in turn the lecture was on the issue of mass incarceration within the U.S. and also how the “War on Drugs” is what made poor communities with people of color the main victims of mass incarceration. She discussed how some poor communities are seen as violent and sketchy because of their high levels of chronic joblessness. Her main point was making listeners aware of how even though we claim to be in an “era of colorblindness,” there

LOG 18 Racial inequality has continuously played a major factor in employment, housing, and other social situations and has sparked more study by scholars into the role that discrimination plays and if actually has a role in the problems we see today. The article discusses how it believes discrimination may be motivated by thing like stereotypes and racism but discrimination does not have one outstanding cause that stands out above the rest explaining why it happens. The scholars in this article separate the definition of racial discrimination into two parts “ differential treatment and disparate impact.” Differential treatment happens when the individual facing discrimination is being treated unequal because of his or her race.

According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) “Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.” These policies created racial segregation between illegal immigrants by promoting that they should not be able to have access to everything a citizen can. Moreover, these policies began to dehumanize this population by taking away basic human rights and opportunities. This brought about the ideal that race and perspectives are not natural more socially constructed by the communities and governments (Lopez, 2000). These individuals already had many challenges or intersects that they needed to overcome by these policies it just added more.

It is without a doubt that racial inequality is a prevalent problem within the United States. Nonetheless, the reasons for its prevalence are greatly contended. Many social and economic forces have played a critical role in the evolution of racial inequality throughout history. The overwhelming disagreement over the aftermath of the civil war leading up to the civil rights movement is a major factor of which greatly divides the American people.

Essay 1: There are many ways in which our society currently perpetuates the inequalities we see among races. People of color are much more likely to live in poverty, to be incarcerated, and to be unemployed than white people, even when all factors but race are held the same. In this essay, I will be discussing three (of many) ways our society perpetuates this inequality, focusing on the inequalities of the poor urban blacks. The first is through economic segregation.