With the landmark figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and cases such as Brown vs. Board of Education, Americans tend to consider segregation as a relic of a past and shameful age. In reality, the passage of the Civil Rights Act simply halted de jure discrimination (segregation imposed by the government), but de facto segregation (segregation without a legal requirement) still exists. American views of race and religion have systemically disenfranchised minorities. Look no further than the treatment of Muslim Americans to understand contemporary race relations. In her 20 year research of American race discrimination, Muslim female professor Lila Abu-Lughod at Columbia University identifies the attitude that foreign “Muslim women need to be
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Disparities in education surface when white communities are compared to their minority counterparts. In a cross-field examination of racially based housing segregation, David Williams PHD published “there is a very strong relationship between residential segregation and the concentration of poverty. Public schools with high proportions of blacks and Hispanics are dominated by poor children”. In most places in America, schooling is dictated by the neighborhood they live in. Concentration of minorities into ethnic enclaves confines typically poor communities to attend the same school. Because local schools are funded by property taxes, the lower property values of minority neighborhoods typically corresponds with lower performing schools. Even in healthcare, unequal distributions of medical resources produces significantly lower quality care. According to Brian D. Smedley, a medical researcher and co-founder of the National Collaborative for Health Equity, “African Americans and Hispanics tend to receive lower quality health care across a range of disease areas (including cancer, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mental health, and other chronic and infectious diseases) and clinical services” (B. D. Smedley et al., 2003). Without equal access to quality health care, residential segregation …show more content…
Often times, borrowers of a certain race are classified by banks as ‘high risk’. Without the banks providing mortgages to new borrowers and loans to communities for improvement, the market is effectively frozen; no residents can leave the neighborhood as no home buyers have the opportunity to get a mortgage in the area and purchase the home (Pearcy 2). By participating in industry wide redlining, banks can implement prejudice on geographical scales. These false perceptions and unjust practices have chilling effects on race relations. Described by astute urban professor Peter Dreier, “Banks were refusing to make home and business loans to certain neighborhoods, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of neglect and deterioration. Moreover, these decisions were often based on subjective perceptions - bankers' views of certain neighborhoods as risky - rather than on objective real it” (*). In a disheartening cycle, untrue racial prejudice becomes reality through urban segregation. Views that certain groups, particularly the blacks in America, are “high risk”, “poor”, or “susceptible to crime” leads bankers to redline neighborhoods and create ethnic enclaves for minorities to protect their investments, essentially pushing the groups towards poverty and crime and spawning the development of the urban ghetto. Often when minorities are given loans, they
Disparities in education surface when white communities are compared to their minority counterparts. In a cross-field examination of racially based housing segregation, David Williams PHD published “there is a very strong relationship between residential segregation and the concentration of poverty. Public schools with high proportions of blacks and Hispanics are dominated by poor children”. In most places in America, schooling is dictated by the neighborhood they live in. Concentration of minorities into ethnic enclaves confines typically poor communities to attend the same school. Because local schools are funded by property taxes, the lower property values of minority neighborhoods typically corresponds with lower performing schools. Even in healthcare, unequal distributions of medical resources produces significantly lower quality care. According to Brian D. Smedley, a medical researcher and co-founder of the National Collaborative for Health Equity, “African Americans and Hispanics tend to receive lower quality health care across a range of disease areas (including cancer, cardiovascular disease, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mental health, and other chronic and infectious diseases) and clinical services” (B. D. Smedley et al., 2003). Without equal access to quality health care, residential segregation …show more content…
Often times, borrowers of a certain race are classified by banks as ‘high risk’. Without the banks providing mortgages to new borrowers and loans to communities for improvement, the market is effectively frozen; no residents can leave the neighborhood as no home buyers have the opportunity to get a mortgage in the area and purchase the home (Pearcy 2). By participating in industry wide redlining, banks can implement prejudice on geographical scales. These false perceptions and unjust practices have chilling effects on race relations. Described by astute urban professor Peter Dreier, “Banks were refusing to make home and business loans to certain neighborhoods, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of neglect and deterioration. Moreover, these decisions were often based on subjective perceptions - bankers' views of certain neighborhoods as risky - rather than on objective real it” (*). In a disheartening cycle, untrue racial prejudice becomes reality through urban segregation. Views that certain groups, particularly the blacks in America, are “high risk”, “poor”, or “susceptible to crime” leads bankers to redline neighborhoods and create ethnic enclaves for minorities to protect their investments, essentially pushing the groups towards poverty and crime and spawning the development of the urban ghetto. Often when minorities are given loans, they