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Banessa Rivera

Susie Huerta

English 1T

3/02/2017

Segregation Today, Segregation Tomorrow

Breaking away from the chain of racial injustice was not easy for people of color.

Through forms of resistance, people of color have fought for their rights and for a better future

for themselves and their families. Cases such as the Brown v. Board of Education show how

schools were still segregated although America had passed the Civil Rights Acts. With the rise

of criminalization there is more killings of people of color. Americans need to realize racism is

still a problem that is causing the racial gap between the races to widen. Although this country

has come a long way from slavery and racial segregation laws such as the Jim Crow Laws, and

there has been more diversity, signs still show resegregation is happening and many are not

acknowledging some issues causing this problem. Segregation has been a continuous problem

in society and many are affected such as children in school and the communities of color all

together. Some of the causes that lead to resegregation is how diversity is being used as an

excuse for equality, the lack of representation in position of power have left many communities

without a voice, the false media representation about minorities makes people fear the

unfamiliar, and gentrification in certain areas have pushed many residents out.

In order to build communities that are powerful enough to attain significant change, we

need large numbers of people working together. If cultural groups join forces, they will be more

effective in reaching common goals, than if each group operates in isolation. Each cultural

groups has unique strengths and perspectives that the larger community can benefit from. We
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need a wide range of ideas, customs, and wisdom to solve problems and enrich community life.

Bringing non-mainstream groups into the center of civic activity can provide fresh perspectives

and shed new light on tough problems. Understanding cultures will help us overcome and

prevent racial and ethnic divisions. Resegregation results in misunderstandings, loss of

opportunities, and sometimes violence. In his book, We Gon Be Alright, Jeff Chang explains in

depth the meaning of diversity. In one of his essays, Is Diversity for White People? he quotes

Anna Holmes when she explains how she feels that diversity has become a box to check off

(Chang 30), this demonstrates his opinion on how diversity has not been a genuine concern to

many of the people in society. The picture of diversity has devalued the push for equality.

According to Chang, diversity has lost its meaning, he writes

In the coming decade, urban neighborhoods would be marketed for their diversity,

corporations and colleges would be appointed chief diversity officers and increase their

holdings of assets directed at a diverse demographics, while pushing ads- sometimes

also doctored- that featured happy, diverse consumers (Chang 17).

Chang explains how diversity has become just another word to call people of color. They are

marked as others. In the case of University of Wisconsin, where they photoshoped an African

American student in one of their covered photos just to seem diverse goes to show that diversity

is just being used to avoid the actual discussion of equality and dismiss confronting the real

issues in society.

Diversity as we all know it, is an essential element needed to run a successful society.

As we climb up the ladder of cultural hierarchy the diversity in races decrease. Many people of

color are not represented well through the people of power such as politicians and business

owners because of the lack of cultural equity. This leaves many people of color to be left with no
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voice and become just another puppet under their control. In The Odds, an other essay by Jeff

Chang, he notes that,

...the odds of a person of color breaking into the upper echelon of the culture, where

the stories and songs and visions that we tell ourselves about ourselves- with all their

values, meanings, and instructions for living- are gathered, made, and produced, and

then marketed, sold, and pushed back to us remain long indeed (Chang 56).

Chang emphasizes how till this day it remains rare to see people of color tell their own

narratives without having to change their values or perspectives. Politician, leaders of

corporations and elite companies remain white. They become the faces of the companies or

messages, leaving people of color with no power. When people of color are not represented in

positions of power then their way of living is also misrepresented to others. Resegregation will

remain a constant struggle in society if it remains an issued ignored.

Lacking diversity in position of power gives control to the dominate race to control what

society sees, hears and believes. The media plays a key role on inserting fear of the unfamiliar

to many races. Many stories told by the media are falsely advocated, leaving people believing

the wrong information. Fear mongering is exactly that; purposely causing fear and alarming

people about a particular issue or race. People in power, such as politicians, can use fear

mongering to divide people by putting them against each other. A great example of this would

be President Donald Trump. Jeff Chang points out in his essay Is Diversity for White People?

how Trump called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, warned that Islam hates us,

and accused China of waging economic war against us. He pandered to whites fragility,

played on their glory-days nostalgia (Chang 11). Chang explains how Trump plays with

people's head by getting them to believe that a certain race is out to attack their this country. He

makes other ethnic groups seem as the reason for the white middle classes growing struggle.
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Trump based his campaign on manipulating people by using their fears and false evidence.

With his speeches, Trump slowly allowed racism to be acceptable again which has been

dividing our nation. All his new laws reforms have been set out to resegregate the nation.

Here in the Bay Area we can see the resegregation happening in our neighborhoods.

Communities are being broken apart because of new comers coming in without enough

knowledge of the residents way of living. This is the silicon valley, it is the place to be for all the

techies coming in. Tech companies are expanding bringing a variety of new faces to the Bay. As

Jeff Chang reports in his essay Vanilla Cities And Their Chocolate Suburbs, that residents

were evicted to make way for the workers pouring into creative-economy jobs at Twitter, Spotify,

Airbnb, and Dropbox, ready to pay steeply increase rents or make mortgage down payments in

cash (Chang 66). Not only had residents been evicted also the business such as churches,

bookstores, bars, and other small shops around those area has been affected by the new tech

workers coming in. This separation and displacement is called gentrification. Gentrification

causes cultural clash and this conflict leads to the rise of criminalization in some areas of the

Bay Area. In the article Death by Gentrification: The Killing That Shamed San Francisco

Rebecca Solnit reports on Alex Nietos case. Nieto was a young 28 year old hard working men,

who was killed by SFPD because of newcomers in the area had called the police on him saying

there was a menacing intruder in the area. Nieto had lived in the Bernal Hill neighborhood

area his whole life. He was put into a category of possibly being a gang member because of his

attire that day. He was wearing a 49er red jacket which in the area many Latino men avoid

wearing either red or blue because of the two gangs affiliated with those colors. Evan Snow,

who had barely moved into the neighborhood six months prior to killing, said he put Nieto in

that category of people that [he] would not mess around with (Solnit 2). He had little to no

knowledge about the neighborhood. The day of the confrontation between Snows dog and
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Nieto there was a couple of witness that testified that they did not see anything wrong with

Nietos behavior, but then there was those who mistook his taser with a handgun. Nieto carried

a taser because he worked as a security. The police encounter began shortly after the phone

call made by Justin Fritz, who also walking his dog that afternoon and was as well a newcomer.

The police fired 23 bullets within minutes. Police arrived at the scene at 7:17pm and Alex Nieto

was pronounced dead at 7:20pm. After shooting him one of the police still went to handcuff him

because he had a pulse. The unjust killing of Nieto was all due because of the lack of

knowledge on the behaviors of the newcomers. Solnit observed how disruptive has been a

favorite word of the new tech company, but old-timers saw communities, traditions and

relationships being disrupted (Solnit 5). Gentrification is real and its visible in our communities.

Once small family neighborhoods have become play areas for the rich and entitled.

Gentrification is leading to violence in our cities.

Segregation has been affecting our country for years and will continue to affect us if

there no stop to it. In order to fix the resegregation happening in our communities we must

figure out those cause which lead to the root problem. Today in society diversity has devalued,

just because a place is diverse is does not mean that it offers equal opportunities to everyone.

Many of those opportunities are not given to people of color because the of lack of

representation of minorities in position of power. This leads to communities being falsely

represented because there is no one to voice their situation and concerns so many problems

are just being overlooked. Flawed images and stories told about people of color have left many

to fear other races. Fear mongering is being used in the media and society is buying into all the

distorted reports. Resegregation is also happening through gentrification in our cities. New

comers coming in pushing the old to be displaced. This problem can no longer be swept under

the carpet. This country can not keep acting as if racial segregation is not an issue that has to
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be resolved. Staying silent has never been the solution. History will always repeat itself,

segregation is not a problem of the past it is a problem today and will continue to affect our

future.

Word count: 1804

Work Cited

Chang, Jeff. We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation. N.p.: St Martins Pr,

2016. Print.

Solnit, Rebecca. "Death by Gentrification: The Killing That Shamed San Francisco |

Rebecca Solnit." The Long Read. Guardian News and Media, 21 Mar. 2016. Web. 02 Mar.

2017.