http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/
Above is the website I used for the map. 
I wanted to explore more of the cities around the country, so here is Cleveland, near me. Here, the racial divide is between East and West Cleveland. What is interesting about this form of segregation is that initially, East Cleveland was the wealthier part of the city. West Cleveland was were many of the other ethnic minorities lived (Polish, Hungarian, Slovenian).
I wanted to explore more of the cities around the country, so here is Cleveland, near me. Here, the racial divide is between East and West Cleveland. What is interesting about this form of segregation is that initially, East Cleveland was the wealthier part of the city. West Cleveland was were many of the other ethnic minorities lived (Polish, Hungarian, Slovenian).
How can we change this? It seems there is a constant cycle of gentrification and white flight which moves people from one neighborhood to another, but never lets them interact with people of another race. It's been proven that integrated schools are better for all children, then why do we not have integrated neighborhoods?
Of course, this is still focused on cities, and there are different forms of segregation throughout the country. For instance, in northern rural areas, it is predominantly white, while southern rural areas are predominately African American. 
You can see a clear line running from the delta, through the Gulf coast and up the Atlantic coast to Washington. In nearly every other rural area in America, it's a blue as Kentucky and Missouri. It's startling to see the demographics of areas still showing the shadow of slavery. I wonder if America will every truly integrate.
You can see a clear line running from the delta, through the Gulf coast and up the Atlantic coast to Washington. In nearly every other rural area in America, it's a blue as Kentucky and Missouri. It's startling to see the demographics of areas still showing the shadow of slavery. I wonder if America will every truly integrate. 
This is such an interesting post because I think when we talk about transportation, of course we're talking about integration. When we talk about integration though, I think the bigger issue here becomes gentrification, like you've mentioned here. It's this interesting cycle that has begun to happen throughout cities in the US when millennials want to move to less expensive areas in the city and end up pushing people out which is the opposite of what people want when integration occurs, so the question is how to fix it?
ReplyDeleteFor further study, you should look into a lot of small towns and counties around the mid south and how they changed overtime. In my home county of Tipton, which is about 20% black, the black community is mainly centralized in the towns of Mason and Covington and the rest of the county, Atoka--my hometown--and Munford are predominately white and experienced a great bit of development since the late 1990s. I remember when I was young and wondering why all the African American students all came from one town and why they had to be bused to my school, when the closer one was in Covington. I discovered later it was because my school still had to comply with integration orders from the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of a few things I have read, I feel like there is a strong need for public housing environments to become anything but that-- an environment. What happened to the true communities of the past? Perhaps there are more ways to prevent gentrification by reestablishing communities before focusing on the houses themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think gentrification occurs because people consider nice areas of Memphis "white areas" because of the economic inequality. Once the area becomes built up, it is considered a 'white area' where white people come in therefore rising the price of living, and driving the lower-class out. Areas could stay more integrated if the price of living did not go up because of skin color.
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