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Vanilla Cities and Their Chocolate Suburbs.
Vanilla Cities and Their Chocolate Suburbs is an essay that talks about an occurrence that happened in the early 2000s, San Francisco. The rise of Silicon Valley changed the landscape of San Francisco. The change was contributed by income disparity, demographic change, and gentrification that disproportionately white Americans. Racial disparity and gentrification made the city to be seen across the country. These were until it became segregated. The suburbs become darker and more impoverished, while the cities become wealthier (Tonstant Weader Review, 2016). Racial disparity brought about segregation because of the life which was tied to the type of education they were offered. St. Louis and Ferguson become a majority-black area because of resegregation and gentrification. Chang uses contemporary moments to write about the ongoing resegregation to bring out racial justice, cultural equality and a better nation. In retrospect, this discourse will not only create a summary but also discuss themes and create an argument based on the essay Vanilla Cities and Their Chocolate Suburbs.
Resegregation and gentrification is the main argument of the essay Vanilla Cities and Their Chocolate Suburbs. The paper talks about the white colonization and white flight. Besides the article speaks about black removal and being marketed as the urban renewal. These resulted in black communities which were run by the white people and segregation of the society like Ferguson. The whites extracted money through assessments, fines, and r policing so that they finance city services. Due to state-sanctioned murder which re caused by over-policing, the Blacks protested claiming the Black lives Maters.
Love and truth should be a motivation for revolution. Chang is speaking to the blacks through the text, and he is telling them to love one another since it is the only hope to demand liberation both for the oppressed and oppressors (Tonstant Weader Reviews, 2016). The textual importance of love and truth is to show that love is not all about emotion but an action which should be used by the blacks to fight for rights and liberty relentlessly.
The aspect of privatization of culture, multiculturalism, and discontents has also been brought out in the essay. The author says that American culture is inequitable people have no equality nor the same power to access, create, or to present themselves equally (Tonstant Weader Review, 2016). The textual significance of the text was to show how there is the loss of cultural equality, and how culture has not pointed out a more just community and people’s ways of seeing each other has not been exploited in full humanity. Besides the text was to indict the white Americans. The essays speak how the lives of the black also matter, and they are supposed to be treated equally just like white Americans. Also, they should be given their constitutional rights—the text in the essays questions the power of revolutionary acts. Technically when the black is advocating for social equality, they are indirectly advocating for the reduction of entrenched economic and social disadvantage (Tait et al., Pg. 131). Equality has a positive effect to the society, i.e., people are healthier and happier, there will be less crime, people become more creative, and generally higher educational attainment by the people (Valdez et al., 2017)
The political factor that influenced Chang to write the essay were a crisis, backlash and complacency. The people in power were invoking fear in the name of quo. The interest of the people subsided and turned to be helplessness which brought the crisis. The social factor was racial exclusion and affirmative action which decontextualized the present. Fines and forceful extraction of many from the blacks made the author write the essay.
The question I would like to be discussed in class is, what is racism’s effect on the acquisition of language? I understand there we should include interested parties who reflect linguistic diversity. Racial and ethnic diversity, in what way should we structure our strategies to ensure equal status and cooperative roles are for people from different groups? And the last question, how should we engage children who are a new entrant to organizations at an early age? To curb racism, resegregation and gentrification?.
Based on the reading of Vanilla Cities and their Chocolate Suburbs, one can figure out there is a need for society to reduce ethnic and racial prejudice. i.e. through addressing both individuals and institutional sources of discrimination and bias in the situation and contexts in which participants engage in work live and activity learning (Tait et al., Pg. 131). Because the sources of discrimination and prejudice are rooted in the social context and particular historical context of which the practices and institutional structures can shape it. The second approach is to put strategies that seek to impact the behaviour of an individual, including capacity and motivation to influence others and give room for creating awareness.
Reference
Tonstant Weader Reviews. We Gon’ Be Alright by Jeff Chang. Macmillan Picador (2016). https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/08/28/we-gon-be-alright-by-jeff-chang/
Tait, Raymond C., and John T. Chibnall. “Racial/ethnic disparities in the assessment and treatment of pain: Psychosocial perspectives.” American Psychologist 69.2 (2014): 131.https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-04960-003
Valdez, Zulema, and Tanya Golash-Boza. “US racial and ethnic relations in the twenty-first century.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 40.13 (2017): 2181-2209. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2016.1262052