Segregation in the home is very prominent even in today’s society. There are different factors fuelling the fire behind this particular branch, and until recently, I never thought to question them. In my sociology class, and also in this class, white flight and racial steering entered the conversation. They are the two main factors discussed in direct correlation to segregation in residential neighborhoods. While these terms may seem absurd, they are real practices that are commonly put to use today.
White flight is a simple way of describing the tendency some white families have to move away from neighborhoods that have become racially diverse. Why does this happen? Neighborhood stereotyping or, judging a neighborhood based on race, is the main culprit. White families that are moving from their homes are making two assumptions about their new neighbors: 1) that, as minorities, they will attract other minorities and will soon become the majority and 2) more minorities in a neighborhood will result in a decrease in that neighborhood’s social strength. What this suggests is that white citizens believe the presence of black families in their neighborhoods will lower neighborhood safety, the quality of public education, and property value. Instead of remaining in their homes, though, and seeing what kinds of neighbors these black families will be, white families simply leave.
Racial steering is another practice that perpetuates segregation in the home. It is the act of steering prospective homeowners towards certain neighborhoods based on the color of their skin. This practice is illegal, but it is still the way many agents work. The neighborhoods agents are pushing their African American clients towards are not necessarily bad or lower class, though, they are just majority black. Real estate agents keep their clientele segregated because they believe they are doing everyone a favor. They are grouping black families together in certain neighborhoods because they believe these families share more commonalities than they would with whites. By doing this, they are also pleasing their white clients who are pro neighborhood segregation. This practice is keeping real estate agents in business while also successfully keeping neighborhoods separated.
Now that we know that segregation is still very prominent in neighborhoods today, the real question is, can we end it? I do not know if we can. As long as white families are closed to the idea of mixing their neighborhoods and real estate agents continue to separate their clients based on race, nothing drastic is going to happen. How can we fix this social injustice? What are your thoughts?
I really enjoyed this blog post and think that neighborhood segregation is especially relevant to the conversation of whether or not we are in a post-race society. Racial segregated neighborhoods also play greatly into the conversation and continued tension with the American Dream and if it is achievable/what it is defined as. Also, segregated neighborhoods are at the heart of the education gap seen across the nation, especially with the local example of Memphis. With the housing legislation passed in 1968, as defined by History.com as, “The Civil Rights Act signed into law in April 1968--popularly known as the Fair Housing Act--prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin and sex. Intended as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the bill was the subject of a contentious debate in the Senate, but was passed quickly by the House of Representatives in the days after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The act stands as the final great legislative achievement of the civil rights era.” Even with this legislation, however, housing has proven to be one of the most resistant fronts in American life to change. With the home being the primary piece of wealth and further, the implications of being barred from housing neighborhoods (hindering the American Dream), racially segregated neighborhoods have social, political, and economic consequences. While a solution to this is difficult, one way to approach an eventual solution may be to better understand the problem. Where is this neighborhood segregation greatest today? Is it greater in certain regions of the country?
ReplyDeleteI really like this post too! This is something I had never really thought about before (and I feel like I say that all the time, but it's true). I grew up in an all-white neighborhood, and I played in public parks where white kids played with white kids and black kids played with black kids. My neighborhood is still, fifteen years after my family moved in, an all-white neighborhood with one home being the exception. The generations have come around again, so now there is a new group of neighborhood kids running around and riding bikes, but they are still an exclusively white group. Shortly after we moved into our house, I had a birthday party where I invited a large group of friends from my class at school - and one of them was an African American girl. Since apparently birthday parties were social events for moms as well as kids, a number of moms came with their children and stayed to chat with my mom. Later, my mom told me that two of my classmates' mothers had off-handedly expressed concern with the fact that my African American friend had been invited without consulting the parents of the other children. They went on to comment on how it was lucky that her family did not live in the neighborhood and how awkward it would be if they did. (Relating it back to class, my friends' parents were both prominent doctors in the community, so it was a situation somewhat similar to what Professor McKinney talked about in class). I find it completely unacceptable that this was an issue to them, but it is an excellent example of how pervasive racism still is, as well as how it can manifest itself in something as simple as a five year old's birthday party guest list.
ReplyDeleteI feel relatively uneducated about the history, nature, and perpetuation of neighborhood segregation in the United States. I have studied policies on this issue as well as the psychological effects of this type of segregation but the issue is highly complex. I find it most important, however, the ways in which our society is structured around where people live. This organization has huge consequences, both positive and negative for all members of the population. As Hannah mentioned above the way citizens are education in this country is greatly affected by their address. Even the funding that schools receive is based upon the property taxes collected in an area. In addition to education, access to healthy food or lack thereof (food desserts), access to transportation and social capital to name a few, are all institutional systems that have benefits that are fundamentally dependant on where one lives.
ReplyDelete