Martin Luther King Jr.’s moving “I Have a Dream” speech aided in the turn of a new era for civil rights. Even with our positive movement toward racial equality, are there still problems that our society faces with modern segregation? Danah Boyd, Michelle Alexander and Ioana Popescu describe the challenges of modern day segregation and highlight the problematic unawareness that American society faces today. By depicting the differences for Black Americans and White Americans in military, college, socioeconomic status, and criminations, these authors bring light to the civil issue that is still in movement. Through Boyd, Alexander and Popescu’s articles, the strengths as well as the weaknesses of their claims, illustrating the persuasion of each individual’s argument on modern segregation. 

The Race For Equality In Troops and Students

            Boyd’s article, “Why America Is Self-Segregating” highlights the topics of racial segregation in military and on college campuses. The article starts with the polarization of society through the use of social media. “The American public is self-segregating and this is tearing at the social fabric of the country.” Boyd discusses the “filter bubble” that is caused by the use of social media. The content personalization on Facebook determines what people are exposed to for them, causing polarization from real news and world events. Boyd’s claim on this issue not only does not provide a solution to the problem of social media’s contribution to this polarization, but does not address the benefits that social media does have in its ability to connect people everywhere, thus rendering her argument as one sided, and weakening the claim that she is trying to formulate. 

 “Privatizing the military” in Boyd’s article analyzes the differences in the treatment of Black soldiers and White soldiers. “…while serving in active duty, they spend a much higher amount of time on the front lines and in high-risk battle, increasing the likelihood that they will be physically or psychologically harmed.” By providing this information, Boyd strengthens her argument regarding the harmful difference in treatment between White and Black soldiers. The issue of modern day segregation is highlighted by presenting the physical and mental effects on the soldiers. 

        Boyd discusses the effects of self-segregation on college campuses and the impact that choosing roommates online has on the modern civil issue. “learning how to negotiate conflict and diversity in close quarters can be tremendously effective in sewing the social fabric.” The social fabric is deteriorating due to incoming college students being able to choose their own roommates. While this appears as a benefit to the new students, allowing them to connect with their roommate before the school year begins, it causes self-segregation because of the availability to roommate switch, further damaging the diversification in student living. Boyd’s arguments incorporate a logos viewpoint of modern day segregation by providing facts on the issues of segregation within our military and college campuses. Provided in the text are solutions that can be upheld in society, such as becoming aware and educated about the benefit of diversity, as well as the problems that people of color face in our nation today. Along with these solutions, there are no references at the end of the text, weakening the reliability of the facts provided. Boyd outlays the issue, but only reaches the surface of this nationally separating topic, causing society to have the question, “what now?”

What is the “New Jim Crow”?

            Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” discusses the enlightenment of Alexander in the discovery of modern day segregation. Her ethos approach on the matter provides an emotional story that brings awareness to the problems facing the criminal justice system in America, described as the “era of colorblindness”, by Alexander. “We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

Describing segregation as being redesigned in modern society brings an emotional awareness to issues such as the War on Drugs and the prison system. She analyzes the difficulties that convicts face while incarcerated as well as those outside of the prison system. “Once they are released, they are often denied the right to vote, excluded from juries, and regulated to a racially segregated and subordinated existence” states Alexander. This strongly supports the theory on of modern segregation by highlighting how convicts are treated as unequals in our society. The segregation worsens when Alexander shows the difference in the crimination of black men compared to white men. “In some states, black men have been admitted to prison on drug charges at rates twenty to fifty times greater than those of white men.” In addition to this, Alexander observes the future consequences of modern day segregation. “One in three African American men will serve time in prison if current trends continue.” By providing information about the future consequences of our nation’s actions, Alexander provides an incredibly strong argument to her claim by showing the negative effects that modern segregation will continue to have in future years. In addition to this, Alexander observes the future consequences of modern day segregation. “One in three African American men will serve time in prison if current trends continue.” By providing information about the future consequences of our nation’s actions, Alexander provides an incredibly strong argument to her claim by showing the negative effects that modern segregation will continue to have in future years. 

The War On Inequality

            Alexander also highlights the War on Drugs and its effect on Black Americans. In the 1980s, President Ronal Reagan proposed the campaign for the War on Drugs to decrease the distribution of crack cocaine. “A few years after the drug war was declared, crack began to spread rapidly in the poor black neighborhoods” The cause of cocaine being spread in poor black neighborhoods led to the drug offenses of colored people to drastically increases. Alexander analyzes how the War on Drugs caused unequal crimination of Black Americans and contrasted with its original goal to eliminate the use of drugs. Alexander delivers a strong argument by providing statistics on how severe the convictions were against black people in America. “…around 300,000 to more than 2 million, with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase”, these statistics support the argument and the ethos of the text is strengthened because it allows the severity of modern segregation to be shown through the mistreatment of people of color by the justice system. Alexander depicts strong detailed claims of this major concern in the criminal justice system in our nation and how the inequality of crimination of Black Americans causes separation in our society. 

A Study of Survival

           The statistics are highlighted in Popescu’s text as she conducts an experiment on racial segregation. The study evaluates socioeconomic inequality and observes the survival gap between Black and White men and women between the ages of 35-75. The results that were found in the study depict the dramatic difference in modern segregation as well as the socioeconomic gap between Black and White Americans. “Black men and women had a 14% and 9% lower probability of survival from age 35-75 than their white counterparts.”. Popescu provides strong evidence and logos in the text to prove that racial residential segregation still exists and is an issue in modern society. If we bring Black socioeconomic status to the same level as White socioeconomic status, the gap for survival would decrease, aiding to eliminate the issue. 

            NPR further discusses the problem of racial residential segregation in cities. The text analyzes that all streets that are named after MLK are in distressed living areas. The people in these areas are unable to buy or refinance new homes outside of the area because new developments in the suburbs did not allow black people to buy homes (NPR). Even though the fair housing act began in 1968 and encouraged equal housing opportunities, the effects of residential discrimination already affected the wealth gap between black and white Americans. 

            The texts provided all strongly support a nationwide issue and bring awareness as well as a deeper knowledge into the effects of modern day segregation. To eliminate the issue of segregation today, American society must become aware that the act of discriminating against one group of people, drastically decreases any movement toward equality for all. We are living in a modern past, but by educating the nation, we will begin a new era of sight. 

References:

“Why Are Cities Still So Segregated? | Let’s Talk | NPR.” YouTube, 11 Apr. 2018, youtu.be/O5FBJyqfoLM.

Popescu, Ioana, et al. “Racial Residential Segregation, Socioeconomic Disparities, and the White-Black Survival Gap.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0193222. 

Boyd, Danah. “Why America Is Self-Segregating.” Points, Data & Society: Points, 5 Jan. 2017, points.datasociety.net/why-america-is-self-segregating-d881a39273ab. 

Alexander , Michelle. “Legal Scholar: Jim Crow Still Exists In America.” NPR, NPR, 16 Jan. 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145175694/legal-scholar-jim-crow-still-exists-in-america.