Assignment:
Chapter 8 Posting Deadline: Thursday, March 6
Reading: Chapter
8: “Homeowners’ Rights”: White Resistance and the Rise of Antiliberalism
Questions:
1. What were homeowners' associations (a.k.a.,
civic associations, neighborhood improvement associations, civic associations)?
2. How did homeowners' associations
respond to growing advocacy for open housing?
3.
What does Sugrue mean when he says, on the closing page of the chapter, that
the ghetto is not simply a physical construct, but also an ideological
construct? That urban space became a metaphor for perceived racial differences?
Source
for Questions: Charles Brown, “[Marxism-Thaxis] Study
Guide: Origins of the Urban Crisis.” Retrieved Jan 11, 2009. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/2009-January/023574.html
Assignment
- Deadline: Thursday, March 6
A.
Post two paragraphs inspired by the study guide questions/thoughts for the week
B.
Post two separate comments to one or more of your colleagues reacting to their
paragraphs.
In postwar Detroit, homeowners associations were thinly veiled racist groups organized in an attempt to maintain the racial homogeneity of a neighborhood. Although these organizations might carry out some social functions and encourage the upkeep of district residences, fighting the open housing movement was undoubtedly their primary focus. To combat proponents of open housing, these associations: 1) sought to pass an ordinance to bar an open housing policy; 2) collaborated with real estate agents and used coercion, intimidation and peer pressure to prohibit neighbors from selling their homes to African Americans; and 3) gained positions on civic committees to dissuade integrationist or liberal housing policies – even where private funds were involved.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of the “Black ghetto” was not simply a physical construct, but also a psychological ideal. The ghetto could be better characterized as white people’s perception of African Americans. A majority of whites deemed all Blacks as the same. These whites believed African Americans should be avoided because they were “the other,” “unlike us,” and “undesirable” people, who lacked the same values and work ethnic. So, the perceived walls of the Black ghetto irrationally grew in the minds of white homeowners as African Americans gained access to housing throughout the city.
Chapter 8 continues to outline the neighborhood segregation of Detroit.
ReplyDeleteFocusing on "Homeowners' Rights" (a term that is anything but, in this context) Sugrue shows the reader that Homeowner Associations in Detroit were merely racist groups trying to preserve racial segregation. During this time, the main focus was to pass ordinances to prevent open housing and to work with real estate agents to make it as difficult as possible to sell homes to African Americans.
The other focus of the chapter was on the concept of the "Black Ghetto." This term was more than that of the label created to highlight the physical coordinates where low-income African American neighborhoods were located, but equally an ideology created by whites to categorize those they felt were "inferior" in all aspects of the word.
You provided a well-written and concise summary of the chapter. Unfortunately, I cannot say these attitudes are a thing of the past. I remember when Gary and I went shopping for homes in Lathrup Village, there was one realtor who seemed reluctant to show us one of the homes when we came to an open house. We noticed her attitude was quite different for a white couple who showed up soon after we arrived.
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