Do middle-class Americans really want to live in ghettos?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
October 16, 2020 9:26am CST
Donald Trump has said many times that he has "saved the suburbs" by preventing low-cost housing from being built in them.
His claim is that this will remove the threat of criminals moving into the suburbs and thus enable middle-class Americans to continue to live in peace. What he really means, of course, is that it will prevent people with dark skins from polluting all-white neighbourhoods. This is because he is a racist who would really love to return to the days of segregation when black people were kept firmly in their place.
That is his vision of America - everyone living in their own ghetto, defined by their skin colour and social class. But is that really what people want? Is that a recipe for a just and progressive society?
In the UK, housing developers are required to include a certain proportion of low-cost housing in every scheme they propose. The intention is to create truly mixed and integrated societies in which people of different backgrounds get to know and understand each other. That is surely how you build communities that work.
4 people like this
5 responses
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
16 Oct 20
Would you like to explain what you mean? Do you object to social integration and approve of racial and social segregation?
@Namelesss (3365)
• United States
16 Oct 20
@indexer Saving the suburbs has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with race, segregation or integration.
@VickiJW (260)
• Canada
17 Oct 20
Although we live next door to USA we try not to get too involved in their politics. It is so different from the way Canadians live. It would be nice not to have constant turmoil after the USA elections in November, but who can tell what will happen? Not even Trump.
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
17 Oct 20
Should the Supreme Court succeed in overturning Roe v Wade, do you foresee floods of American women pouring over the border to seek abortions in Canada? This is what has happened in many other countries that are more liberal in this regard than their neighbours.
@VickiJW (260)
• Canada
17 Oct 20
@indexer I think my comment above still stands. We have learned from events in the past that you can only deal with things as they happen. And amazingly, it seems to work out most of the time. We have provincial elections coming up shortly, and, although there’s plenty of disagreement, there’s no hatred involved.
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
16 Oct 20
Of course I do, and that is why I used the term. It means separating communities according to certain prescribed characteristics - the term achieved notoriety in Europe because of the treatment of Jews under Nazi regimes, but the theory applies more widely. I used it because middle-class communities in the United States will be imposing sameness on themselves if they refuse to allow low-cost housing - and thus more diverse communities - to spread into their areas.
