A response to Catherine Formusa's Week 8 - Baldwin Hills , "The Heart of Black L.A." post
Hi Catherine
I like the layout of your post as well as the
content of it. It is one of the few posts that make you think about the
location (Baldwin Hills). I have never been there but with the information you
provided with all the pictures makes me feel more comfortable talking about it.
I like the way you used multiple concepts from the lecture. Regarding the L.A
times article I think it is common to vote for representatives that are somehow
connected to your own culture. I guess it is part of the collective consciousness
that people have. If you vote for the same person it makes you feel like you
are doing something with all the people who share your culture (not individually).
Even if you don’t agree with the candidate’s political views African Americans
will vote for an African American representative, Armenians will vote for an
Armenian representative, Mexicans will vote for Mexican representatives and so
on. From my own experience it feels natural to do so, like a duty you own to
support the person that has the same culture or floating signifier as the one
you and your family have.
“I actually found myself wondering why there were
only black people living there.”
I think I found the partial answer to that in the
chapter 19 “The continuing causes of segregation” by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy
A. Denton. Even if the people who live there can find a better place that they
can afford, they won’t do so because they have found a place where they belong (they
are the dominant group if anything they could be the ones to discriminate
others). “Discrimination against blacks is widespread and continues at very
high levels in urban housing markets” (pg.180). Based on the pictures you have
provided it looks like a relatively nice neighborhood so it’s a perfect way to
avoid the prejudice if almost all of your neighbors are just like you. In a way
it might be a forces isolation of blacks but hopefully, like the article has
mentioned, the black president will solve that problem. I did some research and
it turned out that Baldwin Hills was given nicknames such as the "Golden
Ghetto" and the "Black Beverly Hills". Most of the segregation
problems are centered on ghettos but since Baldwin Hills is “golden” and
compared to Beverly Hills then maybe there is no problem to solve there.
Thank you for your lovely post. I enjoyed reading
and responding to it.
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