Metro Detroit no longer most segregated

[Don K]

I grew up in a South Jersey suburb about 10 miles outside of Philadelphia in the 50's and 60's. The town ran the economic spectrum from working class living in the equivalent of the Detroit suburban 1,000 sf ranch to very wealthy living in Victorian mansions. It also had a substantial black minority of about 7% in 1960. There were a couple of rigidly defined black neighborhoods, so if you looked at the town it was pretty segregated, but in my elementary school we went to school with black kids from kindergarten on. The town was [[and is) small enough to have only one junior high and senior high, so from 7th grade on we were all going to the same school together.

In my opinion, growing up with black and white kids playing together on the playground [[and to a certain extent outside of school - my house was about a block from one of the black sections) was a valuable experience, because we learned from a young age that kids are just kids. There are kids you want to hang out with and there are kids who are thugs, and it doesn't have anything to do with race. You can hang out with black kids and white kids, and you can learn to avoid the thugs of both races.

I'm not wanting to be all pollyanna about this, but at least in our case it worked pretty well.

BTW, the town remains pretty diverse. As of 2010 the population had grown to 20,700, from 12,500 in 1960. It's somewhat more wealthy because of the building of McMansions in the 90's and 00's and movement of middle-class families into the working-class sections to get their kids into the school system, but it still has a black population of a little over 6%, with 6% Asian and about 3.5% Hispanic tossed in [[the census bureau doesn't seem to have collected data on the latter two in 1960).

[Hermod]

I grew up in a South Jersey suburb about 10 miles outside of Philadelphia in the 50's and 60's. The town ran the economic spectrum from working class living in the equivalent of the Detroit suburban 1,000 sf ranch to very wealthy living in Victorian mansions. It also had a substantial black minority of about 7% in 1960. There were a couple of rigidly defined black neighborhoods, so if you looked at the town it was pretty segregated, but in my elementary school we went to school with black kids from kindergarten on. The town was [[and is) small enough to have only one junior high and senior high, so from 7th grade on we were all going to the same school together.

I grew up in Detroit in the forties and fifties. I went to Detroit public schools [[Wayne Elementary, Jackson Intermediate, Denby High). I never saw a single black student, teacher, janitor, or cafeteria worker. The only "slightly brown" kids were Maronite Lebanese. When we moved to Rochester while I was in high school, I finally had some black classmates.

[rjk]

In my opinion, growing up with black and white kids playing together on the playground [[and to a certain extent outside of school - my house was about a block from one of the black sections) was a valuable experience, because we learned from a young age that kids are just kids.

I think that's way overblown. I grew up in a white and a overwelmingly Catholic area and can say that I've never had any problems as an adult dealing with people of other races or religions.

More times than not I think racists views come from the parents and starts at a young age.
That's obviously not set in stone as children can break away from what they hear from their parents.

[NorthEndere]

I think that's way overblown.

I think you're overblowing what he said. He simply gave his opinion that physical/geographical closeness gives different folks more an oppertunity to breakdown social barriers than those that never or very rarely interact with folks different than themselves. I think that's generally true. If anything, I think geographical integration is often under-appreciated. Heck, there is even something important to be had in being forced to sit down and overhearing conversations while waiting in the line at the SOS/DMV. I can understand why folks that know no other way would be defensive about someone making claims about their level of adjustment in the greater society, but it's largely an emotional response.

[cmubryan]

I am sure this will just continue and can pretty much guarantee that the city's black percentage will drop in 2020. While it did go from 81% to 83% from 2000 to 2010, it was the smallest percentage increase that the city has had ever and I bet the 83% was actually down from a peak in the early-mid 2000s.

[REL]

Segregation isn't just about numbers. It's about a state of mind.

We are still segregated.