WebLog 4

After going through "Where Race Lives", I learned a lot about the government policies along with what leads to communities becoming slums. In the 1950s a lot of the government policies led to the minorities receiving unequal treatment. For example Social Security. It provided security and pensions for many workers but it excluded agriculture workers and domestic servants. These minorities were then unable to save, had little chance for pensions and they became more likely to fall into an economic recession.
When I was growing up, the area I lived in was a nice middle class area, and as I got older it really started going down hill. My family and friends all believed it was due to the people moving into the area and we all eventually moved away, and that was that. After reading “Where Race Lives,” I realized it wasn’t entirely due to the people moving in, it was do to the people thinking the minorities moving in would cause the neighborhood to decline, and therefore, moving out. This caused the housing process to decline, causing more lower income families to move in, leading to taxes going up. The community starts getting poorer and poorer leading to public services to suffer since not as many people can afford to use them. Leading eventually to rock bottom. I never knew all of this went into the deconstruction of a community.