Susan Bickfords writing touched on many interesting a valid points that I have never considered before reading this article. I honestly had never considered the viewpoint of "safety" or "home" from anyone else's viewpoint other than my own (or people "like myself").
I agree with her viewpoints on suburban culture, and that by living in suburbia you can feel disconnected from others. But what I don't agree on, is the fact that people want to be immersed with others who "are not of ones own." Generally people will gravitate around others, not necessarily who are like them, but who cause them the least amount of fear.
I think our concept of "fear" in general has greatly changed over the years. (Just for an example, I live next door to a young family with 3 boys. I am not being sarcastic when I say I have never seen these boys playing outside. Their mother tells me she is in fear of the boys safety and does not like them to play out-of-doors. Now keep in mind we live in a "tough neighborhood" *please read into my complete and utter sarcasm*, a cranberry bog in our backyard and the Cape Cod Rail Trail across the street....wow. Growing up, I played outside till it got dark, climbing trees, riding my bike to my best friends house - and my parents never worried about my saftey! And to think - we didnt even live in a gated community!)
Getting back to the article, Bickfords point on the CIDs - that they intentionally segregate people - of course they do! The people who live in those communities want to be segregated - not because of racism, ageism, or rank - but because of comfort. Don't you think it is up to the individual to decide where they want to reside? (Yes, I understand that not everyone has that choice, and that financial circumstances are what truly govern the ability to "choose.")
I was sad to see that Bickford could not really come up with a viable solution to her own question either. She lead me on a roller coaster of information - leaving me hanging in the end.
It seems as if many answers lie in the hands of our schools and educators. If people are "taught" to be tolerant of one another from an early age, then perhaps a mixing of the cultures/races/ethnic groups would not be such a difficult task.
In the end, I have one thought: It would be interesting to see where Bickford lives....probably not in the ghetto.
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4 comments:
Hi, Michelle.
Great first post. A few thoughts:
I agree that people do indeed congregate together with folks like themselves. The question is the degree to which that's ALL we do, or whether (as with a city with many ethnic neighborhoods) we also have spaces that are commonly used by many groups.
My own neighborhood in Medford used to be mostly Irish Catholic. Now it's very heavily settled by Haitian and Brazilian immigrants, but with plenty of Irish left to go around (and not a few bland white newcomers such as myself). That's not something you'd see so much of in development that's come since WWII.
The "fear" idea is one that really gets me. If in only one generation we've gone from letting kids roam all over the place to keeping them locked inside, something seriously dangerous has happened to our notion of "public life."
Finally, Bickford's job (at least as she's chosen it) is to be an analyst rather than a designer or politician. We need people like that to help us see everyday things differently. Those of us who see ourselves in the business of making change have to use her analysis for our own ends, which has everything to do with the creative thinking we call design.
Michelle,
My hats off to you for posting what I stopped myself from asking, and that is I wonder what kind of arena Bickford lives in? I can almost digest her ideas easier if I knew she was living what she expoused, but I have a sneaking suspicion she may not.
Fantastic analysis overall.
Hello Michelle,
Great posting. I agree that our economic situation has an effect on how we experince this life and interact with people. Thank you bringing up the principle of agency I got to carried away in the details of Susans flurry that I missed that point, and that is that each of us regardless of race or ethnicity can cognitively make a choice on what we want to do with our lives. I know that some situations are harder than others but that doesn't mean nothing can be done.
Curtis
Indeed we can all make something of our lives regardless of our origins. That doesn't diminish the fact that some people have a lot more to overcome than others. I can assure you that if I were Black, I'd have been in jail at least twice for events of which I was innocent (in both cases, they blew over quickly because I was given some slack to explain the misunderstanding), and I'd have had a much harder time getting a job as a college dropout in my 20s.
I remember Molly Ivins describing George Bush the senior by saying "He was born on third base but tells everyone he hit a home run." Many of us were born on base, and we have to acknowledge that.
There was a study done in New Jersey elementary schools about 30 years ago in which the same "unit" on Classical Greece was being taught in all the district's 5th-grade classes. But the real curriculum as experienced was radically different depending on which school you were looking at. In the poorest school, the lesson all week long was "Sit down. Put that away. Be quiet." In the working-class school, the lesson was procedural: "In order to do your project, here are the steps you need to follow." In the professional-class school, the lessons were artistic: plays, modelmaking, music. And in the wealthy school, the lessons were strategic: "What do you think the Athenians would have done if Sparta hadn't been such a military power?" In sum, the kids in each school were being trained to replicate their parents' roles and positions in the world.
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