How Residential Patterns Affect Intergroup Relations

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The south eastern black neighborhoods in San Diego are becoming less black. The African American inhabitants are departing and being pre occupied by Latinos a thing that is already changing the tenure of society life there.

Step 3: Analysis and Reporting of Research

San Diego is a city that is segregated. There are very clear spoken understandings and restrictions on where African American people should live. The southern black neighborhoods are growing to be less black. the African American inhabitants have left and Latinos are replacing them a turn of events that is already changing the tenure of community life and this might one day change the politics. Ethnic discriminatory housing practices have defined the city of a Diego all through. In majority of its neighborhoods, restrictions on who can buy a home are clearly written down in property deed by the developer of the community. There are also racially restrictive covenants are prominent and are harshly in communities. In the early and the mid 20th century, the white inhabitants and developers trusted that coming of Jewish, Mexican and black families to the neighborhood can drive down the value of property an attitude that is partially driven by personal biases and partially by greater societal ones (Florida, 2011). The restrictive covenants were similar to the ethnic antecedents to contemporary home owners. Individuals were more concerned with protecting their property values and they trusted that the being there of ethnic minorities could damage them.

There is also an increase of residential segregation in San Diego by income during the past three decades. These increases can be related to the long time increase in income inequality which has gone to shrinkage in the share of neighborhoods across San Diego that is mainly middle class or mixed income. In spite of the long term increase in the residential segregation by income, it is still less persistent than residential segregation by race although the black white segregation has been decreasing for a number of decades.

I think that there are policies and practices that have contributed to these patterns. For instance the restrictive covenants that were clearly written have made this pattern go on. I also think that the social organization and leadership aspects of the color minority groups in the city are of great interest when it comes to the continuation of these patterns. This is because it is through these groups that all the rest of the groups express their main concerns with general problems and their approach toward them. The growth of association patterns and group feelings is an attendant of civilization. In the contemporary urban community, arrangement and development of the representative leadership are important to individual well being and security. As a result, groups that are not adequately equipped in these respects are not able to take part fully in modern social life. Members of these groups suffer from frustration, isolation, insecurity and the universal feelings absence of well being. Groups of this type have higher percentages of ill adjusted and backward individuals.

The theoretical perspective that best presents my analysis of my locality is the structural functional theory. This theory views the community as a compound but a system that is interconnected where every part of the community works together as a functional whole. The human body has been used as a metaphor for the structural functional theory. The body has a brain, heart, arms, and legs and so on and all these parts have their own neurons and a working system. However, these parts cannot work independently and they have to work mutually for a structure that is fully functional. There are very diverse systems and structures in the society. San Diego has a very diverse ethnicity with so many races living in the city. These racial groups have their own cultures and differences. They however have to work and live together in harmony. You can possibly think of the families, schools, businesses and the government. We all require all of these systems to work as one for a fully-functional society. A society needs to work as a team. For any given team to be triumphant, it requires to have a lot of working components, each functional, cooperatively or independently. Let’s take for instance soccer. Of course all the members have different locations on the team, such as the goal keeper, defense, fullback and forwards. You will also need the referees, the coach and somebody to pay for the materials and it would not be fun to play with no an audience. Each element has its own systems and rules. For instance, the spectators have to know when to applaud, how to buy concessions, and where to be seated. For the whole system to work, all of the individual elements need to work together. Structural functional theory examines how every part of the bigger social world works jointly.

Conclusion

San Diego faces a big problem in deliberately adjusting the relationships of the minority and the majority groups. A number of relations between minority and majority groups in the San Diego city have been analyzed so as to bring out the feature ethnic policy in the society. The outcome is a compound mosaic of relations which possibly appear perfectly usual to the whites. However, for the minority group members the problem of complying with this incoherent pattern should be an exceptionally trying experience. The discrepancies have been shown in a number of relations in the city including the public education system, the housing system where the minority groups complain not receiving equal treatment as their counterparts.

References

Florida, A. (2011). How segregation defined San Diego’s neighborhoods. Retrieved from: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/census-2010/how-segregation-defined-san-diegos-neighborhoods/

Hogg, M. & Abrams, D. (2001). Intergroup relations: essential readings. Philadelphia, Pa: Psychology Press.

Patricia, C. (2012). City's homeless problem still needs attention. San Diego Union Tribune.

Reitz, J., Phan, M. & Banerjee, R. (2009). Multiculturalism and social cohesion: potentials and challenges of diversity. Dordrecht London: Springer.

Silver, N. (2015). The most diverse cities are often the most segregated. Retrieved from: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/