Reaction to Readings

This week’s readings repeated our class discussions about institutionalized racism. I find it quite disturbing that attempts to improve living conditions in the slums were systematically aborted by the government’s open racism. This seems a bit strange to me, since I would think a government would support the improvement of its cities’ neighborhoods–even if it doesn’t particularly like the type of people who are living in them. Generally, having entire neighborhoods that are run-down, crime ridden, and filled with people who are suffering from poverty and not stimulating the economy by spending is not considered a desirable thing for a modern city to have. The racism of the government officials seems not only bigoted and unjust, but also self-defeating and a hinderance to the attempt to form healthy modern cities.