oh btw Pearsall, nice sig. line, your blogs are quality
(i was interested to see you writing a bit about Kenan Malik and his admirable recent getting about on the subject of Islamophobia. not that i normally give the time of day to Jonathan Freedland but i thought his commentary/additions on/to what Malik had to say were also interesting and kinda compelling:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1396112,00.html)
>I'm sure you see more black/white couples...in Chicago (I'm guessing though, am I right Scott?),
well,
er
and i note you link to the US Census page so you'll know this yourself but for a city that is (the Big Apple itself is recorded as 27% of its population being "Black or African American") 37 per cent black {neighbouring Gary, Indiana - my only but frequent experience of Gary is through a train-window - is about 84% black/African-American} Chicago doesn't seem exactly chocka w' e.g., black/white couples. mind you, reading between the lines of your post, NYC doesn't seem compared to London, granted.
the big thing about race relations in Chicago, really - and i guess you may be aware of this, and if not, cool - is that it's really one of the most segregated bigger American cities. a large proportion of black Chicagoans are concentrated on the South Side and parts of the West Side.
the neighbourhood on the North Side (a mile or so from the Cubs ballpark, sports fans! etc.etc.) where i'm at now seems pretty diverse, a lot of white and Asian and black citizens AFAIK, and on the (er, ha...) restaurants tip a lot of Hispanic and Asian and Euro-different heritages cuisines, don't get me wrong,
but yeah it
is really quite segregated.
>Other types of mixed-race relationships are far more prevalent than black/white
it's interesting you say this actually.
my girlfriend's two best mates in Chicago are both in mixed-race relationships (well, quite a lot of her Chicagoan mates are actually, but i think of her two bezzies the quickest).
i know a bit about the Chi's politics and whatnot because my girl well [
www.ywcachicago.org] works there.
but the very short (guidebook) version of the segregation alluded to above &c. is unscrupulous realtors (here quoting almost verbatim from one old Lonely Planet cause it said it best, and concisely) fuelling white fears of African-Americans in the bad old post-war years and whatnot, "block-busting", white flight, blah blah.
there's all zoning laws and school catchment areas and other things coming into play, i'd best shut up before i tie myself completely in knots and get utterly confused but yeah.
the city is making steps to reverse decades of earlier bad faith etc but of course it's going to be slow.
a lot of the country's biggest projects, such as the Robert Taylor Homes on the South Side (Henry 'Skip' Gates did a four-part docu series that the Beeb screened last year or so about, er, 'the Afro-American experience' or whatnot and he was wondering around the Robert Taylor at one point), and the Cabrini Green 'hood on the Near Northwest Side, are basically being torn down and replaced, but from what i know so far of Cabrini Green it's being yuppified and i don't know what is happening to the old tenants etc (i should pay far more attention to my better half).
i don't know, mixed-income developments are up and coming but SORRY this is getting rather off-topic.
i
don't quite think that basically - for Chi-town's African-American population - Gary is to the Chi what Essex is to white cockernees tho' i do wonder if some old-timer Cabrini Green residents might head out to Gary (conversationally with Chicago residents i have heard this in the past, and on more than a few occasions iirc)... ...but i think Chicago is a fascinating town, not of course anywhere near as hollowed out as tragic and blasted Detroit, but i would like to learn far more about the race relations issues etc here because i don't think there are any major problems that often make the news or anything, but the structural issues of this de facto segregation are clearly affecting the city, its economics, community relations, etc.
>Race relations between blacks and whites in London, at least in my experience, are much better than in the States.
i think that's a decent call, TBH.