The Right to the City

Posted on Oct 29, 2010

By Ngai Pindell

I write and teach about cities. At one level, cities exist separately from their inhabitants. They inspire travelers, compete for capital and labor, and manage an ever-shifting relationship with neighboring cities, their state, and the federal government. But I want to focus on another level of city character and identity here. Instead of focusing on cities as autonomous entities, we might focus on cities as aggregations of individuals who shape, and are shaped by, their urban environment. These individuals struggle with their own social and racial identities.

The identity and character of cities in America have been profoundly influenced by race. In the past, laws mandating the segregation of African American and white urban residents through racially discriminatory housing and lending policies created racial geographic boundaries within cities and between cities and suburbs. The impact of this racial segregation in cities can be seen in the creation and persistence of an urban African American underclass in some cities as well as many urban neighborhoods marked by racial homogeneity and economic underinvestment.

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