How is Chicago one of the most segregated cities in the country? (neighborhoods, live)

[redbacchus]

Everywhere I go, I see minorities. On public transportation, in stores, in bars, and in restaurants. Is it the housing? How is segregation in Chicago measured?

[rvernsey]

People naturally group together for a number of reasons.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by redbacchus

Everywhere I go, I see minorities. On public transportation, in stores, in bars, and in restaurants. Is it the housing? How is segregation in Chicago measured?

This doesn't make sense, Chicago is segregated but everywhere you go you see minorities? That would mean they are not segregated.

And who cares, are you scared? Because that's how this comes across.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by redbacchus

Everywhere I go, I see minorities. On public transportation, in stores, in bars, and in restaurants. Is it the housing? How is segregation in Chicago measured?

It is measured solely by housing.

[Freefall18]

I think what he's trying to say is "People say Chicago is segregated, but I don't see it as being segregated. How are the data compiled?"

There's many ways to measure segregation. You can say "There are x% of Hispanics in Chicago. What percentage Hispanic is the neighborhood where the average Hispanic person lives". For instance the average black person lives in a neighborhood that is 45 percent black. Without segregation, his neighborhood would be only 13 percent black (this is for the country). And yes, it's done by housing

[Chicago76]

Yes, it is generally done by comparing local racial composition for neighborhoods, census tracts, census block groups, etc and comparing those to racial composition for the entire metro. You could calculate multiple dissimilarity indices for a given area based upon two races: non-Hispanic black to non-Hispanic white, white to Hispanic, white-Asian, etc.

Index of dissimilarity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[happycrow]

I spent the summer in Chicago two years ago, and was absolutely shocked by the black/white divide in the town (and fwiw I saw very few hispanics outside of work crews, too). Now, I come from a pretty diverse town in TX (one of the most diverse in the country, actually), but the degree of self-segregation I saw, and of "he's black so I must fear him" I saw from whites was both unexpected and honestly quite jolting.

Not intending to trash Chicago, as I quite enjoyed the place in general and it's got a lot going for it. But I would agree that it has significant race issues.

[Chicago76]

Originally Posted by happycrow

I spent the summer in Chicago two years ago, and was absolutely shocked by the black/white divide in the town (and fwiw I saw very few hispanics outside of work crews, too). Now, I come from a pretty diverse town in TX (one of the most diverse in the country, actually), but the degree of self-segregation I saw, and of "he's black so I must fear him" I saw from whites was both unexpected and honestly quite jolting.

Not intending to trash Chicago, as I quite enjoyed the place in general and it's got a lot going for it. But I would agree that it has significant race issues.

It's really no different than any other town that received a lot of black migrants during the Great Migration in that regard. Inbound migrants were segregated into certain neighborhoods in those decades and have moved into others during the White Flight era. This is quite a bit different than areas in the south or west. Western towns never had a huge unskilled labor wave of AAs arrive en masse and the south has been much more AA for much, much longer.

[Chicago South Sider]

Originally Posted by Chicago76

It's really no different than any other town that received a lot of black migrants during the Great Migration in that regard. Inbound migrants were segregated into certain neighborhoods in those decades and have moved into others during the White Flight era. This is quite a bit different than areas in the south or west. Western towns never had a huge unskilled labor wave of AAs arrive en masse and the south has been much more AA for much, much longer.

Is that a reason or an excuse? People are always making excuses for Chicago's many shortcomings.

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by happycrow

I spent the summer in Chicago two years ago, and was absolutely shocked by the black/white divide in the town (and fwiw I saw very few hispanics outside of work crews, too). Now, I come from a pretty diverse town in TX (one of the most diverse in the country, actually), but the degree of self-segregation I saw, and of "he's black so I must fear him" I saw from whites was both unexpected and honestly quite jolting.

Not intending to trash Chicago, as I quite enjoyed the place in general and it's got a lot going for it. But I would agree that it has significant race issues.

I agree! I've not seen this much racial tension before. I've gotten use to some of the ism but some of it I refuse to accept.