THE MISSING LINK
By: Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton
The growth of extreme poverty
among African American residents of
inner cities. Douglas and Nancy argue
that economic restructuring, education
levels, and job skills by themselves
cannot explain the growth of extreme
poverty among urban African
Americans.
"Racial Segregation"
is the fundamental cause of the
development of an 'Urban Underclass'
The race of African Americans are trapped in
the context of extreme:
Poverty
Physical deterioration
Social order
with little prospect for
geographical mobility
In the past fifty years, no group in the history of United States has ever
experienced the sustained high level of residential segregation that has
been imposed on blacks in large American cities. This extreme racial
isolation did not just happen, it was manufactured by whites through a
series of self- conscious actions and purposeful institutional
arrangements that continue today.
If policymakers, acknowledge segregations persistence, they have
likewise been blind to its consequences for American blacks.
Residential segregation is not a neutral fact, it systematically
undermines the social economic well-being of blacks in the United
States.
Because of racial segregation, a significant
share of black American is condemned to experience
a social environment.
• where poverty and joblessness are the norm
• where a majority of children are born out of wedlock.
• where most families are on welfare.
• where educational failure prevails
• where social and physical deterioration abound
Through prolonged exposure to such an
environment, black chances for social and economics
success are drastically reduced.
Due to its theories of racial inequalities the
segregation had started.
1944, Gunnar Myrdal wrote in an American Dilemma that residential
segregartion " is the basic in a mechanical sense. It exerts its influence in an
indirect and impersonal way: because Negro people do not live near white
people, they cannot... associate with each other in the many activities
founded on common neighborhood. Residential segregation ... becomes
reflected in uni-racial schools,hospitals and other institutions." And creates
" an artificial city... that permits any prejudice on the part of public officials to
be freely vented on Negros without hurting whites".
1965, " the Dark Ghettos invisible walls have been erected by the white
society by those who have power both to confine by those who have power
and to perpetuate their powerlessness. The Dark Ghettos are social,
educational and above all economic colonies.The inhabitants are subject
peopls, victims of the greed, cruelty, insensitivity, guilt and fear of their
masters".
AFRICAN AMERICANS
After identifying the causes of violence due to the segregation's
role in perpetuating racial inequality was galvanized in the late 1960 by
the riots that erupted in the nation's ghettos their solution to prevent its
recurrence was "moving toward two societies: one black,one white-
separate and unequal".
In stark blunt language The Kerner Commission informed white
Americans that " discrimination and segregation have long permeated
much of American life, they now threaten the future of every American"
segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destruction
environment totally unknown to most white Americans. What white
Americans have never fully understood - but what the Negro can never
forget is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White
institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and White society
condones it".
They happen to segregate their country into two societies: one
large Negro and poor, located in the central cities and the other
predominantly white and affluent, located in the suburbs.
In 1968, only few peopole spoke of racial segregation as problemor
acknowledge its persisting consequences . At the end of 1970's residential
segregation became forgotten factor in American race relations.
"Segregation" word disappeared from American vocabulary in the year
1970's and 1980's,
'Not in the speeches of politicians' ,
'Not spoken by Government',
'Not mention by journalists',
'Not dicussed by foundation executives',
'Not articulated by civil rights leaders',
And it was no where to be found in the thousands of pages written by social
scientists on the urban underclass.
Why?
Because they reason that the civil rights laws
passed during the 1960's have not had enough
time to work or because many blacks still prefer to
live in black neighborhoods.
The problem of housing discrimination was
cleared solved and segregation dropped off the
national agenda. After declaring the fair housing
act in 1968. Civil rights stopped pressing for the
enforcement of open housing , political leaders
increasingly debated employment and education
policies rather than housing integration and
academicians focused their theoritical scrutinity
from culture to family structure.
AFRICAN AMERICAN places
Until they come up the four theoritical
explanationthat gradually emerged:
1. CULTURE
2.RACISM
3. ECONOMICS
4. WELFARE
"The Urban Underclass" the image of
poor minority families mired in an endless
cycle of employment, unwed childbearing,
illiteracy and dependency had coalesced
into a compelling and powerful concept.
According to theorists of the underclass such as Douglas
Glasgow and Alfonso Pinkney, the black urban underclass came
about because deeply imbedded racist practices within American
institutions - particularly schools and the economy - effectively
kept blacks poor and dependent.
According to Charles Murray- the creation of the underclass
was rooted in the liberal welfare state.
Residentila segregation- is the institutional apparatus that
supports other racially discriminatory processes and binds them
together into a coherent and uniquely effective of racial
subordination.
Middle class households- whether they are black, Mexican,
Italian , Jewish, or Polish , always try to escape the poor.
because of segregation Middle class blacks are less able to
escape than other group s and as a result, are exposed to more
poverty.
And finally, as Murray's general point that federal
welfare policies are linked to the rise of the Urban
Underclass. But they disagree his specific hypothesis
that generous welfare payments by themselves
discouraged employment , encouraged unwed
childbearing, undermined the strenght of the family
and thereby causef persistent poverty. Instead, they
arguw that welfare payments were only harmful to the
socio- economic well being of groups that were
residentially segregated.
