Trips Week
I know we have all been doing various activities and visiting multiple colleges over the past week. However, going back to our topic before the trips week, we discussed how even though Los Angeles is considered one of the more diverse cities, racial groupings and segregations along with gentrified neighborhoods in the area are still very visible. I wonder how the diverse but segregated Los Angeles compares regarding racial groupings to the areas you all visited.
I wonder how these racial groupings, segregations, and gentrified neighborhoods affect the identity of the city. Why is Los Angeles seen as diverse even with these hidden separations in the community? I wonder what makes the city seem like a place of full acceptance in comparison to other cities. What felt different in the city you were in for the past week?
*If you did not go anywhere over the trips week, think of a different time you have seen this.
I wonder how these racial groupings, segregations, and gentrified neighborhoods affect the identity of the city. Why is Los Angeles seen as diverse even with these hidden separations in the community? I wonder what makes the city seem like a place of full acceptance in comparison to other cities. What felt different in the city you were in for the past week?
*If you did not go anywhere over the trips week, think of a different time you have seen this.
Last week I spent half my week in Massachusetts and the other half at home. I definitely noticed how different the city felt in/around the Boston area and I definitely felt really disoriented and out of place away from LA. Everything in Boston seemed way more condensed together and much more commercial than what I'm used to in LA. And while it felt pretty diverse and integrated in Boston itself, I was staying at my cousins house about 30 minutes outside of Boston the entire week I was there, where everything felt a lot more homogenous and typically suburban
ReplyDeleteThe other day I was talking to my mom, saying how I was confused because when I meet people who live on the East Coast they tend to say " I live in the suburbs of New York/Boston/Connecticut," very clearly emphasizing the fact that they live in the suburbs, not in the main city. I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe where they live in LA as an area designated as "the suburbs." Even though I think there are quite a few suburban areas in/around LA, something about these areas as a whole lack the "suburban" feel to the degree where people who live there don't really consider themselves "from the suburbs of LA."
It feels like to me that the suburbs are much more pronounced on the east coast than they are in LA/greater California and I wonder what that feeling implies about LA altogether. I've always felt very connected to LA since I've lived in LA my whole life, and I would be curious to understand how and in what ways, other students who live in these so-called "suburbs" of LA (even though no one really calls them that) feel connected to LA even if they don't directly live in its boundaries.
I think an overarching stereotype from the tourist's perspective we talked about in class is that LA is diverse. I personally think that LA is diverse because people of all backgrounds seem to reside in some portion of LA. However, I also believe that under closer inspection, there are many subsections found within the city. These subsections consist of people of similar backgrounds forming separated neighborhoods. Why people instinctively group themselves by similarities is something I would like to explore. One possibility that drives the "diverse" stereotype is that a select number of people from each neighborhood usually come together to watch and cheer at parades, sporting events, and concerts. Moreover, I think that since many people of all backgrounds spend time doing similar activities in LA (such as going to the beach or the mall), a tourist would assume that the area is diverse. However, after people mingle around during their activities, they recede back to their respective subsections in LA,, which is what people fail to recognize. This is one reason I think LA is seen as diverse even with the separations and why tourists notice the diversity involved in the activities of LA instead of noticing the divisions. I can certainly notice the difference between LA and other cities; for example, I stayed in Salt Lake City, Utah for a while and definitely noticed that white people dominated the demographic. I felt a little out of place, and it led to my understanding of why LA is seen as diverse.
ReplyDeleteOver the break I visited London (UK), which is an incredibly diverse city where little academic attention has been paid to segregation. I was in London for six weeks before my freshman year, so I saw much more of it then than on this trip, but during both times, I noticed that the city is way more interconnected than Los Angeles. London is physically smaller than Los Angeles- metropolitan London covers around 8400 square kilometers, while metropolitan LA covers 12,500 square kilometers. According to Transport for London (a government agency), only around 57% of households have a car; the underground railway, like the NY subway, can get you basically anywhere, and the bus systems are wide-reaching as well. Overall, I think the infrastructure in London feels far more developed (which makes sense, considering it’s been around for just under two thousand years), so regional separations are far less pronounced. As I said, not a lot of research was available on racial segregation in the city, although it’s worth noting that real estate there is extremely expensive, and gentrification has shaped the makeup of many London neighborhoods. Brexit plans have cast rising real estate prices into chaos, however- buying has slowed, interest rates and taxes have gone up, and the real estate market has slumped, which may delay gentrification in many parts of the city center. I don’t think issues of racial segregation are discussed nearly as much in English media, as evidenced by the lack of news coverage to the same degree as we see in Los Angeles. I could barely find any articles on this issue when I looked; however, one article by the London Evening Standard said that 37% of residents of Inner London are people of color and 27% of residents of Outer London are people of color. While I initially interpreted these statistics as evidence of integrated, diverse neighborhoods, a map of immigrant communities by The Consumer Data Research Center showed that, regarding immigrants specifically, that was not the case. Bangladeshi immigrant communities were concentrated in certain parts of the city, as were Turkish, Nigerian, Jamaican, and Lithuanian immigrants. French and American immigrants shared certain districts, mostly in traditionally wealthy areas.
ReplyDeleteOverall, my impression of the city from walking around and staying there was that, despite being somewhat segregated, the city is more reflective and aware of its diversity than Los Angeles; more cultural exchange occurs between different sections of the city. Institutional racism, hate crime, and intolerance are all major problems within the UK, but (from my relatively uninformed experience), it seems like residential segregation is less of an issue.
Over trip week I visited six colleges in Northern California and the Midwest. I am most interested in the comparing the diversity between University of Oregon and Saint Mary's. At the University of Oregon 25.2% of the student population identifies as students of color compared to 54.2% of students at Saint Mary’s. I stayed roughly two days in each of the college towns and found myself a confused. I was surprised by Saint Mary’s diversity both on paper and in while walking around campus; however, the surrounding city did not seem to mirror the schools wide range of students. Diversity at the University of Oregon was neither surprising nor disappointing. The student population resembled that of Poly (when I entered a classroom). During my stay in the Eugene Oregon I noticed students engaging in normal interactions which allowed me to picture myself attending UO. I think that in college towns diversity is an interesting topic because you may have a diverse student population that lacks diverse surrounding neighborhoods. In places such as Los Angeles wealthy people were able to move towards new opportunities while the poorer people who once resided in Los Angeles are slowly forced out.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the point that while Los Angeles is seen as diverse from the outside it is still generally divided within that diversity, I also think Los Angeles should be credited for having any diversity at all. Many places don’t even have the option of having that sort of division - they don’t even have the diversity to make it possible.
ReplyDeleteOver trips week, I traveled to New York and Maine and could immediately feel the differences between them and Los Angeles. While New York tends to have a similar situation to here in Los Angeles (having diversity but being somewhat separated), I felt that it seemed to be more integrated than what we have in Los Angeles. I think one of the biggest reasons for that is that New York doesn’t have the same geographical separation (beaches, mountains) as we do in Los Angeles that I believe cause some of the division, so there are not many options for the wealthy to go to one spot (barring the Upper East Side) and everyone else to disperse amongst the rest of the city. Maine, however, was an entirely different story in that it didn’t even have any diversity at all (it’s statistically the whitest state in all of America), so I began to feel even more grateful for how lucky we are in Los Angeles to be surrounded by so many different cultures and diverse backgrounds.
Over the break I visited Boston and its surrounding neighborhoods as well as Connecticut. Upon arriving at the Boston Logan airport, I immediately noticed a lack of diversity in comparison to Los Angeles, which didn't surprise me considering that Boston is, and has historically been, a largely Irish Catholic city. According to a 2010 census, around 54% percent of Boston's population is white, 24% is black, 18% is hispanic/latinx, 9% is Asian, and Native Americans and "other" ethnicities comprise the remaining percentage. Based on my own observations, the census' data surprised me: I expected a higher percentage of white people. I realize now that I must have only visited predominantly white areas of Boston, which leads me to believe that geographic segregation exists within the city and its surrounding neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteAlso, considering that nearly 152,000 students reside in Boston, academic institutions must play a role in the the city's diversity (or lack thereof). I'm interested in this relationship.
It's impossible to gauge the diversity, culture, and overall character of a city in less than a week. I would like to spend more time comparing other cities (their policies, race relations, transportation, etc.) to Los Angeles.
I did not visit any colleges during trips week, but I have definitely seen the racial groupings mentioned in Simone's post. I live in La Canada, and I have noticed that the area is mainly filled with white, wealthy people. I have yet to see another Asian family who resides in La Canada, however, due to the large number of schools in the city, I often see an extremely diverse group of people going to and from school, which leads me to believe that LA in whole is racially diverse, but upon close inspection, one can find that LA is racially grouped. I have also lived in Arcadia before, where I found that the population was almost all Asian, with very little diversity. As Cole had mentioned a while ago, I believe that the culture of the area affects the diversity of the area. For instance, Arcadia has many restaurants and shops that are geared more towards Asians, therefore, more Asians would live there. However, I still believe that Los Angeles as a whole is extremely diverse compared to most other cities.
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ReplyDeleteI have another video to share! This one is much shorter. Link: https://vimeo.com/288364753
ReplyDeleteI did not travel anywhere over the break; however, I visit both Detroit and Chicago quite frequently to visit family. Detroit : 70.1% White, 22.8% African American, 6.2% Latinx & 3.3% Asian. Chicago: 45% White, 32.9% Black, 5.5% Asian. While on the surface Chicago and Detroit seem somewhat diverse, there is still blatant segregation within the cities (especially within the black neighborhoods). When driving through the south side of Chicago, one cannot help but notice the lower income earning neighborhoods. Homes and apartments are not in the greatest condition. It is night and day compared to the city where most tourists visit.
Similar to the video I shared above, there are liquor stores on every corner and high rates of crime throughout the city. It is clearly very underdeveloped and the city has not done much for these communities to renovate or remodel the areas. My family on my father's side who live in these neighborhoods feel as if the city of Chicago doesn't even care about the inner city communities. They feel neglected by the city and can only assume that Chicago is constantly trying to forget about the struggling urban communities. Even some of the public schools in the city lack proper materials, qualified staff, and support from the city. When hearing all of this from my relatives, it made me realize that Chicago, and many other cities in our country, are still discriminating against people of color and ignoring their needs. It is a real wake up call that reflects on the history of America and the lack of progress in some areas. Likewise, Detroit faces a similar issue and when visiting my mother's side of the family, I can see the rundown neighborhoods around the outskirts of Detroit hidden from all the "touristy" areas as if it would be shameful for these communities to be seen. While I do believe Detroit is doing better in recognizing and helping those who need it, Chicago still seems to be ignoring the issues of poverty and lack of stability for black families. All of these neighborhoods are the byproduct of zoning and consequently, these neighborhoods are not thriving as much as the middle/upperclass communities.
To connect this back with Los Angeles, I think LA is doing better than both Detroit and Chicago. HOWEVER, we cannot ignore the fact that we still have segregated areas with concentrated diasporas of different races and class. We cannot ignore the homeless issue in LA especially in Downtown. In DTLA there are people with lofts and expensive apartments. There are also people on skid row just blocks away from those who are thriving. It is clearly an issue yet many Angelenos have either ignored or were not made aware of the issue.
I would hate to think that LA ignores its issues and simply glamorizes our tourist/entertainment industry to create a facade that masks our dilemmas, but this could very well be possible. I am interested to see how LA will take care of the homeless once the Summer Olympics arrive. Any thoughts?
Though I didn’t travel over trips week, I have noticed on a couple of occasions where there has been a lack of diversity in cities outside of California. A year ago I was in Maine, and I was walking around the village area with my sister and dad. Then, while my dad went to get coffee, some woman came up to my sister and me and asked us where we were from, and when we responded with Los Angeles, she looked confused and asked us again where we were really from. My dad came back out and the woman asked him what adoption agency he had gotten us from because she was looking to adopt an “oriental” baby. We kind of just walked away, but this moment has always remained in the back of my head.
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t really thought about this in awhile until I read this blog post, but I realize that whenever I go back to Maine, I’m more aware of the lack of diversity. So, I decided to do some research on Maine and its one-dimensionality. The overall state of Maine is 94% white with Portland being 84%, ranking #285 out of 313 cities across the US.
To answer the question of what felt different, I guess that I would say that I was more aware of my surroundings. I feel like I was actively looking for non-white people, which is something that I don’t do in LA.
Here is an article: http://bangordailynews.com/2015/10/15/news/state/maines-lack-of-diversity-illustrated-in-three-maps/
I didn't visit any colleges outside of Los Angeles last week, but I would like to add on to Sophie's point about Maine. Two summers ago I went to Maine for a camp on diversity, inclusion, and community change (Seeds of Peace). We were split into dialogue groups with people from New York, Chicago, and LA, but the people from Maine were in their own separate groups, and their main topic of discussion was the lack of diversity in their state. Throughout the camp, I noticed uncomfortable moments much like the one Sophie described above; one girl from Maine who was white had corn rows in her hair, and when she was asked to take them out, she was very angry and confused.
ReplyDeleteHaving lived in a place like LA for all of my life, I forget that a lot of people from other parts of the U.S. aren't accustom to diversity. However I also think the way diversity functions in Los Angeles is heavily misunderstood by people not from here. This is just a thought, but I think a lot of people outside of LA have the misconception that the city is more homogenous than it is.
Like a few other people, I didn't actually go anywhere over the break, but I did have an interesting experience over the summer in Chicago. First of all, though, similarly to what Lux pointed out, as many flaws as the "diversity" of Los Angeles might have, I do think it's important to give the city credit for even bringing people from different backgrounds into a common space. As is clear from what Sophie commented, there are a ton of other places in the country that can't even say that much, and I do think it is much less likely that anyone in LA would make such an outrageous, outdated comment– there's simply more exposure to different ways of life here.
ReplyDeleteRegarding my time in Chicago, I was doing a program at UChicago, which is on the South Side, but I was shocked to see that out of the ~800? kids in the program, I was the only black female student. There were maybe two or three black boys in the group as well. As striking as that was, it was equally shocking to walk off campus and find myself in a heavily black neighborhood; it was as if there was a invisible barrier around the school that protected it from the world right outside its bounds.
My RA, however, was a black woman, and during one of our conversations she told me that the university didn't keep track of or pay attention to the racial makeup of their summer sessions as they do to their actual classes. It's not that I'm not used to looking different to most of my classmates, but 1) this discrepancy was even more pronounced than my day-to-day surroundings and 2) the makeup of Pasadena isn't as drastically different from Poly as Chicago was to UChicago in the summer. It was also strange to me that most of the people working at the school were black.
But I was in the official UChicago summer session; there were other summer groups that were often there, and many of them seemed to be more local and catered to kids from lower income backgrounds, but they weren't associated with my program at all and we rarely interacted with them except in passing at the dining hall. They didn't seem to be residential like we were.
I loved my time at UChicago and am in no means trying to make an example of the school (in national rankings, it is actually more racially diverse than the vast majority of colleges in the country), but it was something that I noticed in passing and then couldn't unsee for the rest of my time there. I just found it noteworthy, especially in comparison to both Pasadena and Los Angeles.
Although I didn't travel over trips week, I did visit my mom in Atlanta, Georgia two weeks before. I had traveled to the south before; however, I had never been to Atlanta. Since I was young, I had always felt uncomfortable when traveling to the south as my parents were often the recipients of subtle homophobia which just made me feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed. Additionally, even as a young boy, I was aware of the lack of racial diversity (Not that I was helping this issue) in many of the major cities I visited compared to Los Angles. Therefore, as I was on my flight to Atlanta, I couldn't help but assume I would experience similar experiences. But I was wrong. Almost immediately after we landed, I could tell there was a much larger African American population than I expected. Even in the heart of the city, I found there was an evident disproportion between Los Angles and Atlanta. What was even more interesting was that it was one of the first times in my life I noticed I looked different from the majority of the people I saw. While I have no data to prove my observations, I do believe at the very least some localized areas in the heart of the city are dominated by an African American population rather than White. I was so intrigued by this localized phenomenon that I couldn't resist but asking my Uber driver if my observations were apparent throughout the whole city. While he did corroborate my observations, he did say the movie/tv business has begun transitioning to the city which has forced many families out of there homes within the city. While Atlanta may be more racially diverse than Los Angles currently is, I do fear Atlanta is in the early stages of becoming what our city was half a century ago.
ReplyDeleteI think diversity and integration are two separate factors that affect the character of a city. Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities; however, it is also highly separated. I think many people mistakenly assume that a diverse city also means it is very integrated. On the contrary, highly diverse cities tend to be less integrated.
ReplyDeleteI found your third question, “what makes the city seem like a place of full acceptance in comparison to other cities?”, very thought provoking. I was having a little trouble trying to put my finger on what it could be, but I think Los Angeles may seem like an accepting place because of the fact that whites are not the majority; in fact, hispanics have outnumbered whites in Los Angeles. I think this quality separates Los Angeles from other diverse cities such as New York and Houston. According to the Los Angeles Times, hispanics surpassed whites in 2014. While LA is still very obviously divided, I think the dominance of hispanic culture along with other cultures creates the impression of acceptance that Los Angeles seems to have.
Over trips week, I traveled to New York, NY, Princeton, NJ, and King of Prussia, PA. While in New York, I stayed in Harlem which has a primarily black population (77% according to a 2000 consensus). In Princeton, the population is primarily white. I was not surprised considering the large mansions, manicured lawns, and ivy league university within it. King of Prussia, PA is also primarily white. However, when walking around university area, the majority of the population were white and asian. While I did not do much within the city of King of Prussia, I noticed that in the K of P mall, a majority of the workers were black. Also, all of our lyft drivers were people of color, primarily middle easter. I think out of all the cities, New York reminded me of Los Angeles the most.
Over the break I visited New Haven, Connecticut and New York. The first night I stayed in New Haven I noticed that it was fairly diverse, but the next day when I was exploring the city I noticed that it was racially segregated like Los Angeles. The population near my hotel was predominantly people of color, but in downtown New Haven near Yale was mostly white. I was not surprised though because many city that are classified as diverse are in fact segregated. While visiting a college in upstate New York, I saw that it was mostly suburbs and the people living in the suburbs were predominantly white which did not surprise in the slightest, but what did surprise me is that, as Rachel said, people made sure you knew they were from the suburbs and not the city. Like Rachel, I had never really heard anybody from Los Angeles say they were from the suburbs of Los Angeles and not the actual city. As for New York City, the area is, like LA, classified as very diverse but as I walked around and did some research I saw that it is segregated like Los Angeles. In the city, places like the Bronx and segments of Queens and Brooklyn have high concentrations of people of color meanwhile Staten Island and places more towards the heart of the city like Central Park and Times Square are predominantly white. I believe that people see LA as diverse because they compare it to their own city which furthers the stereotype that LA is immensely diverse.
ReplyDeleteOver trips week I visited Missouri, Pennsylvania, and NYC. While New York has a similar reputation of being diverse and a sort of melting pot of racial, socio-economic, cultural, religious, etc. backgrounds, like Los Angeles, places like Missouri and Pennsylvania were very different. I know that Missouri has had a history of issues in regards to racial discrimination, but I did not know much about Pennsylvania when I visited. I knew very little regarding racial demographics of the school I was looking at, so upon further research it turns out the graduating class of 2018 was considered the most diverse class this school has ever had, and yet it was still 66% white and minority representation had only gone up about 10% in the last four years. In addition, Pennsylvania as a state (according to 2010 census) is 81.9% white.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of gentrification, I noticed directly next to the school I was visiting was a new apartment complex being built. In a cluster of very rundown condos and homes, this very modern building under construction took up a great deal of space. Next to that was a hip coffee shop with all student-customers lounging around inside. After my campus tour, my dad and I actually went to the coffee shop.
I feel ashamed (not sure if that is the right word here in this context) of myself that some of what I have talked about didn’t really cross my mind or affect me entirely when touring the school– and I know that has to do with the fact that I am white and I don't experience microaggressions or undergo the same experiences someone who identifies as a person of color does. Now that I have done the research however, I have mixed feelings about a school that, prior to reading up on the demographics of this school, was a place I was really interested in.
I didn't really answer the prompt very well and at this point I am kind of writing as I think and it’s not really conveying a clear message so.
A few years ago my dad and I traveled across the country to visit my grandparents. He thought it was important for me to learn as much as I could about the area and circumstances that shaped the lives of his parents in the deep South. They had both recently fallen ill and there was an urgency that hung over our trip. We rented a car from the Charlotte, North Carolina airport and drove for hours to their home in Marion, South Carolina. Before nightfall, the view from my window was filled with abandoned gas stations, burnt down apartment complexes, and dilapidated homes amid an unfamiliar lush greenery. As the sun faded and the objects zooming by became shadows, I closed my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe following morning my grandfather, father, and I decided to go out to breakfast and tour the town in which he had been born and raised. Driving through the streets in the light of a new day, I noticed that the differences outside my window went far beyond the foliage. The diverse and colorful faces that i am so accustomed to in Los Angeles were absent. Instead the people here were either Black or White, and rarely together. The neighborhoods were severely segregated, as though the town was untouched by time. Los Angeles is a metropolis which is home to a range of diversity that, even with its separate communities, seems to intersect with each other in a more fluid, less inhibited way.