Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns” gives three personal accounts of African Americans who moved from the south to the north during what is now known as the Great Migration. I found this to be one of the more interesting things I’ve had to read because of how little I knew about the subject and the personal aspect of it.

From reading the opening section, I would think that the Great Migration would be taught more because of the vast number of people who moved and the effect that it had, but prior to reading these excerpts. I had only learned about the Great Migration in one other class. I’ve learned about the great waves of immigration to the U.S. but not about the huge movement within the country. As the book says, the Great Migration was a turning point in history and cities, in both the south and north would be really different had it not been for the migration. This makes me wonder about what other events in American history I haven’t really learned about that have changed and shaped urban cities.

Something that I found interesting was at the end of the first excerpt, was when it she wrote about the distortions of the Great Migration. The people who migrated from the South were blamed for the problems in the cities they moved to, but studies now show that compared to northern blacks, southern migrants were more likely to raise children in a two parent household, had higher incomes, lower levels of poverty, and other things that seem to suggest that they were better off and were not the source of problems. I would like to know why this was so, especially the statements regarding work and economic issues. I would have guessed that Northern blacks would have a higher labor participation rate and higher incomes because they had been there longer so they could have worked more and people would be more willing to hire them.

In the second excerpt, the part about Miss Theenie not approving of the two men because of their dark skin and how she would prefer a man with lighter skin made me think about how much looks have mattered and still mattered and the preference of looking more like white. This makes me think about how many Asians get double eyelid surgery. I can’t say for sure, but I do think it influenced by the white standard of beauty and how they want to look more “white” with larger eyes.

The biggest thing these excerpts made me think about is how times have changed, but also how there is still a long way to go. There was a lot of hardship and struggle and outward discrimination back then for African Americans, and while there may longer be discrimination in the law and it isn’t so outright, discrimination and racism does still exist, not just for African Americans, but for other races as well. I know that the country has come a long way in a short time, but I wonder if every race will ever truly be thought of as equal.

The New York Times article “Dissent: Battered but Vibrant” by Benedict Carey looks into what makes a community the way it is by focusing on the Chicago neighborhood Chatham, and how it has dealt with changes that came about during the recent years, which included the recession and the shooting death of an off-duty police officer.

William Julius Wilson commented that if Chatham were to maintain its stability after the crisis, the concept of a neighborhood effect would be a great contribution in figuring out how to prevent people from leaving a neighborhood and strengthen neighborhoods that are at risk of falling into poverty. I definitely agree with this because it is always through tough times when you can see the strength of a unit, whether is a person, family, or neighborhood. If the people in the neighborhood have a strong sense of community and look out for each other then the neighborhood is much more likely to survive because people will be less likely to leave. If a lot of people move out of an area, it gives the impression that it is not a good neighborhood and people would be afraid to move there, which gives the neighborhood a greater chance at falling into poverty.

Contrary to what the social scientist predicted, Chatham did not remain stable throughout the recession. Local businesses were having a tough time, with one example given of Bull’s Eye Barber Shop whose revenues were down 40% in the first year. At the end of the article, it says that there are encouraging signs, one of which is that Bull’s Eye Barber Shop is busy again. Researchers believed that Chatham’s strong identity and block groups would help protect residents from larger economic problems. Given that Chatham didn’t really remain stable and had and down and up, I don’t think that those two factors really did anything, nor do I really understand how it would actually help protect residents from larger economic problems.

Something I found interesting was that Chatham has more that a hundred block groups. I didn’t know that neighborhoods actually did this; it just seems like something on television shows. Initially, I thought block groups were like neighborhood watch programs, looking out for dangerous people which I thought belonged more to not so good neighborhoods where more crimes might occur, so I didn’t think of that as an advantage for a neighborhood. However, the article describes the Chatham block groups as “citizen volunteers who monitor the tidiness of neighborhood lawns, garbage, and noise, as well as organize events.” When a block group is meant to keep a neighborhood nice and organize events, I can definitely see how it would be an advantage for a neighborhood.

Another thing that caught my eye at the end of the article was what Mrs. Worthmans said about how nothing changes unless people look after their children. I’ve never thought about that and like she said, I would blame other things like the city but children are the ones who would be staying in a neighborhood so it really is important to for people look after them is they want a neighborhood to remain nice. If the futures of a neighborhood don’t care what it is like, then it would just go down.