There is a cool new website that will let you zoom in to different school districts in the U.S. to see the percent of student poverty. One could imagine a society in which poverty is fairly evenly distributed in a given geographic area, but what's telling is that there are many, many instances of very poor districts abutting very affluent districts.
Here is where I currently live. Unless my family should decide to move, my child will attend school in the district at the center that is dark blue. Note the very white (in both senses) district immediately to the southwest.
Here is where I grew up. I attended school in the very white (in both senses) district near the center. Note the dark blue district immediately to the northeast. (It's no wonder I became a sociologist, right?)
Here is how that happens:
It doesn't take overt racism or classism to create such stark divides. We have simply structured our society in such a way that racist and classist outcomes happen irrespective of the intentions and beliefs of the individuals in those systems.
Here is where I currently live. Unless my family should decide to move, my child will attend school in the district at the center that is dark blue. Note the very white (in both senses) district immediately to the southwest.
Here is where I grew up. I attended school in the very white (in both senses) district near the center. Note the dark blue district immediately to the northeast. (It's no wonder I became a sociologist, right?)
Here is how that happens:
It doesn't take overt racism or classism to create such stark divides. We have simply structured our society in such a way that racist and classist outcomes happen irrespective of the intentions and beliefs of the individuals in those systems.
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