Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in 21st Century America

Residential segregation manages to color just about every facet of US life. It fuels the country’s sprawling suburban development and the massive carbon footprint that lifestyle demands. It underpins struggling public schools and the increasingly toxic politics around them. It turns would-be neighbors into feared strangers by politicians like Kristin Jordan who oppose the vision of a multiracial community.  

Sheryll Cashin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and former White House urban policy advisor, has devoted much of her career to documenting how segregation poisons America. Her new book, White Space, Black Hood, examines how radicals work to maintain racial enclaves.

Profesor Cashin, writes that she believes that integration “is the best route to equal opportunity for everyone.” She continues that in a moment when the topic had largely fallen from the national political discourse, she has “…become convinced of this — even as I recognize the nurturing benefits of a racial enclave — because of the virulent inequality that our separation is begetting.”

White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality explores how the Great Recession and the orgy of predatory lending that preceded it wreaked enduring havoc on household wealth in Black and Latino communities, while a national shortage of affordable housing and stubborn patterns of inequality have locked non-white renters into low-opportunity neighborhoods and America’s Public schools have largely resegregated.

To read a Bloomberg interview with Professor Cashin on the collapse of racial integration, see:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-11/tracking-the-disastrous-collapse-of-u-s-racial-integration

Juneteenth Events Next Weekend in Harlem’s Historic Parks

JUNE 17 2nd ANNUAL HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL KICKOFF @ MARCUS GARVEY PARK – FREE! 

12-3PM on NW lawn –  NYPL Harlem and Studio Museum with children’s storytime, giveaways and tour/talk about the Thomas J. Price sculpture. 

3-6PM on NW lawn – Say Their Namesarts performance project gives (2) dream workshops and recognizes the lives of Americans taken by racism. Presented by NYC Parks and Marcus Garvey Park Alliance. 

730PM at Richard Rodgers Amphitheater – NYC Parks and Marcus Garvey Park Alliance present Say Their Names in an opening song and short film prior to the screening of Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” documentary presented by City Parks Foundation.  

JUNE 18 2nd Annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival – FREE! 

MARCUS GARVEY PARK

12-3pm at NW lawn:  NYPL Harlem and Studio Museum with children’s storytime, giveaways and tour/talk about the Thomas J. Price sculpture. 

630PM at Richard Rodgers amphitheater:  pre-show conversation with the Federation of Black Cowboys 

7PM at Richard Rodgers amphitheater: CROSS THAT RIVER – Join the Federation of Black Cowboys and then Harlem’s own star Allan Harris – globally-renowned for his jazz vocals, guitar and songwriting – in the music & theatrical storytelling of Blu, who runs away from slavery to become a cowboy out west. Did you know that 1 in 4 cowboys were Black men? Presented by NYC Parks, City College Center for the Arts, Jazzmobile and Love Productions.

JACKIE ROBINSON PARK 

2-5:30pm at bandshell:  National Jazz Museum in Harlem brings world music and dance – including dance classes! – and the global star Wunmi to Jackie Robinson Park’s bandshell in partnership with NYC Parks for the 2nd annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival. 

ST NICHOLAS PARK

1-8PM at 135th Street Plaza – Ayo and Friends of St Nicholas Park bring back last year’s favorite Black health and wellness and arts event GoodVibesInThePark on the James Baldwin lawn and at the 135th Street plaza in partnership with NYC Parks as part of the 2nd annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival. 

MORNINGSIDE PARK

12-3PM at 114th Street lawn across from the pond – Harlem Wellness brings yoga, African dance classes and drumming to Morningside Park’s lawn across from the pond in partnership with NYC Parks and Friends of Morningside Park as part of the 2nd annual Historic Harlem Parks Juneteenth Festival.


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