Bernardo Nunez November 14, 2013
English 2- McDonald
Neighborhood Racism
Racism has been around longer than anyone knows. Segregation had ended in 1964, however the issue of discrimination is still far from gone and there does not seem to be a real solution for it. Racism is found everywhere including schools, workplaces, and even one’s own neighborhood. Neighborhoods are still largely segregated in today’s society for a variety of reasons. Although this may include economic stability for some situations, many of these scenarios are caused by racist homeowners making it hard for African Americans to live in the same neighborhood as them. There are not many neighborhoods in which they are mixed with blacks and whites. Many homeowners do not like the idea of an African American or any minority to live in the same area as them or a house they once owned. An interview was given out to a man named Charles Coleman in which he has been asked his difficult experience of shopping for homes and living as the only black man in an all white neighborhood. Although segregation has been over for fifty years, it has still been incredibly difficult for African Americans to move into predominately white neighborhoods.
Shopping for a home is already a mind stressing and difficult process which makes it all the much worse when one is a minority and has to deal with racist homeowners. Charles Coleman was certainly subjected to racism when he and his family were looking at houses. He described it as “really tough” for him and his wife to go through during the 1970s and 1980s. He began searching in Long Island in where he slowly learned how racist people were and how difficult it was to be an African American and become a homeowner. He stated, “Not one house we visited had a black owner” which only shows how little there were of minority house owners. The homes of white families that the Coleman’s went to view would not sell to them or even consider their...