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Fernando Gomez

Susie Huerta

English 1T

02/27/17

Not A Destination

Have you ever experienced any type of segregation in your lifetime or even

recently?. If your answer is no, I would ask you to think deeper . Remember segregation has

different ways to manifest itself , history has proven such. When Segregation it's normalize ,

often is harder for people to identify its wrongness and its destructive assets. Remember the

walls that created the Ghetto that segregated Jewish citizens during the German Nazi Era . Or

the Train To Freedom when African American were been Push out of the South due to the

violence and oppression they encounter in the South States of America. Such acts of segregation

are not limited to the past. For example, Gentrification in many our cities due to big tech

companies moving in shares more similarities than differences with the Ghettos.We have to

understand that looking back we wont move forward , but learning from the past is necessary to

create awareness. Segregation has been refer as a ghost from the past often neglecting it

existence in our diverse country. The newly examples of segregation have different terms

name but they still have the same impact in our communities. For example, Gentrification

causing separation of many our communities , political leaders often dont represent the wide

diverse country we live in , the creation of a false image of minorities often allows newcomers to

feel fear and misunderstand their culture. These new examples of segregation has wide problems

from empathy gap to detachment of culture from communities.

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As a matter of fact, over the years we have seen the Bay Area as an example of

diversity and embracement . But even in a diverse and open minded place like the bay, over last

few years we have seen an increased of resegregation in the form of Gentrification in our area.

Although Families are been evicted all over our area, many of the families evicted are mainly

minorities. Even though gentrification is just one cause of segregation, it has left community

without a flavor , color, and without an identity . In the article Death By Gentrification: The

killing That Shamed San Francisco written by Rebecca Solnit. She argues ,

The sense of community people were trying to hang on to was about the things that
money cannot buy. It was about home as a whole neighborhood and the
Neighbors in it, not the just the real state you held title to or paid rent on. It was not only
the treasure of latinos; whites, asians, blacks and Native American resident of San Francisco had
a long term relationship with people and institutions, traditions, particular locations.

Rebecca Solnit re-emphasize the impact caused by gentrification , by demonstrating the

disruptive and damaging impact that gentrification has on communities that had built

connections with each other over the years, we could see the cause of the violence in our

communities. Solnit also states ,many of the people being evicted and priced out were the

people who held us all together; teachers, nurses, counselors,social workers, carpenters and

mechanics, volunteers and activists. often the people that manage to stay within the

community , are left without the help and resources they counted with , because in many cases

the activist, teachers, volunteers are driven out, by driven out those people that stood up for the

good of the community, it creates a community that lives without a voice and often they become

misrepresented.
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Indeed, having a community without a voice makes them vulnerable to any malpractice

by the law makers. What seem throughout the years is that often communities that are

represented by someone that has not live in the community often lack what we call empathy

gap. They often neglect the need of the people , often they even see community of color as

plague that will just destroy itself. In the book WE GON BE ALRIGHT ; notes on race and

segregation Written by Jeff Chang , Journalist & Hip-hop critic , focuses on the problem we are

facing in the 21st century , and he also focuses on the impact resegregation have in our

community of color. In one his essay of many , he talks how leader and lawmakers often are to

make responsible for segregation , for example Jeff chang raises awareness by writing, but now

they were used to restrict undesirable people from purchasing or renting homes in many

neighborhoods-in this case, people of the Negro and Mongolian race(75). By reading this

paragraph we could see how misrepresentation works, we could see how laws could be used

against someone and it allows segregation to prevail. By making it Legal to restrict undesirable

people it open the doors for segregation, using the stereotypes as evidence to label people made

it easier for people to keep neighborhoods white while politician help such segregation to

happened under their restrictions.

Unquestionably , stereotypes often creates an image of a group of people , some

instance even creates an image of a whole community. Media has a big impact of how people are

perceived , often thats where many folks that live in all white community get their information

and created an image base on the information they get through any kind of media or

entertainment. In Jeff chang book WE GON BE ALRIGHT he argues , that often many people

do not have the same power to created their one image as a community. In the essay the odds He
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informs , Culture, like food , is necessary to sustain us. It molds us and shapes our relationship

to each other. An inequitable culture is one which people do not have the same power to create,

access, or circulate their practices, works, ideas , and stories .(56). We could see the importance

that media has in portraying an image of our communities, for example people hanging out in

park could be a culture a ritual a community have but when a newcomer comes into the

community they might see something else that has been portrayed differently in movies , they

may assume is a gang meeting. Such images installed in peoples mind are dangerous because it

degrades the value of the community culture, and instead of creating unity it creates division

causing people to be driven out against their will.

Perhaps there may be causes that lead us to the problem of segregation, but we cannot

disregard any of them no matter how small they look , Gentrification might not sound as bad it is

due to the connotation of the word but certainly does not reflect equally in a any kind of way, if

any it creates more hatred and separation between races and community. Political leaders are not

help they often do not value the communities as much as the residents due they are idolized with

the idea of having the most prosper city, but often that idea devalues the sense of community, its

people , the culture , the rituals, its sense of belonging. We see how people perceived

communities of color as ruthless killers and criminals because all the movies you see about

minorities in Hollywood are about gangs , crimes , and jobs that often do not require any degree,

that type of image creates an unnecessary image that does not the values and morals often culture

nature and values. Also it creates a limitation in communities , by assuming some races only

have certain jobs and not portraying them as lawyers, businessmen, or even CEO creates a
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limitation on expectation about a certain race , often causes the denial of opportunities due to the

believe they are not good enough.

Work Cited

Jeff Chang We Gon Be Alright; The Odds , Vanilla Cities And their Chocolate Suburbs
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Death By Gentrification: The Killing That Shamed San Francisco By Rebecca Solnit

March 21, 2016

Https;//www.theguardian.com /us-news/2016/mar/21/death-by-gentrification-the-

killing-that-shamed-san-francisco