Why Can't We Just Share?

Growing up in the city of Chicago, as well as the suburb of Maywood, I rarely came in contact with white people. I mean there would be the occasional white person that drives through the town to get on the 290 expressway, and also there would be some white people that would come to our restaurants or stores. For the most part all the people I came across on a daily basis was either black, Hispanic, Chinese, or Indian. The blacks and the Hispanics are usually the residents, the Chinese and Indians work at the gas stations and corner stores, and the white people are usually the police. The city of Chicago, as well as its surrounding suburbs are very racially segregated. The authors of the book, American Apartheid, Douglas S. Massey and Nancy S. Denton explained that residential segregation is a serious problem that contributes to the unevenness of blacks and whites in society. As the authors explained, residential segregation is a huge factor that contributes to the level of poverty in urban communities. In other words, it is difficult for a black person to get ahead in life when society has made it so easy for them to fail. When black people are confined within one community, and they have little or no access to people that have a higher social economic status, they tend to remain in the same position they started in. As many people have stated, Julius Wilson in particular, black people are isolated in their communities. Many of the black neighborhoods within the city of Chicago are separated from the rest of the city. The neighborhoods are close around each other and also many of the black neighborhoods are separated from the white neighborhoods. It is evident that the spatial layout of the city was designed to keep the black people and the white people separated. I know when most people hear the word suburb they picture clean streets, nice lawns, friendly people, and I nice quiet neighborhood. Well, if that is your perception of a suburb take a trip to one of the many black suburbs in Cook County, Illinois. I feel like it is a shame that even the suburbs are as segregated as they are. I am from a suburb that is majority African American, and some Hispanic. Maywood is about ten, or fifteen minutes away from the city depending on where you are going and the time of the day. When you leave the west side of the city you have to pass through Forest Park and Oak Park before reaching Maywood. It is very easy to see the residential segregation when leaving the city and entering Oak Park. The west side is one of the dirtiest, most rundown looking places in the city, but once you cross the street Austin it looks like a whole different world. I am not being sarcastic when I say that it is literally clean on the Oak Park side of the street and horrible looking on the Chicago side. So, you leave Chicago and enter a nice,

beautiful, quiet suburb like the ones you see on television. Then, you drive about five minutes and begin to enter Maywood where it becomes just as dirty looking as Chicago. I find it strange, and disappointing how it can go from bad to good and right back to bad. In 1968 the Fair Housing Act was passed and made it so that anyone could live where ever they wanted, and people could not be discriminated against by race. That was in 1968 and now in 2015 neighborhoods are more racially segregated that ever. Massey and Denton explained that race is the main reason that neighborhoods are so segregated. Many people try to argue that class is the reason,

and that blacks live around blacks because they either want to, or cannot afford to live in better communities. But, what about blockbusting, redlining, and restrictive covenants? What about when African American do begin to move into a neighborhood and the white people begin to move out? In my opinion some white people are simply scared to live around blacks. According to the authors in the past white people did believe that if they made society equal that black people would rise above them. But as long as black people only have contact with other black people they will continue to be held back. I am aware that there are other races that are just as segregated, but it has been proven that out of all races African American have the hardest time integrating with white people. The authors also stated on page 87 of the book, “The poorest Hispanics were less segregated than the most affluent blacks.” That is very interesting and it argues the point that neighborhoods are separated by class.   

This article explains that many of the cities throughout the United States remain racially segregated to this day despite the laws that were put in place to stop racial residential segregation: 

   http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-housing-market-remains-deeply-segregated/