This week on residential segregation was still surprising to me.
There is a song by Eminem that talks about being born on the wrong side
of 8 Mile in Detroit. I always loved that song, but didn't really
believe it too be that extreme. Watching the videos, especially the one
about "Crossing a St. Louis street divides communities, separated by
one street (just like 8 Mile in Detroit), was an eye opener. To look
from one side of the street over to the next and see the huge
difference. The types of housing from absolutely beautiful to
devastation is just tragic. To know how little chance you have to get
out of the lower side must be scary, lonesome, and hopeless. As a
mother I kept thinking, if I had to raise a child in the "bad, poor"
side, how I would feel.
I saw a pattern from the "good" towns to the "bad" ones. It seems
to be where their is more white, the neighborhoods were better,
prettier, and more relaxing. On the other side I looked up Yuma,
Arizona and saw a huge flip from good town to bad. Yuma has as many
Hispanics as almost all my "good" towns. The opposite was true of
African Americans. Funny thing is I still would want to live in a more
50/50 town. I was fortunate where i grew up. I didn't even know
anything different between blacks and whites. I loved that and still
do.
