It is interesting to look at the structure of out cities from the eyes of social scientist as Foner did. What seem to be so day-to-day researchers have studies and proposed fro the faults in our society. Though I do have an issue that a social scientist like Edward Ross seems to have some sort of bias (favoring racism and discrimination), and that can misconstrue the real reasoning behind the injustices; but then again, we could chalk that one up to human nature. I think though the main problem is institutionalized discrimination. A more blatant form of institutionalized racism can be found when looking at the Federal Housing Agency. The FHA once said that it was ok to deny mortgages to black families because of the great chances that the community they settle in would drop economically. Though blatantly denying black families for this reason is now illegal, we now have a problem called reverse redlining. Reverse redlining is when high-cost loans are disproportionally concentrated in low income, minority communities because of the risk factor of them defaulting.
Anbinder’s reading this week showed us that when a slum seems to be “cured” it just means that it was moved somewhere else. This can also be connected to institutionalized discrimination. If one slum is “cured” it usually refers to it being gentrified. Once a community is gentrified, it is then harder for it’s old inhabitants to stay, thus causing their exodus. Once these people move to a new area, this area tends to decrease in the standards of living and benefits from the government. This can be because there won’t be as much money floating around this economy and the government interest would lessen. Also a less affluent town would not be able to acquire the proper fiscal means for the proper schooling and other needs for a growing (or dying) community. Maybe its not as much the people we think are racist but rather the body and structure of the people that is forming all of this discrimination.
