communities

It’s always interesting when talking about communities, and neighborhoods in urban areas. These are the areas that usually has a high volume of police presence because of the crime rates. It’s very obvious when in these neighborhoods to tell the difference in not only appearance but the presence of neighbors in the community. In these low income areas resources are limited, crime is high and murder is something that is common. I think of particular areas in Chicago and how they look, and the struggle people in these communities go through on a daily basis. Just like in There are no Children here; we talked about the female headed household that’s Wilson talks about. Many sociologist were interested in researching if community ties influence the behavior of people in these neighborhoods. They also were interested in looking at the discrimination that may take place against blacks when they do try to get out of these improvised neighborhoods. W.E.B DuBois found that blacks were among one of the most discriminated races when it came to renting and buying houses. Once I was watching this really good serious called Shameless it takes place on Chicago’s Southside, and it’s about this white family living in Chicago in an impoverished neighborhood. They are extremely poor and the things they go through gives an example of some things that families in Chicago go through. The dad is a drunk and the oldest sister ids basically the provider for the family; the kids constantly find their self in trouble with the law. On this particular episode; there was a lesbian couple that moved into the neighborhood and was trying to buy land, and even buy the house from the people that were living in these homes; because their neighborhood was listed as one of the top 10 most up and coming neighborhoods for property value. The dad who is a drunk started talking about this idea that we talked about in class ‘gentrification” he said they were trying to move the poor people out and move in a Starbucks for the rich uppity white people. At that time I had no idea what gentrification was, but it was interesting his view on what the government was trying to do. The family did everything they could to stop other people from moving in and to stop the building of new buildings. They even went too far as to shoot up the new store that just had been built. It’s interesting to think about the way the government does this. After hearing the dad talk about gentrification it gave me a new outlook on certain things, and had me questioning if this is to help the neighborhood or to move the lower class out. It’s also interesting because they are a white family the breaks they are given even being of lower class.

 This show definitely speaks on a lot of issues that are relevant in Chicago. It’s raunchy but when I saw this I immediately thought of this class because it helped me to see and understand gentrification through the eyes of people that may have experienced it. This also brings into perspective how location affects racial segregation and the relationship in the community. As we know income also has something to do with these issues as well. As always I go back to how certain groups have historically been discriminated against. It’s hard to look at how income and class without acknowledging the past. I think Rachelle and Donald Warren did a great job talking about the 5 types of neighborhoods or communities that exist. The first one identified by them was The Parochial; in this neighborhood there is a strong sense of community and cultural orientation. Then, there is The Integral; this neighborhood has a strong sense of involvement and mostly everyone in the community is involved. Next, The Diffuse; this community has little to no neighboring interactions but their status is so great the networking of the residents is a big influence. Then, The anomic; this area doesn’t have much of a voting turnout, not much neighboring involvement, but rather extremely high crime levels. Lastly, is the The stepping Stone; which kind of describes its self. Neighbors don’t really interact they use that neighborhood as a stepping stone to eventually move on to better things. Then George Simmel went on to study what he calls the Defended Neighborhood; they are on defense from a force threat outside of the neighborhood, and are less likely to accept diversity in their neighborhood. In the clip I showed it seems as if they have a part of each of these even if it’s in a negative way.