Unjust Deserts:
The Effects of Retail and Residential Redlining on Public Health in Communities of Color in New York City
Introduction
When one thinks of segregation in the United States, he or she tends to imagine segregated restaurants in a pre-1960s Southern community. It’s almost impossible for one to believe that in the following decades covert segregation would not only continue, but be pertinent in Northern cities such as New York City. However, through a combination of racism in the financial sector and neglect in the public sector, communities of color have been isolated from the city at large and subjected to conditions that inhibit quality of life. The issues that this paper will focus on are retail and residential redlining. …show more content…
Although local businesses and activists in New York City are attempting to determine the best ways to address issues of retail, produce, and health in communities of color, there has not been enough focus on why these problems are seemingly incapable of being solved. In “Food Deserts,” University of Minnesota professor Jerry Shannon argues that food deserts promote “neoliberal paternalism” (Shannon 254). Neoliberalism is an economic theory of privatisation, fiscal austerity, deregulation, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy. Shannon applies this to food deserts when she states, “The goal of such policies is not simply to encourage more constructive social behavior, but to change a person’s basic values and self-conceptions, reconstructing the citizen as a different kind of self-regulating subject” (256). Shannon ties neoliberalism to food deserts because they are the result of industries believing that the communities being affected have no health food options out of their own volition. Shannon argues that neoliberal economic policies are also problematic when applied to solving health issues in communities of color because they incentivize welfare recipients to make healthier eating options through government programs (256). The combination of generalizations made by retail outlets about who will want to consume their products and government predilections for regulating the consumer, rather than retail zoning has resulted in failures to address the causes of food deserts. Without changing the way in which public policy is addressed, the onus will continue to be placed on community members who are simply incapable of obtaining food that will better their standards of
The Effects of Retail and Residential Redlining on Public Health in Communities of Color in New York City
Introduction
When one thinks of segregation in the United States, he or she tends to imagine segregated restaurants in a pre-1960s Southern community. It’s almost impossible for one to believe that in the following decades covert segregation would not only continue, but be pertinent in Northern cities such as New York City. However, through a combination of racism in the financial sector and neglect in the public sector, communities of color have been isolated from the city at large and subjected to conditions that inhibit quality of life. The issues that this paper will focus on are retail and residential redlining. …show more content…
Although local businesses and activists in New York City are attempting to determine the best ways to address issues of retail, produce, and health in communities of color, there has not been enough focus on why these problems are seemingly incapable of being solved. In “Food Deserts,” University of Minnesota professor Jerry Shannon argues that food deserts promote “neoliberal paternalism” (Shannon 254). Neoliberalism is an economic theory of privatisation, fiscal austerity, deregulation, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy. Shannon applies this to food deserts when she states, “The goal of such policies is not simply to encourage more constructive social behavior, but to change a person’s basic values and self-conceptions, reconstructing the citizen as a different kind of self-regulating subject” (256). Shannon ties neoliberalism to food deserts because they are the result of industries believing that the communities being affected have no health food options out of their own volition. Shannon argues that neoliberal economic policies are also problematic when applied to solving health issues in communities of color because they incentivize welfare recipients to make healthier eating options through government programs (256). The combination of generalizations made by retail outlets about who will want to consume their products and government predilections for regulating the consumer, rather than retail zoning has resulted in failures to address the causes of food deserts. Without changing the way in which public policy is addressed, the onus will continue to be placed on community members who are simply incapable of obtaining food that will better their standards of