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Socioeconomic status inequalities in housing
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developing effective policy interventions. In understanding that black women experience the highest eviction, we can look at the historical and sociological reasons black women have always been a part of a disadvantaged group. One weakness of Desmond’s research is even though the data shows that black women are overrepresented in eviction records in proportion to their representation in the general population, there was no direct connection that it was the sole reason black women were evicted. Desmond suggests that other studies would need to be completed to provide evidence that extraneous or antecedent variables could possibly be factor to understand the overrepresentation of black women in the eviction process. To build further on Desmond’s
William Julius Wilson creates a thrilling new systematic framework to three politically tense social problems: “the plight of low-skilled black males, the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, and the fragmentation of the African American family” (Wilson, 36). Though the conversation of racial inequality is classically divided. Wilson challenges the relationship between institutional and cultural factors as reasons of the racial forces, which are inseparably linked, but public policy can only change the racial status quo by reforming the institutions that support it.
In the article, Coates maintains that social, economic, and political injustices against blacks have compounded over the years: “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy.” He argues that even though slavery and segregation ended, these inequities have crippled many black communities and left them on an uneven playing field—only reparations can even this field.
While whites lived comfortable lives in their extravagant mansions and driving their fancy cars blacks had to live in a disease infested neighborhood with no electricity or in door plumbing. Approximately one thousand people lived in shacks that were squeezed together in a one-mile zone. The alleys were filled with dirt, rats, human wasted and diseases. Blacks lived in houses made of “old whitewash, a leaking ceiling of rusted Inx propped up by a thin wall of crumbling adobe bricks, two tiny windows made of cardboard and pieces of glass, a creaky, termite-eaten door low for a person of average height to pass through...and a floor made of patches of cement earth”(31). Living in such a degrading environment kills self-esteem, lowers work ethic and leaves no hope for the future.
In the Pulitzer prize-winning novel Evicted, sociologist Matthew Desmond follows eight families as he exposes how the lack of affordable housing perpetuates a state of poverty. He even goes so far as to assert that it is eviction that is a cause of poverty, not the other way around (Desmond 229). While this latter argument is as engrossing and it is striking, analyzing it with justice is simply not possible within the scope of this paper. Nevertheless, it is these two factors—inescapable poverty and eviction—that engender an unrelenting condition of financial, emotional, and communal instability, effectively hindering any chance of upward mobility.
From the article, Davis’s main argument is that the mainstream society has developed the perception the black men are to blame for the
Similarly important was the role black women on an individual level played in offering a model for white women to follow. Because black men had a harder time finding employment, black women had a history of working ou...
The Chicago Housing Authority is an agency that is at odds with its own true nature and goals. It is an agency committed to managing the welfare of the poor and disenfranchised. At the same time it is an agency with a commitment to the city of Chicago to "take care " of the Black poor problem. "Taking care" in this instance seems to mean by any means necessary. Whether Blacks are shuttled about from one part of the city to the next, stacked on top of each other like prisoners, or out and out murdered there seems to be an unspoken agenda to get rid of the problem. The dichotomy I see is that while some of the politicians and more upwardly mobile citizens of Chicago want to help poor people. They also want the problem to disappear.
2010, “Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies 4(1): 1-31, in this Albonetti’s study is discussed in which it was found that minority status alone accounted for an additional sentence length of “one to seven months.” African American defendants were “likely to receive pretrial release but were more likely to be convicted, and be given harsher sentences after conviction than white defendants charged with the same crimes.” One of the reasons behind this are the sentencing laws, it is seen that these laws are designed in a way that they tend to be harsher towards a certain group of people, generally towards the people of color than others thus leading to inequality with the sentencing
In the “Between Barack and a Hard Place” by Tim Wise, Wise explains institutionalized racism in the categories of income and jobs, housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and Hurricane Katrina Response. Institutional racism is the pattern where blacks and people of color have given some negative treatments based on their race or skin color. Wise gives some key points and statistics in each areas that disproves the idea that people have equal opportunities in the United States. In terms of income and jobs, Wise shows unequal opportunities for applicants with black-sounding names: “Job applicants with white-sounding names are 50 percent more likely to be called back for a job interview than applicants with black-sounding names.” (Wise
In today’s society, there are certain types of women who are born with the advantage to prosper, and others who will ultimately face challenges. Certain factors are involved when discussing what types of women are more likely to encounter difficulties throughout their life. Audre Lorde, an African-American theorist, poet, and activist, stated tat the American norm is, “usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure” (Lorde 19). If a woman does not identify with all of these characteristics, she is more susceptible to hardship. Bastard out of Carolina, The House on Mango Street, and The Bluest Eye discuss many of the consequences of having certain factors that are considered out of the norm.
“I look and I see white everywhere: white walls, white floors, and a lot of white people…” Quoted by one individual like many others, that feels their ethnicity is inferior to others around them. Racism and stereotyping are common among members in our society and cause distress for those who are not of the ethnic population or do not fit the white racial ideologies. People living in poverty are negatively affected by these stereotypes and racial issues. These negative ideas and beliefs about those of a different race or in a different social classes have a strong impact on the individual’s chances of coming out of poverty. African American’s are one race among many that is stereotyped for living mainly in poverty or being in the lower social
From slavery to Jim Crow, the impact of racial discrimination has had a long lasting influence on the lives of African Americans. While inequality is by no means a new concept within the United States, the after effects have continued to have an unmatched impact on the racial disparities in society. Specifically, in the housing market, as residential segregation persists along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, limiting the resources available to black communities such as homeownership, quality education, and wealth accumulation. Essentially leaving African Americans with an unequal access of resources and greatly affecting their ability to move upward in society due to being segregated in impoverished neighborhoods. Thus, residential segregation plays a significant role in
Sidney, Mara S. 2003. Unfair Housing: How National Policy Shapes Community Action. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.
The matrix of domination sheds light on the invisible hierarchy that entwines both the homeless black man and the upper middle class white women in these situations. Collins’ matrix includes an individuals separate levels of social superiority in race, gender and social status and measures their level of oppression by all these factors, not by each characteristic individually. In this societies system, white is seen as superior to black, male superior to female, and wealthy superior to poor. The individuals exhibiting the least superior qualities thus are the most oppressed, and the individuals with the most superior qualities are the least oppressed. (Collins 228)
In “More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City” the author discuss structural forces that contribute to inequalities amongst the poor. He points out factors such as, segregation and discrimination and impersonal changes in the economy. He emphasizes that structural factors should receive more attention than cultural factors in accounting for the social outcomes of poor African Americans. Wilson stated that there are two types of structural forces that directly contribute to racial effects such as changes in poverty and employment rate: social acts and social processes are the two factor according to Wilson. Social acts refer to the behavior of individuals within society. Examples of social acts are stereotyping; stigmatization; discrimination in hiring, job promotions, housing, and admission to educational institutions; when any of these are the act of an individual or a group exercising power over others. Social processes refers to the equipment of society that exists to encourage continuing relations among participants of the bigger group. Wilson argues that historically these factors perpetuate poverty. Discrimination against African Americans created current obstacles to their economic success; their predicament is compounded by factors exclusively linked with American capitalism and demography. Here’s an example, most Caucasian Americans and few African