Residential segregation and Chicago...

I would like to hear your thoughts on this article...

http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/165325/how-segregated-is-chicago-and-does-it-matter

Reflection on lesson from last Thursday...

If you have not already done so, please take time to reflect on the lesson from last Thursday when we explored in depth the difference between individual prejudice and institutional racism.  
* What did you think of the lesson? 
* What did you learn?  
* What did you think of the examples that I used and and that your fellow students came up with?

How does institutional racism relate to the following concepts...

"White Flight"
Redlining
Blockbusting
Gentrification
The black / white wealth gap

Black, White & Latino Wealth Gap in the United States...

We have talked a lot about the Black, White and Latino wealth gap in the United States.  Remember, this is about net worth NOT just income.  It is a family's total accumulated wealth including things like inherited wealth, the value of their home, etc.  As we have discussed, this single statistics tells us more about the continuing racial divide in our society than any other fact.  In the video series Race the Power of an Illusion, produced in the early 2000s, the Black / White wealth gap was 8 times (the average white family had 8 times the wealth of the average Black family.  I mentioned that the statistic was out of date and that after the great recession which began in 2008, things had gotten worse.  The two articles below illustrate just how much worse the situation has become.

Please read both articles carefully and respond on your own blog.  Try to answer these questions in your posts...

1. Why decades after the success of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, do we still such a racial divide in America.

2. What do we need to do to try to change this situation?  What type of transformation is needed?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/30/179907029/what-do-we-do-about-americas-racial-wealth-gap

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/07/26/wealth-gaps-rise-to-record-highs-between-whites-blacks-hispanics/

Race web activity...

We will be using the following website which is a companion to the video series we are watching.  Go to this link...

http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm

And use the website to answer the questions on this document...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9_FvLqe8tUyVDhIVG1WSWxIalU/view?usp=sharing

Answer on your own blogs.

Research (pathways) project...

Many of you have been asking about the Research Project that is the main product of this class.  This research project is also what will become your pathways project.  Here is a description of it here...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9_FvLqe8tUyZUJlNFU4dktIQ0k/view?usp=sharing

Note the due dates are from last semester and need to be updated.

Tomorrow we are going to be visited by organizers from the Fight for 15...

Tomorrow organizers from the fight for 15 will be visiting our class to talk about issues facing low wage workers in our economy.  In this class, once we finish the unit on race, we will move on to a unit discuss class.  But as you will see issues of race and class are close related in our society in which class has been highly racialized.

I want you to check out the following links and respond in on your blog.  First, watch the video at this site...

http://fightfor15.org/

Then read some of the articles here...

http://fightfor15.org/latest-news/

The Fight for 15 has already had some sucesses.  Read about that here...

http://www.peaceandjustice.org/an-87-percent-vote-for-a-15-an-hour-wage/

Respond to all this on your blog.  And think of questions you might have for our guest speakers tomorrow.

Who Gets Food Stamps? White People, Mostly...

I thought this was an interesting article.  Does this challenge the common perceptions you think most people have about who receives government assistance?  Why do you think the public perception is often so different?...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/28/food-stamp-demographics_n_6771938.html?utm_hp_ref=tw