Is Levittown (N.Y) a symbol of American progress, or should it be considered a symbol of American prejudice - Essay Example

Nevertheless, the long seeded racism cultivates in the town against all races other than Caucasian. Even today, a vast majority of the inhabitants of Levittown are white Americans. According to the 1990 census, 97.37 percent of the inhabitants of Levittown were White Americans (The New York Times, 1997, p. 2). Three years later, in the 2000 census, “[t]he racial makeup of the CDP was 94.36% White, 2.45% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.96% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.86% from other races, and 1.

17% from two or more races” (Hispanis Dose, n.d.). Owing to the subdued rights of non-Caucasian Americans in Levittown, it is a symbol of prejudice for America. Cultivation of racism in the Long Islands is detrimental even for the racists. Long Islanders have conventionally made every attempt to keep their Island from according with the notion of “becoming just like Queens” (Newsday, 2002). The fundamental ideology of Long Islanders is that to be Queens-like is to be urban, which is not something to feel proud of.

In order for the Long Islands like Levittown to be considered good, they have to be suburban with a lot of wealth, safety and most importantly, whiteness! However, “[i]n their effort to keep things as they are, however, Long Islanders are strangling their own chance of maturing as an economic center and as a vibrant, viable region” (Newsday, 2002). By making the Long Islands race specific, the developers have narrowed the chances of occupancy of their own children on them. They tend to ruin all opportunities to solve the usual issues of protecting open space, controlling overdevelopment, revitalizing the downtown regions, limiting taxes, and most importantly, handling racism.

Racism in Long Islands like Levittown moves from private life of individuals to the societal arena. It may frequently show up in public gatherings in terms of racial appellations displayed on the buildings, and humiliation offered to the families of color by the white people residing in the neighborhood. Beatings find origin in racism in such circumstances. Levittown is one of the Long Islands where this happened in particular. Levittown is the first suburb for the American nation after the war.

Black soldiers were denied access to this largest housing scheme in the history of America. Since that time, the town has increased in subtleness manifolds, assisting the establishment of a wide range of institutions ranging from schools and boutiques to hospitals. The consequential circumstances have made it difficult for the establishment to take care of the mushrooming problems. The disparity between the rights of Caucasian Americans and non-Caucasian Americans is detrimental for the peace of the town.

Long Islanders tend to achieve self control and develop the economic ability to become indifferent to the state of the rest of the nation. The multiple government layers that results in such a system adds so much volume to the taxes that they promote isolation of the racial grounds. The process of development is curbed by the fragmentation of leadership and it becomes much harder to abolish racism. The price of houses in the Long Islands like Levittown has conventionally been the maximum among all states in the US.

The unusually high prices also find a relation to the racism. If the houses become affordable to the public in general, they