This week’s reading definitely hit home because it reminded me of the refugee communities I grew up in. As a kid, I was naive about my environment and didn’t really make any sense of why there were people from every corner of the world living in my neighborhood. It actually was great for me because it taught me how to bond with my neighbors eve…[Read more]

Surprisingly, this was my first time watching Spike Lee’s film “Do the Right Thing”, and overall I give a ten out of ten. Spike Lee did an exquisite job in demonstrating the dynamic systems present with black communities all around the United States. Every scene was orchestrated with both explicit and implicit meanings behind it while illus…[Read more]

Gentrification has been a bittersweet destiny for majority of metropolitan cities around the United States. Sweet, in the perspective of urban designers who wish to remodel and renovate the city to give it a more vibrant, hip look. Consequently, extremely bitter because this can only occur through the resettlement of undermined minority…[Read more]

This week’s reading did an amazing job in addressing the relationship between United States politics and immigration. Specifically, in Albert Saiz’s article beautifully articulates the impact of immigration within the United States and addresses the many elephants in the room. Saiz elaborates the economic benefits of immigrants have brought to the…[Read more]

Within this week’s reading we dive deeper into the conversation around immigration in the United States, but focus directly on the presences of sanctuary cities. Darla Cameron’s article on the Washington Post does a great job in breaking down the powers and structures behind sanctuary cities. Cameron explains how it is the county’s choice to hand…[Read more]

Personally, I feel as if this week’s readings provided me with the clearest comprehension of not only the historical evolution of racialized segregation but the use of specialization to reinforce systems of segregation. Specifically, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Nikole Hannah-Jones synchronized the frameworks established within the past week with c…[Read more]

With this week’s topic being segregation, both reading hand in hand to illustrate the pros and cons of the historical evolution of racial integration to American society. On one hand, Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton chronologically draw out the formation of “ghettos” in response to the integration of non-white bodies throughout the US. They eluci…[Read more]