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Newsflash: a distinct accent and unassimilated culture is a pretty predictable result of government-enforced segregation, a policy which still has not ended. Vo
by natrius 10y ago
Newsflash: a distinct accent and unassimilated culture is a pretty predictable result of government-enforced segregation, a policy which still has not ended. Voluntary segregation on top of that makes it worse.
Single-family zoning is explicit segregation, yet it's popular across America. You can only build the most expensive kind of home in those neighborhoods. A majority of white families live in that type of home. A minority of black families do. Surprise! Segregated neighborhoods!
We culturally define "good schools" not as schools that increase a child's chances of success relative to other schools, but as schools that rich white people attend. We buy homes in segregated neighborhoods so we can send our kids to segregated schools, and we fight against cheaper housing options like apartments because they will make our schools less segregated and reduce our property values as a result. Surprise! Segregation!
Wealthy selfish people use our governments as weapons against black families, yet it's their fault that there's an unintegrated subculture. God bless America, a nation that will never allow black families to thrive.
- astronautjones 10y agoThis is a stellar response. I'm kind of appalled at some of these replies, but as was noted earlier today it's nice to have a forum where differing views are espoused (even if some are broadly ignorant)
- Snargorf 10y agoEverything you described is simply ways that rich people avoid living around poor people. Yes, it generally excludes blacks, but that's incidental and only because blacks tend to be poor. On the flipside, these policies keep out poor whites as much as poor blacks, for the exact same reasons. Rich black basketball players, musicians, doctors and politicians have no problem living in mostly-white neighborhoods. Of course, rich Asians also have no trouble living in white neighborhoods, because there are no racial segregation policies. I find it amazing how you attribute the simple dynamics of people sorting themselves by wealth, which have been very strong in all urban societies everywhere ever, and make them out as though they're some sort of racial targeting system. e.g. 19th century Paris was almost all white French and had the same wealth clustering patterns for the same fundamental reasons.
- natrius 10y agoI'm not asking anyone to undo the injustices that have walled off generations of black families from wealth. I mean, you should, but I don't think y'all are up for it. What I'm asking is that you not pile injustices on top of each other. "It's just economic segregation" is the worst excuse I've ever heard. Yes, some level of segregation is inevitable and acceptable. That's not what I'm talking about. Repeal our segregation laws. Repeal them! Stop forcing families with less money out of your neighborhoods by law! Stop pretending this isn't a terrible thing!
- GunboatDiplomat 10y agoWhat segregation laws are you talking about? Zoning?
- Snargorf 10y agoBlacks aren't poor because of some external injustice. They're poor because, as a group, their culture and low average IQ leave them poorly equipped for modern economic life. That's not to say they don't deserve help, but that help should be brought in the context of a hard-nosed understanding of the real reasons for their situation. The path of idealism and wishful thinking has been tried for 50 years, and nothing has improved - not even a little. The real crime would be continuing with a fantasy viewpoint that has been so thoroughly proven not to work. "The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result." Blacks are suffering and dying every day because people like you refuse to help them as what they are and insist on maintaing the comforting egalitarian delusion. There are no segregation laws, and systemic separation of rich and poor affects races equally once you control for wealth.
- dang 10y agoYou've been using HN primarily to post inflammatory ideological rhetoric. That's not a legit use of this site, so please stop doing it. The circle of hell that is the IQ race war is particularly unwelcome here, in all its idee-fixedness.
- 10y ago
- flukus 10y agoHow does single family zoning work? How do they even define family? I'm not at all familiar with how zoning works in the US.
- natrius 10y agoIt's basically a set of rules that forces you to buy a big piece of land and only build one home on it. There are many cities where entire neighborhoods have no apartments or row homes because they're illegal to build. We've made homes intentionally expensive, but people pretend to be surprised by our affordability crisis.