So newyorkers, does it come to a shock to hear that our beloved city, the world's city and the center of the known universe is not the true melting pot that it purports to be?
57 years after segregation was "officially" ended, New York City, Newark, NJ and Nassau and Suffolk counties of Long Island are the 3 areas in the region to place in the top ten major cities and areas that are the LEAST intergrated.
The report, which was created using data from the 2010 Census, is called, "The Persistence of Segregation in Metropolis," and was written by two university professors.
Walking through the various neighborhoods that comprise the five boroughs of the city, the report's veracity is quite evident. Although the report speaks of the gulf between black and white America, being a global city, we newyorkers take it even to a completely different level.
From the largely Dominican population in the Heights (that's Washington Heights to you non-newyorkers) to the Chinese and Koreans in Flushing and the lily white neighborhoods of Riverdale in the Bronx and most of Manhattan below 96th street. Oh and let's not forget West Indian and African American strongholds of Wakefield in the Bronx and Bed-Stuy and the Puerto Rican South Bronx.
Sure you can hear the cacaphony of the world's languages. Yes you can savor cuisine from every corner of the globe and of course you can buy the latest fashions from far away lands, yet we are as separate as night is from day as the ocean is from the sky.
As a native newyorker, I am thoroughly disgusted and disappointed (yet not surprised) at our beloved city receiving the dubious distinction of being the third LEAST segregated metropolis in America.
Let's hope that we can work together to be more of a fruit smoothie than the fruit salad.
NY & NJ Cities Rank Among America's Most Segregated : via HuffPost
