Race Discrimination In Baltimore Essay

446 Words2 Pages

After recent protests in Baltimore, Badger (2016) explores the nature of policies set in the early 1900’s that have shaped the city of Baltimore, and that continue to have an effect on their quality of life. Actions such as redlining and urban renewal have perpetuated poverty and segregation in the same neighborhoods today as 75 year ago. This article calls attention to the effect of system-wide race discrimination in Baltimore, and how policies create a cyclical link between race and disadvantage in communities. Racial disparities across many subsystems have created a system of race discrimination in which it’s emergent effects implant uber discrimination into our culture and institutions (Reskin, 2012). Reskin (2012) explains how emergent discrimination intensifies disparities within each subsystem and creates systems of race discrimination. According to Massey and Denton (1993) …show more content…

A system that is built upon discrimination will continue to discriminate until major interventions are devised and upheld throughout the community (Reskin, 2012). Badger (2016) explains that after recent peaceful protests in Baltimore, the mayor spoke out and blamed “thugs” for these “riots”. The protest aimed to explain citizen’s frustrations with the institutions oppressing them, and exemplify the significance of how interrelated disparities are in communities (Badger, 2012). The mayor failed to acknowledge that we have created slums and prolonged the poverty in these neighborhoods. She ignored that disparities are all connected, such that living in a poor neighborhood typically leads to a poor education, then to a very low level job, and that then inherently lowers their health outcomes (Massey and Denton, 1993). System-wide race discrimination manages to conceal the causes of disparities within subsystems while amplifying their effects (Reskin,