We're reading stories about young people growing up in neighborhoods ravaged by poverty. Although poor neighborhoods may seem like they have always been poor, that's not necessarily true. Here are some links to help give you a historical context to the issue of poverty.
Visit at least one of the following links and answer the following in the comments below, or email it.
What are the three most important things you learned?
What is the main idea?
What questions does this article make you think of?
What did you think of what you read?
- Did you know that Martin Luther King, Jr. used to have an apartment on the west side of Chicago? Strange, but true. King came to Chicago hoping to help end poverty and housing discrimination. The Chicago Tribune produced a short documentary about King's work in Chicago. You can find it here.
- Chicago is considered by many to be one of the most segregated cities in the United States. There's a NY Times story that talks about how the city's history of segregation played a part in the latest mayoral election. You can find it here.
- Segregation doesn't happen by accident. Historian Beryl Satter wrote an excellent book called "Family Properties" that discusses how African-Americans were kept from buying properties in White neighborhoods. You can find an article that describes the techniques real estate agents and home sellers used to enforce segregation. You can find it here.
- The excellent documentary, Race the Power of an Illusion, has a segment dedicated specifically to the history of segregation in the United States. We are going to watch a clip of this in class, but you can check it out here.
Visit at least one of the following links and answer the following in the comments below, or email it.
What are the three most important things you learned?
What is the main idea?
What questions does this article make you think of?
What did you think of what you read?
The three most important things I learned are Chicago is a very segragted city in my different ways, leaders have claimed to unite us but have really done nothing at all, and the next leader to come in needs to seriously consider all that he needs to handle. The main idea of this article was to informof how truly we are segragated. From schools, neighborhoods, drop out rates, teenage pregnancys, ect. This article makes me thing of what areas in my life am I segragted? Also, what can I do to bring more intergration? I think what o read was very powerful, it made me put things into perspective. This article really made me think, and do a self check to see what areas in myself do I have segragation in.
ReplyDeleteThe three most important things that I learned from watching this video, was that Martin Luther King wanted to get rid of the segregation in Chicago, the slums, and the ghetto. He tried to get housing in Gage Park and Archer Ave too. The main idea about this, is how we really need to change how Chicago is. My questions are, how did Chicago get this bad? How did it get segregated in the first place? Did Martin Luther King Jr. really make a difference when he visited? This video made me think, are these parts in Chicago really that bad? I've never noticed them before, because I live around here.
ReplyDelete@Jasmine: It is kind of interesting how segregation can sneak up on you. In a school like ChiArts it's easy to forget that most of the other schools in the city are divided by race and money.
ReplyDelete@Oriana: We're going to talk more about how the segregation problem got as bad as it is now. One thing we're going to learn is that it's not by accident. There was a system behind the move to keep people separated by race in the city.
The three most important things I learned that Dr. Martian Luther King Jr. want wanted to get rid of the ghettos and slums and segregation throughout the city. The main idea is that Dr. King really wanted to change Chicago so people will be treated equally and not be discriminated not just by the way someone looked. A question I have is; Why did Chicago become so segregated in the first place? I really think it interesting how people thought it was "normal" to judge people on there appearance and think that it wasn't a big deal
ReplyDeleteAlexa.
ReplyDeleteThe three most important things I had learned from watching the video... It that it was very different in those days and people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped shape up America and overcame challenges such as people or a community that disliked him and were doing cruel things to mislead him and back away from the good stuff he was doing. But he kept going and thats one of the things I look up to Dr. Martin.. was that he never gave up. On August 5, 1966 ( in Marquette Park), Dr. King and 500-600 marchers were confronted there by the neighborhood people. They threw rocks at them and all sorts of stuff. Dr. King was hit by a rock, but what did he do? He kept on going and fighting for something he strongly believed in, and he wasn't going to quit until that dream was fulfilled. He wanted many things to be done three of those things were that Dr. King wanted to get rid of the slums, the ghetto, and the segregation in Chicago. I believe the main idea was how Chicago needed a wake up call and a change in the city to be a better place for everyone. Sure people could have their own opinion, but that doesn't define what is wrong or right. Towards the end of the film, the priest said that he was driven into ministry because of Dr. King. He saw Dr. King defining that faith had to be the ultimate tool that transformed lives and communities and Dr. King did just that. My questions regarding this video were that I never saw Chicago being this horrible to human beings and how did that start? How was Chicago segregated even though Chicago is a Northern city? Was the whole city of Chicago like this? Why were people so cruel and mean when Dr. King was only trying to help them be better people? These things bother me because I live in Chicago and never saw Chicago this way before. I now see that segregation is everywhere no matter where you look. Segregation also exists today. You might not hear about it, but it's there.
I did the 3rd bullet, and I thought it was incredibly interesting. It talks about how real estate has caused incredible segregation in Chicago, and probably cities all across America. In a place like ChiArts, there isn't any real segregation, but when we look at Chicago as whole, segregation still exists and is actually a huge problem. I found that Segregation has created not only racial tension, but various issues in public places that are supposedly "safe places". White realtor's would overcharge black families to live in a home, and when they missed one month, they were kicked out. This is far from fair. All of these articles main ideas were that Chicago is incredibly segregated, adn they talk about all of the different things that contributed to it.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the articles, it reminded me of when I was little. I was very open minded, and never saw anyone as different based on race. A black woman once came into our home when I was small to talk to my mother. I walked in where they were both sitting down. I looked at her funny and said "Mommy, she's different". There was a worried look on both of their faces. "Her hair is big". I had been referring to her Afro, and how much I liked it.
This reading gave me a very interesting perspective on everything. I can now see the segregation that is going on today, and how not much has truly changed.
@Matthew: That's a great question about the roots of segregation. We're actually going to be answering that question in class today. Get ready!
ReplyDelete@Alexa: You've identified a very important detail from that video. I was surprised to hear that MLKjr said he faced the worst racism in Chicago of all places. But, it's true.
We're going to talk more about the roots of segregation in class today.
@Milla: You chose the most challenging article and it appears that you got a lot out of it. For me it was a surprise to learn that something as seemingly innocuous as real estate might be used to enforce racist ideologies.
That's an interesting anecdote about how those types of encounters between people of different races can be uncomfortable, especially if there isn't a lot of diversity. What's cool is how kids are so honest that they push the boundaries and give an opportunity for everyone to challenge the way they think about the world.