As someone who is very interested in geography, maps, and anything of the sort, I have spent time going through New York forums, examining the demographics of different communities, particularly those on Long Island and other areas close to NYC. As a result, going through Jackson’s piece set off a multitude of bells in my head, the most prominent of which were Levittown and the Garden City-Hempstead divide. Levittown was the prototypical, cookie-cutter American suburb built after World War II, and I think it’s safe to say it became notorious for turning away nonwhite prospective homeowners. One quote from an article I found, http://www.historynet.com/levittown-the-archetype-for-suburban-development.htm, stands out to me in that even some incoming white residents were uncomfortable with the racial covenants: “My God, I’ve moved to Bigot Town!”
As for the Garden City-Hempstead border, I found the distinction last summer, as I was browsing Long Island community forums, which is something I do for fun because I can learn more about geography and demographics. One Long Islander’s description of the divide stood out to me in particular: on the Garden City side of the border, there are beautiful tree-lined streets and homes, indicating the presence of a wealthy, ‘privileged’ town, whereas the Hempstead end barely has trees, and is instead filled with garbage cans/bags and run-down homes. Now, I’ve never actually seen this for myself, so I can’t confirm this observation, but I don’t dispute the general image, especially given the variety of articles written on this topic, such as this one from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/16/nyregion/black-and-white-on-long-island-like-oil-and-water.html. Garden City is a very white area, and is also ranked as one of the snobbiest towns in America. Hempstead, on the other hand, has a lot of crime, and is filled with poor communities of color. In my eyes, this drastic divide is absolutely not due to the different ways that different races behave, but is rather the culmination of years of racial segregation and discrimination, as the NYT article details.

One major thing I learned from Jackson’s piece, which helped me tie all these pieces together, was the role that the New Deal policies played in all of this. For some reason, I didn’t think FDR had an effect on America’s racial suburbanization, but now I can see why he did. I guess I didn’t realize before because I knew of all the general New Deal reforms he passed, but I never looked deep into any in particular.