Integrate Expectations

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Posted by Grist at 12:39 PM on 21 Mar 2006

It's been more than 50 years since the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was illegal, yet we still live in a country that's chock-full of racially split neighborhoods (see: New Orleans). Why is integration failing, how does it affect land use, and what do high-tech mapping gadgets have to do with it all? Jon Christensen interviews Georgetown law professor Sheryll Cashin to find out.

new in Main Dish: Integrate Expectations

new in Soapbox: An excerpt from Cashin's book The Failures of Integration

see also, in Grist: Poverty & the Environment, a special series

For story: Integrate Expectations
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Problem: Property taxes

I think reforming (or eliminating) the property tax system in most municipalities in our country would go a long way to combating economic and racial segregation. It creates perverse zoning incentives for towns to raise money for schools and further advantages the already wealthy and well-educated towns over those that need the most help - thus perpetuating historic divisions along racial lines.

This goes to the heart of the point made by Cashin about the eternal quest for 'better schools' fueling outward sprawl, which is made necessary by using property taxes to fund education.

by accel2 at 9:16 AM on 22 Mar 2006

America has never come to terms with race...

Look at television. How many people do you see living really integrated lives in dramas and sit-coms? How about movies? Churches are generally segregated.

The real estate industry encourages segregation (by showing homes and apartments to people in neighborhoods based largely on which race the viewers are), but more importantly, no one cares that they do this. Which suggests that they have the implicit approval of most white folks.

America is segregated in large part mainly because it seems that most white people like it that way, whether they will admit it or not. Otherwise they would do something to change it. So, the question is why?

De Jure segregation ended, but De Facto has barely begun to end. Kudos to GRIST for admitting the issue exists!!!

patrick

by bookerly at 11:54 PM on 22 Mar 2006

ADVERTISING POLICY

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