Importance of Racialized Space - Annotated Bibliography Example

Importance of Racialized Space Importance of Racialized Space Introduction Racialization is a concept that has developed over time. Spatial dynamics of any city have a reciprocal link with social relations. Space is simultaneously objective, subjective, metaphorical, a medium and outcomes of social life, and it is instrumental and essential. In fact, the relationship between space and the social takes various forms. The perception of racialized spaces draws together the dynamic interaction of various processes of racialization and space. Racialized spaces are extremely important in terms of how the state, individuals, and the practices of various institutions make sense and mange race and race relations. Both space and racialized space are very powerful in shaping the society. This paper highlights on importance of race, space and racialized space. It also explores on other related questions. Importance of racialized space First and foremost, racialized space as theoretical and practical tool is very instrumental to examination of racialization of various cities in the United States. Racialization is part of everyone’s life after being inscribed in space. In is noteworthy that racial system of privilege and oppression have always included perceptions of space, however, they vary in significantly in varied eras. In the United States of America, particularly in Virginia before racilaization of slaves, African slaves and English indentured servants stayed in same quarters and performed similar duties (Barot & Bird, 2001). The African slaves and the American could also intermarry as a result of race and space. The development of racial chattels was aimed at compelling the colonial rulers to segregate African slaves and English servants. Generally, the separation was social, economic, and legal. The plantations in the late 17th century limited the extent of the spatial separation of the races. One of the most important instances as witnessed during this period was that plantation system was the intimate physical space that the slave masters shared with the enslaved. According to Virginia slave ordinance, demanded that slaves who were manumitted to leave the state (Eduardo, 1997). This was a tacit recognition that freed blacks living in the plantation which would be detrimental to slavery. Secondly, geographic separation of Native Americans from whites was an instrumental process in seizing native peoples’ lands and converting them to private property and United States territory. This separation was encoded in the policy of the US following the passage of the Indian removal Act in 1830. This creation of geographic separation was also important in allowing the Indians to secure lands (Frantz, 2001). It also helped in fighting for the rights native people and thus making it impossible to get rid of the natives completely. Thirdly, during the era of Jim Crow in the nineteenth century, racial separation was at best partial. Some of the African Americans remained isolated from the industrial cities. They were held up in southern sharecropping system and were further pushed by the efforts of white unions who were aiming at keeping them out of the industrial sectors. However, in the rural South, Africans still lived with the whites in the industrial cities during the Jim Crow era (Robert, 1989). It is worth noting that the very segregation laws contributed to prospective for racial amalgamation that lay within industrial capitalism. In urban America, the creation non-racial working class was possible without the race apart and unequal. Employer developed the interest of hiring labourers at lower rates, however, the economic relation led to the expansion of the industrial sector regardless of the race. During this period, and as a result of racialization, it became possible for whites to guard their racial privileges by leaving the suburbs that were multiracial to stay in race homogeneous suburbs (Robert & Torres, 1999). Last but not least, the existence of the Jim Crow housing laws also improved both the living standards of the whites and the blacks. This was done by allowing private developers and federal government to limit access to suburbs to whites only. How the Racialization of Space Affect Access to Services and Improved Life Chances In regards to the manner in which racialization of space affect access to services and improved life chances, it is important to note that when people are racially segregated in one single place; it becomes difficult to satisfy their social needs. The decentralization of particular services in one place can affect the social welfare of people negatively since many are unlikely to access the social needs. Where one lives influences the life chances of every individual. People usually live life trying to gain as much opportunity as the circumstances may permit. In that regard, space and place have always played both the role of a pathway and a roadblock. Racialization of space determines the schools one attends, the degree of neighbourhood security, access to healthcare services, and the availability of finances. In fact, the geography of opportunity significantly influences the choice available to everyone. This is the case of the whites and the African Americans following World War II and during the Jim Crow era. The differences play an important role at city and state level. At all levels, places with the weakest support for insurance, unemployment, health benefits, and inadequate schools affects the racially concentrated areas. In that sense, there is a strong correlation among location, weak economic opportunity, and race or space. After the war, the government denied many people opportunities to acquire government lending and housings. This process was referred to as redlining. This kind of practice known as redlining was instrumental in setting up the conditions for the concentration of sub-prime and predatory lending in racially isolated space. In today’s government, the undercapitalized community of color today is referred to as reverse redlining. This could not have been possible if there was no redlining in decades ago. Today, it is important to come up with institutional arrangements such as the Social Security Act, which is very influential. These are some of the arrangement that were at racially inscribed with spatial implications from structural opportunity and inequality. In the nineteenth century, the South enjoyed some benefits brought about by one party dominance and democracy. For instance, the National Labor Relation Act played a very indispensable role of protecting the rights of African Americans in a racially restricted labor market. Webster (1992), asserts that infrastructure of any given place is vital in developing the economics of that particular place. Infrastructure helps in developmental processes in the sense that without it whites can also experience equally high poverty rates. In most cases policies are designed to be universal, however, most black and white people when they become passive to respond to various demanding situation, they tend to forget that different individuals are situated in diverse places. For instance, the racially marginalized populace, particularly those residing in poverty concentrated neighbourhood, there are various reinforcing constraints. In spite the fact that whites may also have equally high rates of poverty, they still have sporadic or temporary poverty by comparison to populations that are marginally racialized (Michael & Howard, 1994). However, whites are never spatially isolated as Latinos and black who earn low income. Conclusion For various issues concerning incarceration, housing, employment rates, and health care; the challenge is to acknowledge the manner in which issues interact and accumulate over a given period, with place as the ground holding the arrangements together. Universal policies are unlikely to have any impact on the way people live since they are nominally neutral (Karim & John, 2005). This might also because of various cascade of issues that the neighbourhood exhibit. It is, therefore, important that develop strategies that are targeted towards universalism. This is because such an approach recognizes the need to have materialized groupings. It is important to develop policies that proactively connect people to jobs, good schools, and better housing. This can only be achieved through improved opportunities. Targeted universalism is vital since it recognizes that life is lived in what is called opportunity web. According to research, it is essential to have targeted efforts that target both spatial arrangements and racial arrangements aimed at breaking the racial dimension of geography of opportunity. In the American history racialized policies currently being used are likely to help in various ways. Through sensitive and structural dynamics of opportunities are likely to prove effective in the process of dealing with the cycle of opportunity amalgamation. References Barot, R., and Bird, J., (2001). Racialization: The Genealogy and Critique of a Concept. Ethnic and Racial Studies 24 (4): 601–618. Eduardo, B. (1997). Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation. American Sociological Review 62 (3): 465–480. Frantz, F. (2001). The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. New York: Penguin. Joe, R. (2006). Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge. Karim, M., and John, S. (2005). Racialization: Studies in Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. Michael, M., and Howard, W. (1994). Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Robert, M. (1989). Racism. London: Routledge. 2nd ed., 2003. Robert, M., and Torres, D. (1999). Does Race Matter? In Race, Identity, and Citizenship: A Reader, eds. Rodolfo Torres, Louis Mirón, and Jonathan Xavier Inda, 3–38. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Webster, O. (1992). The Racialization of America. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Read More