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AmericanApartheid
DOUGLASS.MASSEY
NANCYA.DENTON
135
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13 . AmericanApartheid
CFIAPTER
tth of blacksegrfothergroups,
lvementsin soto acknowledge
nsequences
for
rtematically
unStates.
Because
nnedto experi:m,wherea marwelfare,where
rrationabound.
:s for socialand
ure of the black
to build a set of
neighborhoods.
entandincrease
,teconcentrated
Nequences
that
eatinguniquely
ographically,
soindividual.Resge;it constrains
lions,or private
lensweptunder
rrclass.
segregatheurbanpoor.
fted States
can-
because
it once
0wasonceseen
u Myrdalwrote
r a mechanical
tuseNegropeorchotherin the
egation.. . bens"and creates
Lcofficialsto be
Kenneth B. Clark,who worked with Gunnar Myrdal as a student and later applied his researchskills in the landmark Brown u. Topekaschool integration case,
placedresidentialsegregationat the heart of the U.S.systemof racial oppression.
"the dark ghetto's invisible walls
ln Dark Ghetto,written in 1965,he argued that
have been erectedby the white society,by those who have power' both to confine
those who have no power and to perpetuatetheir powerlessness.The dark ghettos
are social, political, educational,and-above all-economic colonies.Their inhabitants are subject peoples,victims of the greed,cruelty, insensitivity,guilt, and
fear of their masters."
Public recognition of segregation'srole in perpetuating racial inequality was
galvanizedin the late 1960sby the riots that erupted in the nation'sghettos.In their
aftermath, PresidentLyndon B. Iohnson appointed a commission chaired by Governor Otto Kernerof Illinois to identify the causesof the violenceand to propose
policiesto prevent its recurrence.The Kerner Commissionreleasedits report in
"moving toMarch 1968with the shocking admonition that the United Stateswas
ward two societies,one black,one white-separate and unequal."Prominent among
the causesthat the commission identified for this growing racial inequalitywas residential segregation.
In stark, blunt language,the Kerner Commission informed white Americans
"discrimination and segregationhave long permeated much of American life;
that
"segregation and poverty have
they now threaten the future of every American."
created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most
white Americans.What white Americans have never fully understood-but what
the Negro can never forget-is that white societyis deeply implicated in the ghetto'
\Mhite institutions createdit, white institutions maintain it, and white society condonesit."
"to make permanent
The report argued that to continue present policies was
the division of our country into two societies;one, largely Negro and poor, located
in the central cities;the other,predominantlywhite and affluent,located in the suburbs." Commissionmembers rejecteda strategyof ghetto enrichment coupled with
"as another way of
abandonment of efforts to integrate, an approach they saw
choosing a permanently divided country." Rather,they insisted that the only rea"a
sonablechoice for America was policy which combines ghetto enrichment with
programsdesignedto encourageintegration of substantialnumbers of Negroesinto
the societyoutside the ghetto."
America chose differently. Following the passageof the Fair Housing Act in
1968,the problem of housing discrimination was declared solved,and residential
segregationdropped off the national agenda.Civil rights leadersstopped pressing
for the enforcement of open housing, political leaders increasingly debated employment and educational policies rather than housing integration, and academilians focused their theoretical scrutiny on everything from culture to family
structure, to institutional racism, to federal welfare systems.Few people spoke of
racial segregationas a problem or acknowledgedits persistingconsequences.By the
end of the 1970sresidential segregationbecame the forgotten factor in American
racerelations.
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TABLE 13. f
Segregationby Income in Thirty Metropolitan Areaswith the
LargestBlack Populations, l9B0
rtent to which
economicdifioussocietyof
.anpoor fami:retwo groups
rs to be racial
rck-whitesegimprovement,
:k povertyand
rn bifurcated,
useholdsposmobilityand,
had beensusr significantly.
rutableto ecordpreferences,
Ls."
racismor from
importanceof
iocialand ecorsspositionof
I from raceper
poor
lessness,
r of citiesfrom
r emphasison
havepersisted
werfulbasisof
ldefinitiveresFment,wealth,
al segregation,
s. Indeed,race
ravehappened
had
:kincomes
;lined:no mat,vhites.
In 1980,
cities.
,rnerican
vhichpresents
e thirty largest
e of residential
n under$2,500
:gationindices
;t of brevitywe
Incorne Category
Metropolitan Area
Northern areas
Boston
Buffalo
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Detroit
Gary-Hammond-E. Chicago
Indianapolis
KansasCity
Los Angeles-LongBeach
Milwaukee
NewYork
Newark
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
St.Louis
SanFrancisco-Oakland
Average
Southern areas
Atlanta
Baltimore
Birmingham
Dallas-Ft.Worth
Greensboro-WinstonSalem
Houston
Memphis
Miami
New Orleans
Norfolk-Virginia Beach
Tampa-St.Petersburg
Washington,D.C.
Average
Under $2.500
$25,000-$27,500
$50,000+
85.1
85.2
9t.I
Bt.7
91.6
80.3
BB.6
90.6
BO.B
86.I
85.4
91.3
86.2
83.9
80.0
B5.B
70.9
87.l
74.6
85.0
89.5
76.6
79.3
79.8
87.9
Bt.2
79.0
78.6
80.6
78.4
73.7
BO.7
8 9 .I
90.0
86.3
74.2
86.4
83.4
86.4
90.9
80.0
84.2
78.9
86.3
78.6
77.5
B1 . 9
87.9
83.2
72.r
83.2
77.3
72.3
40.8
74.7
55.1
65.5
66.8
78.4
63.1
63.3
76.0
67.0
66.7
78.2
76.8
45.2
82.4
70.8
72.7
69.8
t'J -6
84.9
82.l
87.3
79.5
85.B
82.2
82.4
46.I
83.1
63.2
73.8
/.1.4t
B1 . 6
75.8
70.1
B1.B
79.2
74.4
/ b.5
77.8
72.4
85.7
65.4
72.8
"ResidentialSegregationof Blacks,Hispanics,and
Source:Nancy A. Denton and Douglas S. Massey,
Asiansby SocioeconomicStatusand Generation,"SocialScienceQuarterly69:4,pp.797-817.Copl'right
@ 1988by the UniversityofTexasPress.All rights reserved.
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