Unequal Neighborhoods

Blog Post #1

Alisha Flaxman

            Race has always been a problem in our society, especially when it comes down to individual income, where you live, and whom you associate with. Segregation of neighborhoods isn’t primarily based on racial identities but could be based on what kind of income that family is making, what kind of neighborhood it is, etc. There are consequences that racial segregation of unequal neighborhoods has on families. Unequal neighborhoods are everywhere in the United States whether people like to believe it or not. In some way or another, there are certain segregations in each neighborhood that is not always present.

Unequal neighborhoods relate to our class by showing that people still have racial differences between them. We can see this by the movie we saw in class “The House We Live In” because they had racial differences and segregated neighborhoods. We can also see how racial segregation was back in the day and how Blacks and Hispanics were treated. Houses for African Americans were only allowed in the poorer parts of the city while new houses were made for White people. Meanwhile, the apartments that they did build for African Americans were not as good as the White neighborhood and sometimes were unfinished.

America has come a very long way from segregation of school and neighborhoods from African Americans and Caucasians. However, according to Urban Affairs Review Congress declared the “goal of a decent home and suitable living environment for every African American” (Osypuk, Galea, McArdle, 3). Even though this has not been put in effect recently because there are “racial-ethnic inequalities that affects access to opportunity neighborhoods” (Osypuk, Galea, McArdle, 6). I searched what a typical Caucasian American home looks like compared to an African American home in California and as we can see from the picture there are vast differences.  

Even if this is not true for most cases we can still see that in some instances, African American’s are still not seen as equal in some eyes. People can also see where African Americans live distributed in Chicago throughout the years and how segregated some areas are: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-politics-segregation-african-american-black-white-hispanic-latino-population-census-community/Content?oid=3221712. Even last year, it is seen that African Americans live in poverty stricken neighborhoods even if they are considered middle class from this chart.

               With African Americans living in higher poverty neighborhoods, it can also be seen that African American’s don’t exceed the same income as Caucasians do. I saw a recording of a talk by Tim Wise who came to Wheaton and he said that most people only get a call back from an interview if they are white or have white names. Most (black) people have to have more than eight years worth of experience to be considered at the same level of a Caucasian person. While African Americans cannot get jobs, they are forced to live somewhere that might not be the safest neighborhood because of their income. This can also be said about Hispanics because of the same reason; people don’t want to higher Hispanic people. Hispanics and African Americans are forced to live in poverty stricken areas or areas that are not safe based on their income. This also comes into play with unequal neighborhoods because if African Americans and Hispanics cannot get jobs, the better neighborhoods will be predominantly white.

 As we can see from the chart, African Americans and Hispanics make the lowest amount of income while Caucasian and Asian Americans make the most. Based on this, Asian Americans and Caucasians will be able to afford a house in a better neighborhood while African American and Hispanics will need to find a house that will better suit their economic standards.

            In 2011, Brown University found that “Black household incomes are below 60 percent of white incomes and Hispanic household incomes are less than 70 percent” (Logan, 1). While “Asians have higher average incomes than Whites and maintained advantage” (Logan, 1). Still, African Americans and Hispanics live in poorer neighborhoods than Caucasians because of their comparable incomes. In the mid and late 2000s Caucasian incomes averaged over $60,000, which was $25,000 more than blacks and $20,000 more than Hispanics. However, Logan finds that unequal neighborhoods is not so much income based as it is still due to residential segregation (as can be seen from his graphs on page 9,10,12). http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/uploads/documents/normal-docs/BrownhousingStudy.pdf

            Because families like Blacks and Hispanics have to live in sometimes poorer or poverty-stricken neighborhoods, their children have to go to schools that also could lessen their education. High school drop out rates from Black and Hispanics could be because of where their families live and what kind of neighborhoods they are. Back and Hispanic drop out rates are higher than Whites because the schools they go to possibly aren’t encouraging the children to be better and to know that they can succeed. We can see the achievement gap between Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites in different levels of achievement.

            Like we have seen in the book that we are reading, Academic Profiling, we can see the achievement gap very clearly. Hispanics and Blacks are usually placed in the lower levels of the schools’ programs. There is even racial discrimination between ethnicities, some saying that they want to ‘stay away’ from some people because of stereotypes. In chapter 5 of the book, the chapter is based on how others judge them because of how they look or the stereotypes that come with their ethnicities. Some parents even say to their children that they don’t want them hanging around with certain groups because of their stereotypes. They refer to certain ethnic groups with thoughts that they have grown up with so they discriminate on each other. Based on this reading, we can see that while not living with diversity, it can have a toll on how they perceive certain ethnic groups. Children need diversity in their life because they will grow up with a certain culture that doesn’t involve diversity.

In conclusion, unequal neighborhoods are based on racial segregation and sometimes based on the income of families. Unequal neighborhoods can involve achievement gaps between Hispanics and Blacks based on their minority status. Just like we have seen in Academic Profiling growing up in a neighborhood without diversity could effect how their children grow up and perceive people. Unequal neighborhoods are not in the best interest of anyone however; there still are unequal neighborhoods from racial segregation. Racial segregation is still present even from the long way that we have come from racial profiling and if we don’t try to solve the problem there will still be unequal neighborhoods and we will always have a line between different ethnicities.

Bibliography

Logan, R. (2011, July). Separate and Unequal: The Neighborhood Gap for Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in Metropolitan America. US 2010 discover America in a new century.

Osypuk, L., T., Galea, S., McArdle, N., Garcia, A., D. (2009, February 4). Quantifying Separate and Unequal: Racial-Ethnic Distributions of Neighborhood Poverty in Metropolitan America. Urban Affairs Review.

Pictures

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-politics-segregation-african-american-black-white-hispanic-latino-population-census-community/Content?oid=3221712

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/revisiting-the-moynihan-report/276936/

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/heres-more-proof-that-banks-are-nicer-to-white-homeowners-2012-5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_inequality