Film: Los Punks (200 words)

Running Head: SEGREGATING PEOPLE IN URBAN SPACE 1

Segregating People in Urban Space

Tsun Yuen Wong

University of California, Irvine

UPPP 4

Professor Joseph

11/14/2020

SEGREGATING PEOPLE IN URBAN SPACE 2

Historical segregation of people in urban areas is an issue that disadvantaged minority

groupings such as gays and blacks. The following discussion details different ways in which

minority groupings were segregated in urban space and suburbs.

Principal forces causing cities to segregate by race and social class over the 20th century

There were several principal forces that caused cities to segregate by race and social class

over the 20​th century. First is family dissolution and welfare dependency. The cases of numerous

family problems such as breakage in marriages and out-of-wedlock children were prevalent for

blacks in cities and this as a result put them in a lower social class as compared to other races

such as whites whose such cases were few. Moreover, an increase in female-headed families

especially among Hispanics and blacks who had little or no income and who had children to take

care of also put these races at a lower economic situation which made them live a desperate life

in cities. Besides, the majority of the Latinos and blacks in cities were not employed and lacked

means of livelihood which made them live miserable lives. As a result, they started engaging in

criminal activities such as theft, rape, and violence which as a result increased the rate at which

they were connected with crimes, killed, or even imprisoned (​Merten, 2017, p. 22-30)​.

How suburbanization exacerbate segregation

Suburbanization is a simple term that refers to the massive movement of people from

urban areas or cities to the suburbs and this causes businesses, factories, and households to

relocate from cities to suburbs. This process exacerbated segregation in different ways. First, the

civic leaders in suburbs used restrictive policies such as rooming and tax rates laws to control the

movement of people and relocation or development of factories and investments to their areas.

They were very selective to businesses, industries, and people moving to suburbs and they

restricted people of color such as African Americans from moving to the suburbs. The housing

SEGREGATING PEOPLE IN URBAN SPACE 3

markets in the suburban localities also acted as barriers in preventing non-whites from getting in

or accessing the suburbs. Besides, ethnically structured federal laws were out to benefit whites

and facilitate their easy movement and settling in suburbs while restricting non-whites to move,

access, or even settle in suburbs. Apart from the government and civic leaders, other institutions

such as real-estate brokers, financial institutions, and homebuilders had collaborated to develop

racial exclusion policies to deny people of color opportunities to access, move or settle in

suburbs. Last and not least, intimidation, violence, and attacks were also used as tools to prevent

non-whites from moving, owning, or settling in suburbs (​Nicolaides, & Wiese, 2017, p. 4-7).

Development of groups and communities in cities by stigmatized and segregated people

The stigmatized and spatially segregated people such as gays developed their own groups

and communities within cities in different ways. First, Gay men were able to build a gay world in

rooming houses, restaurants, and apartments where they enjoyed a lot of privacy and security

making them able to form strong groupings and explore their interests. For instance, lack of

supervision in rooming houses attracted numerous gay men enabling them to develop gay social

networks. These were where young men were introduced to gay society. As well, different

groups started providing special hotels as an alternative rooming to the city’s flophouses and

these environments acted as conducive places for gay people to form their own groups and

communities. Lastly, gays benefited from the emergence of expensive apartments that had great

security and they could easily hide here to evade arrest from police. With such security and

privacy, gay men were able to form strong groups and communities (Chauncey, n.d, p. 152-158).

In conclusion, segregation based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion among

other characteristics has been there for a significant time. Such discrimination has been fuelled

by different factors such as government policies and exclusive instituion policies. Discrimination

SEGREGATING PEOPLE IN URBAN SPACE 4

is still prevalent to date althrough it has significantly reduced as compared to historic times.

Everyone ought to know that all people are equal and should be treated equally and with respect.

SEGREGATING PEOPLE IN URBAN SPACE 5

References

Chauncey, G. (n.d). Gender, Urban culture and the making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940

Merten, M. (2017). William Julius Wilson: The Truly Disadvantaged. In ​Schlüsselwerke der

Stadtforschung​ (pp. 203-220). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.

Nicolaides, B., & Wiese, A. (2017). Suburbanization in the United States after 1945. In ​Oxford

research encyclopedia of American history​.