Hasan Saleem
Weekly Critical Reading Review #4
The readings over the past two weeks and the film La Haine focused on the issue of social and spatial discrimination in cities. The major theme present in the movie and essays is the socioeconomic conditions of the marginalized, African Americans in United States and the poor French working class and immigrants. The essays also focused on the power of the states and how those in power marginalize others.
The film La Haine centers on the fact that Vinz, an angry young Jew, has got hold of a gun stolen from the police. He threatens to use it against them if his friend Abdel dies from his injuries after while he is in police custody. When Abdel does die, Vinz’s moment for revenge comes when he …show more content…
He attempts to broadly interpret the American suburban experience, which he views as unique. He states that "the United States has thus far been unique in four important respects that can be summed up in the following sentence: affluent and middle-class Americans live in suburban areas that are far from their work places, in homes that they own, and in the center of yards that by urban standards elsewhere are enormous. This uniqueness thus involves population density, home-ownership, residential status, and journey-to-work." His working definition of suburbs has four parts: function (non-farm residential), class (middle and upper status), separation (a daily journey-to-work), and density (low relative to older sections). The central idea of his book is how the wealthy began the flight from the city first — something that the middle classes eventually emulated as city tax rates gradually increased to pay for resulting urban problems - as the poorer classes remained in the older central urban areas. In another chapter of the same book, Jackson further talks about the opposite trend ie decentralization in U.S. He highlights role of government in decentralization and discusses issues such as better roads and cheaper transportation and housing. Jackson also writes about homeowner’s loan corporation that was based on reducing foreclosures by providing better mortgage and Makes predictions and …show more content…
The gap between the lower class and the middle class has steadily increased over the years since the post-World War II industrial expansion. During the industrial sector expansion, an influx African Americans moved to cities to join a viable workforce. However, a subsequent shift from manufacturing jobs to service jobs and relocation of manufacturers from urban areas to suburban areas adversely impacted the employment and mobility opportunities of blacks residing in the inner cities. The predominantly black lower class did not have the means or opportunity to follow the jobs that moved to the suburbs, and instead were left in the urban ghettos where the only available jobs were not suited by their skill level, therefore, a higher concentration of poor blacks remain in the urban cities as their mobility was limited as a result of structural barriers created by diminished economic
Weekly Critical Reading Review #4
The readings over the past two weeks and the film La Haine focused on the issue of social and spatial discrimination in cities. The major theme present in the movie and essays is the socioeconomic conditions of the marginalized, African Americans in United States and the poor French working class and immigrants. The essays also focused on the power of the states and how those in power marginalize others.
The film La Haine centers on the fact that Vinz, an angry young Jew, has got hold of a gun stolen from the police. He threatens to use it against them if his friend Abdel dies from his injuries after while he is in police custody. When Abdel does die, Vinz’s moment for revenge comes when he …show more content…
He attempts to broadly interpret the American suburban experience, which he views as unique. He states that "the United States has thus far been unique in four important respects that can be summed up in the following sentence: affluent and middle-class Americans live in suburban areas that are far from their work places, in homes that they own, and in the center of yards that by urban standards elsewhere are enormous. This uniqueness thus involves population density, home-ownership, residential status, and journey-to-work." His working definition of suburbs has four parts: function (non-farm residential), class (middle and upper status), separation (a daily journey-to-work), and density (low relative to older sections). The central idea of his book is how the wealthy began the flight from the city first — something that the middle classes eventually emulated as city tax rates gradually increased to pay for resulting urban problems - as the poorer classes remained in the older central urban areas. In another chapter of the same book, Jackson further talks about the opposite trend ie decentralization in U.S. He highlights role of government in decentralization and discusses issues such as better roads and cheaper transportation and housing. Jackson also writes about homeowner’s loan corporation that was based on reducing foreclosures by providing better mortgage and Makes predictions and …show more content…
The gap between the lower class and the middle class has steadily increased over the years since the post-World War II industrial expansion. During the industrial sector expansion, an influx African Americans moved to cities to join a viable workforce. However, a subsequent shift from manufacturing jobs to service jobs and relocation of manufacturers from urban areas to suburban areas adversely impacted the employment and mobility opportunities of blacks residing in the inner cities. The predominantly black lower class did not have the means or opportunity to follow the jobs that moved to the suburbs, and instead were left in the urban ghettos where the only available jobs were not suited by their skill level, therefore, a higher concentration of poor blacks remain in the urban cities as their mobility was limited as a result of structural barriers created by diminished economic