Resegregation

Resegregation

The best way to ensure an equal offer of opportunities has been to form integrated suburban areas. Racially diverse areas have been observed to avail education and economic opportunities equally to all the races. However, integrated areas have not stayed integrated for long. This has been predominantly due to illegal discrimination perpetrated by real estate agents who steer house allocations, mortgage lending skewered in favor of the whites, and the racial manipulation of school attendance boundaries (AM). Neighborhoods with their core population made of nonwhites, especially if it has been that way for a long time, are usually isolated from both good education and economic opportunities. Nonwhite suburbs experience tax base challenges occasioned by a low tax base that results from the ongoing social change. This is because these suburbs are not sufficiently equipped to deal with socio-economic transition.

Resegregation in integrated suburbs is caused by several factors, but it has been mainly attributed to the inability of whites and nonwhites to coexist due to the influence of past and present discrimination practices. Nonwhites may feel uncomfortable living near the whites due to the fact that they anticipate that they will be discriminated against, which will affect their social standing. Housing discrimination has played the significant role in the segregation of whites and nonwhites. The minority in a particular suburb are given limited options in choosing their preferred housing. This is facilitated by racial steering, where the real estate agents direct different races to different areas to live in. Exclusionary zoning has been another factor credited with the unequal access to economic opportunities. This is where communities put in place agreements that significantly deter the construction of affordable housing, which would allow the minorities to integrate with them.

The Berkley High School Diversity project was a testament to the fact that efforts to desegregate schools for over 40 years had largely proved unsuccessful. Racial inequality had deeply entrenched itself in schools due to the apartheid-like conditions, which was based on the students’ social class. Despite the school getting integrated with varying racial diversity, the performance of the individual races was observed to show a significant disparity (Noguera). Students also tended to exhibit and reinforce the different conditions they experience when outside the school (Oakes). According to Oakes, tracking is a practice in schools that aims to categorize students based on their performances and social standing. Tracking is backed by the historical, political, and educational reasons that are entrenched in the teachers and school management. The general belief that the grouping of students in schools will help in achieving the purpose of schooling could not be more harmful as it usually does not provide the correct assessment of a student’s abilities.

Problems experienced by urban schools have been described as profoundly entrenched and intractable. This despite the fact that the schools and the services they offer are critical to the areas they serve (city). Urban schools are found in nonwhite low-income suburban areas with poor families. These urban schools serve a large part of the population, and parents still enroll their children despite them being seen as ‘desperate hell holes’. The parents do this only due to the fact that they have limited options to the schools they can access and those they deem to offer quality education and are safe leaders. The bill came to pass into law, but it was stripped of several clauses that left it powerless to correct the ills of segregation.

Historically, Americans were of the view that assimilationists were not racist in their actions and, therefore, did not warrant interventions. They felt there was no connection between the segregationist society and racist policies (kendi). This perception made it hard to address racial prejudices, which were mainly perpetrated by the whites. Efforts to address these ills were met with great resistance with civil rights groups that marched and demonstrated being thwarted by the official police force (KENDI). The attempts to enact and enforce laws that encouraged and enforced desegregation were greatly opposed by segregationists, who were mainly the whites (Kendi). Most parts of the constitution had been enacted to appease white slave masters who cared more about their influence than human rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1957, which was to contain clauses that provided federal protection to the African Americans voting rights and would form the basis for desegregation, was greatly opposed by Southern political leaders.

In conclusion, deeply seated racial policies and prejudices were the main contributing factor to the widespread segregation in the suburbs and in schools. Urban settlements are characterized by Urban schools that mainly cater to the low income and poor families majorly from the nonwhite population. Efforts to desegregate schools and suburbs were largely unsuccessful due to strong resistance from segregationists. Segregation largely resulted from discriminatory housing allocation practices and the presence of exclusive zones. Schools that had integrated students with varied racial diversities still encountered several problems with social class and racist profiling being the major challenges. However, integration was, and still is, the best solution to segregation as integrated suburbs and schools ensure equal allocation of opportunities with high income per capita and high-quality education.