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Broke in Philly
Two new studies show that the Philadelphia region is one of the most separate and unequal when it comes to neighborhoods and schools for blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians. You can download them here.
The studies’ author, Brown University sociologist John Logan, broke it down for City Paper:
“Philadelphia's black population, and particularly its affluent black population, lives in much poorer neighborhoods than comparable whites because they are so highly segregated by race. In the greater Philadelphia area that includes Wilmington and Camden, even the most affluent black households are in neighborhoods that are close to majority black and very few such neighborhoods are predominantly middle class. The overall level of segregation has changed very little since 1980. In these ways Philadelphia is like a number of older and larger metro areas in the Northeast and Midwest where the historical legacy of segregation in central cities from before the Civil Rights era seems to be locked into place and continues to be reproduced even as minorities begin to move to the suburbs.”
Philadelphia blacks are exposed to poverty at a rate nearly three times higher than whites (demography wonks: we’re talking Metropolitan Division, not Metropolitan Statistical Area)--the third highest rate in the country after Newark and Milwaukee. The average black person in the Philly area lives in a neighborhood with a 24.8% poverty rate, compared to just 8.4% for whites. Chicago, Cleveland, St. Louis and Detroit follow close behind.
And Philly has by far the most extreme gap between Hispanic and white exposure to poverty. Hispanics are more than three times more likely to live in impoverished communities, living in neighborhoods with an average poverty rate of 25.4%. And we have the second highest ratio of Asian to white exposure to poverty: Asians are nearly twice as exposed, and live in neighborhoods with a 13.4% poverty rate.
(If you’re mildly obsessed with the data behind this kind of thing, check out the stats for Philadelphia’s MD and MSA.)
And the schools. The Philadelphia area has the largest performance gap between black and white schools nation-wide, as measured by elementary school reading scores. The average black kid attends a school that scores in the 21st percentile, while the average white kid’s school scores in the 66th.
“Philadelphia is the extreme case, where the average white student is in a school where students perform at the 66th percentile, and black students are in schools below the 21st percentile. The white-black ratio is over three to one,” writes Logan. “Other metros at the top of this list include Chicago, Newark, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Cleveland, New York, and Pittsburgh.”
Same goes for Hispanics and whites: we’re number one, with Hispanics attending schools that are 3.28 times worse than those that whites attend. The average Hispanic attends a school that scores in the 20th percentile on reading tests.
Nation-wide, the average black student attended an elementary school that scored at the 35th percentile on state tests with Hispanics and Native Americans not far behind, while Asians and whites were at schools scoring around the 60th percentile.
This is a big deal, as Logan points out, because this “is the first national-level study at all grade levels to look beyond the racial segregation of schools to the question of inequalities in student performance of schools attended by children of different race and ethnicity.”
In 2011, we apparently still need to be reminded that separate means unequal. Where you live has a big impact on where you go to school: going to school in North Philly (you’re probably black) and the Main Line (likely white) are two very different things.
Crucially, Logan found that the free market sorting poor people into poor neighborhoods and rich into rich (as if this alone would be morally acceptable) couldn’t account for the racial segregation. Which leaves, well, race.
“The average affluent black or Hispanic household lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average lower-income white resident,” writes Logan. Indeed, the average black or Hispanic household making more than $75,000 per year lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average white household making less than $40,000
Interestingly, Logan was only able to use data from 2004, because the Department of Education “has yet to make public more current information.” The Bush and Obama Administrations’ failure to produce this information is particularly striking because Logan’s findings indicate that “attacking this pattern by focusing on a few low-achieving schools,” which is the modus operandi of No Child Left Behind, “can have only marginal results.” The problem is segregation and cannot be solved by pathologizing non-white schools and the people (say, teachers) who work there.
Indeed, as Logan notes, “it is hard to imagine how the disadvantages in schools attended by black and Hispanic children can be redressed unless there are major changes in the segregation of schools by race and class. And the issue of segregation is not on the policy agenda.”
We may have a black president, but segregation and racial inequality continue to define our nation’s geography. Most disturbingly, a new Pew study found that the recession wiped out recent wealth gains for blacks and Latinos: black household wealth fell by 55% and Hispanics lost 66%, while whites lost just 16%. The average white now has a net worth twenty times larger than blacks and 18 times larger than Hispanics--the largest racial wealth gap in at least a quarter century.
As Logan writes, “In its analysis of the sources of urban riots in the mid-1960s, the National Commission on Civil Disorders observed that the country was dividing into two nations, increasingly separate and unequal. Now – more than four decades later and in a very different social and political climate – new census data remind us that divisions remain very deep.”
Philadelphia, suburbanites and particularly all of you who are mindlessly obsessed with the deficit: segregation and inequality are a national disgrace.
The following nugget of wisdom comes straight from the Clogâs inbox to your browser, because we care.
Web Site Contact : Letter to the Editor
Name: Dallas
Email: XXXXXX
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Neighborhood: Fishtown
Message:
A wake up call for all the musicians who are over 30, and have not become famous.
Whatever music venue that you are into, that specializes in one particular kind music, is in most cases keeping you poor as a musician.
Blues guitarist are the worst offenders. They are in most cases the best guitarists out there in your area, and they are playing in most cases, in corner bars making the least amount of money. So they not only play the Blues, they truly have the blues when the go out and try to buy a new car, home, or whatever.
The same goes for you classic rock musicians, who only want to play rock. You know the breed. Rock on Man! You may play in some of the bigger rooms than the blues musicians, but again, unless the club is taking in money at the door, and giving you a cut, you also are working for peanuts. Due to the instability of your fellow rock musicians, you can't buy a new car either.
Music and the entertainment industry, is a Business. So if you are in the music, or entertainment field, whether you like it, or even realize it, you have to follow some business rules or you will suffer.
Women are the big spenders in society, and most business is geared to please them. There is a famous song entitled "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", and that is true. How do you think disco became so popular? The answer is women. Without a band, and just a DJ, club owners renovated their clubs, and put in glass floors. They installed elaborate lighting systems. All to attract the women in their area. Night after night, the dance floors would be packed with women. Dancing the night away, night after night, to the pounding beats of Disco.
All hit songs are here today, and gone tomorrow, because women constantly need a change in scenery. They made the travel business what it is today. Even if a woman lives in a 2 million dollar home, built in swimming pools. Hot tubs in all 6 bathrooms is not happy to stay in her beautiful home. She has to go on vacation once or twice a year and pay a lot of money out because they are never satisfied with anything.
Now during the time the Hit songs were famous they made an imprint in the minds of a women's memory and from time to time the girls want to hear, and dance to that Hit song that brings back memories of love affairs, great summers, and so on.
So if you are a musician, over 30, and have not yet become famous, but you know you are a damn good guitar player. You can play just about any kind of music well but you just don't like doing it. Change your way of thinking and become a business man and cater to the passions of women just like every other successful business has done since the beginning
of time.
Be willing to play some of the hit songs from the 50's to the present without complaining. You know you will have to play the once famous hits of yesterday so the women get their memory triggered and hear their favorite songs of the past.When the night is over the women are happy. They will say, " what a great band that was. They played everything well, and I had a great time. Let's hire, or go see that band again.â The Band will be a Club/Wedding/Party Band that can play all types of music to please whom? WOMEN!!!
Weddings cost Thousands of Dollars and are for whom? WOMEN!!! -
Parties and special affairs are expensive to put on with the renting of halls, caterers,entertainment, and they are for whom? WOMEN!!!
We will when ready work for the Big Corporate Booking Agencies who cater to the business of making women happy and the band will make top money for every event we play. Once again remember you are in the music business, and if you play by the rules, which can be narrowed down to just one. Pleasing the public. Which once again, is ruled by women. You will make top dollar with your God given talent.
I didn't write this, but agree with it (mostly) I would like to see musicians chime in. Let each genre step up to defend themselves, cover bands, originals, rock to (c)rap.
SLAYER!
What trite, sexist crap.
You're so full of crap. I make a living playing music without doing weddings, top 40, oldies, tweener, or any of the other sellout shit gigs you mentioned. Only Delaware Avenue guido retards would think you know what you're talking about.
If money is all you seek out of art and music, then by all means compromise your creative integrity and diminish the role of women in society to that of consumer. Just don't call it art or music any more.
Sad but true. There are a few bands who appeal to the lonely male as well (ex. Metallica), but these bands usually have to get to the top the hard way. If you want to get your band to get big, even if just on a local level, appeal to women.
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