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Sociology Blog #8

The conversation about tensions associated with inequality leading to political unrest, crime, and victimization is an ever reoccurring problem we see in the global south. I specifically resonated with the concept of the “divided city,” where “large swathes of the urban population lived in so-called ‘no man’s lands’ outside the social, spatial, and political bounds of the formal city.” In a lot of the global south we can find these “informal” and “marginal” communities that are often invisible to the government. Jamaica had a lot of these informal settlements in many areas of the island and recently created initiatives to address poverty and inequality. This was only due to months of uprisings and protests.

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Sociology Blog #7

With the uptick of crime in Broward County, specifically in Fort Lauderdale, my grandparents have become more isolated from their community. As children, my grandparents’ house was home to parties, events, and gatherings. The lawn would be filled with people playing games, drinking, and enjoying each other’s company. As time went on and crime began to go up, all of those fun times came to an end. Shootouts and robberies plagued their community to the point where my grandparents no longer felt okay with hosting events or having people over. Although they made this decision for the safety of those they loved, we have noticed that they have become very isolated from their community. They used to take walks, talk to neighbors, go to church, but recently, especially due to the pandemic, all of that has stopped. In a recent conversation with my mother, my grandmother spoke about feeling “distant” from everyone, and “unsafe.” This is in direct correlation with the “Dying Alone” readings. One of the key social conditions that contribute to the production of social isolation is “the fear of crime stemming from the violence and perceived violence of everyday life - in extreme forms this fear can result in the retreat from public life altogether and the creation of urban burrows, 'safe houses' where the alone and the afraid protect themselves from a social world in which they no longer feel secure.” My grandparents are definitely experiencing this phenomenon, to the point that my parents are thinking about having them move-in. They want them them to get back their lives, independence, and confidence.

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Sociology #6

Gentrification has been a common conversation as it comes to Penn and West Philly. As you walk around the campus, you see how Penn sort of stretches into the black community here. One night on the town with some friends, an older lady told me that she and her family were paid by Penn to move out of their building. They then moved into a public housing building on Market St, a few blocks from where she used to live. Where a black population used to thrive, Penn has now pushed them out to make room for its ventures.

I walk to church, which is on 49th and Chestnut (at West Philly High) and to see the difference in environment is very disheartening. Only a few blocks outside of Penn, the difference is vast. Those in West Philly, and even at Penn, complain about the lack of investment Penn puts into the community they have pushed out and gentrified.

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Sociology Blog #5

The concept of middle man minorities remind me of a phenomenon I see in many black communities. Middle man minorities are minority business people who usually work and cater their products to customers and neighborhoods of marginalized racial or ethnic groups. They usually fill a gap that the dominant/ majority racial group (usually white people) do not want to fill.

In many black communities, like West Palm Beach and Philly, middle eastern or Arab people usually own and run beauty supply stores. Asian and Hispanic people usually run the corner stores or deli’s. 

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Sociology Blog #4

Over the past two years, i have been watching a youtube channel called “Hood Vlogs,” that documents and interviews the lives of people who live in different “hoods” in America. They recently uploaded a vlog entitled “Welcome to North Philly: Blumberg Projects, Hunting Park, Erie Ave, Kensington Section.” I cannot help but to think about how “hoods” of predominantly black residents are created and how crime, homelessness, and poverty are so prevalent in these “hoods.” As the readings in the youtube video revealed, and as Douglass Massey and Nancy Denton argue , it is almost as if cities are intentionally separated along socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, and residential lines. Hoods are purposely created to separate poor black people from the rest of society.

In the video, one of the interviewees was talking about new residential developments that are being squeezed into or gentrified into older building/lots. There is an overcrowding, as the city is trying to push the poor black people into one part of the city. In these places, specifically in reference to the video and North Philly, crime and homelessness is very prominent. This reflects the findings of Du Bois.

By the way the interviewees speak in general, to each other, about where they live, and about society, you can just see where “oppositional culture” has come into play, as residents, over many years, has rejected the status quo that has deemed them “unacceptable” or “not good enough,” and has pushed them away, and instead has created their own culture, language, and way of life. They live by different rules and have a new status quo.

The video talks about Kensignton, or what people call “Zombie Land,” which is known for their large homeless and drug-addicted population. The interviewee sort of speaks to the deindustrialization of the ill, as the mentally ill or the ill in general are just put out on the street to figure things out for themselves and turn to drugs and other substances to help them get by.

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Sociology Blog #3

I know I keep making reference back to my hometown but, frankly, I haven’t had the time to truly explore Philly.

The conversations and readings on categories of local communities reminded me of Palm Beach. Palm Beach is a part of Palm Beach County and shares the and only a bridge separates this mini town/community from West Palm Beach. The bridge and its clear separation by water lends itself to the name, “The Island of Palm Beach.” Palm Beach is known for its rich and white demographic, luxury stores, and mansions, which all separate it from the rest of West Palm Beach. The creation of Palm Beach is deeply rooted in racism, as black people used to live on the “island,” purposely separated from the rest of white society who lived in West Palm Beach. Rich white people thought that living on the island would be better, as its clear boundary of water was seen as better to keep them separated from black people. A group of white men went over to Palm Beach and set fire to the homes and settlements of the black people, forcing residents to flee into West Palm Beach. Over time, there was a shift, wealthy white people began to move into Palm Beach, while black people began to settle and live in West Palm Beach. The demographic shift is still clear today, despite how diverse Palm Beach COUNTY and West Palm Beach have become, with a rich white population still occupying the island and a poorer black population living right off the other side of the bridge.

In relation to our readings, Palm Beach can be seen as a defended community now, known for their tightknit-ness and inner sense or need to “protect” and “defend” their community. Their residents are known for profiling and calling the police on people who they deem “don’t belong” or people who aren’t familiar to them. Also, based on the readings from Claude S. Fischer, because Palm Beach is not as dense, you often see their residents actions to be more neighborly. They do stop and talk to one another as they walk their dogs or as they are taking a stroll, and their relationships within Palm Beach County is usually limited to others who live on the island or those who live on the same socio-economic status as they do elsewhere in the country. In reference to Putnam’s bowling alone, the residents are more friendly and execute more voluntary actions amongst each other.

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Sociology Blog #2

The readings from “Fortress L.A” about the privatization of public spaces and the role security forces really reminded me of our Downtown area back home. Our Downtown are used to be a place where people would hang out, meet, and mingle. There were cheap eateries, a movie theater, a bowling alley, affordable shopping stores, and even a stage where people could perform. It was super accessible for a lot of people and drew in a large p.o.c crowd. This was the “go to” spot. With the large amounts of people that gravitated and congregated downtown and all the shops and eateries being open fairly late to provide their services for the late-night movie goers and late-night hangouts that would happen, crime just... happened. Where there’s a large group of people, there is crime. The ability to deindividuate in large spaces and have some sort of anonymity leads to crime. It’s bound to happen. This, and there was also a good amount of homeless people who would sleep on the benches and in the stairwells downtown. The city saw all of this as a problem and began to gentrify it QUICKLY. Right before my eyes the stores and eateries that were accessible to all people became high-end and vegan. The land was bought by some corporation and though it was “open to the public,” it seemed to be open to a certain “type” of public. The fun hang out spot for all became the expensive spot for some. As described in Fortress L.A, there was a destruction of public space that was derived and reinforced a loss of public-spiritedness. The once predominantly p.o.c crowd became an elite white crowd. There was a large police and security presence and cameras were everywhere. As read in Fortress L.A, there became a fear of crowds, heterogeneous ones, and they combatted this by homogenizing the crowd and set up barriers, seen (like police) and unseen ( the subconscious realization that you are now the only p.o.c in a large crowd of white/ white-passing people) that filter out the unwanted people.

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Urban Sociology Blog #1:

Feeling a bit homesick, I was looking back at pictures of me in my hometown, West Palm Beach. In my reflection, I realized that West Palm Beach is a Multi nucleated Metro Area and follows the multiple-nuclei theory of spatial growth. The Central City is Downtown/City Place which has a CBD, they have a lot of work buildings and stores. The airport is just outside this area with suburbia surrounding it. This is all very loose and isn’t very defined and there are many other distinct centers around the “central city” of Downtown/City Place. There is a lot of transportation within this area to increase accessibility (trollies, plenty of bus stops, etc).