Enter the River Study Guide
Session 5: Putting on new lenses
Handout for Session 5: Case studies
Where is racism present in these stories? Where is race prejudice present?
What else do you see?
- In a high-crime neighborhood located in the inner-city, newly developed
luxury condominiums are located between high-rise public housing projects. The
owner of a small jewelry and gift shop in the neighborhood installs a buzzer
system that allows his clerks to decide whether to admit someone to the store.
When a young African-American or Hispanic man rings the doorbell, the clerks
routinely become busy near the back of the store and ignore the doorbell until
the man goes away.
- In an inner-city neighborhood occupied almost entirely by
African-American families with limited incomes, Hispanic families begin to rent
units in the large apartment buildings near the edge of the neighborhood. As
their numbers grow, tensions in the neighborhood begin to increase, especially
between teenagers in the two racial groups. Within eighteen months, several of
the African-American property owners who live in the neighborhood sell their
homes to Hispanic buyers. African-American families in rental housing move out
in larger and larger numbers as their leases expire. After thirty months, the
neighborhood is almost entirely Hispanic.
- A major private university in a large city is located near an
African-American community. The African-American enrollment at the university
is not large (about two percent) but is typical for private schools of this
type. Students who use campus facilities are supposed to carry identification
cards and may be asked to show them to campus security officers.
African-American students say they are regularly asked for their cards. Many
European-American students report that they have never been asked to show ID
cards.
- In an integrated middle-class neighborhood in a large city,
African-American, European-American, and Asian parents take great pride in the
high quality education and good race relations in the area's major public high
school. To preserve the stability and racial balance of the school, parents of
all races agree to support a plan that carefully limits admission of students
from outside the neighborhood. The result is that only a few students from the
nearby African-American neighborhood are able to attend the high school. Yet
many of them live closer to that school than to any other public high school.
Others would benefit from the special programs provided in the
racially-balanced school.
- In a small town in a framing area, a Vietnamese family opens a hardware
business. Business is brisk at first because farmers and homeowners have had to
go several miles for small items for repairs and projects. However, the family
are Buddhists. They do not fit well in to the social life of the community,
which centers around three Protestant churches. The store owner is obviously
not at ease in the weekly lunches at the Rotary Club. Eventually, he stops
attending. Local residents continue to buy small items at the store, but they
go to another town for larger purchases. The business fails to grow, and
eventually the owner is turned down when he applies purchases. The business
fails to grow, and eventually the owner is turned down when he applies to the
bank for an important loan. The store closes and the family returns to the
major city from which they came.
Source: Creating A New Community: God's People Overcoming Racism -
Participant's Book, Eleanor A. Moore. ed. (Graded Press, 1989), 9-10.
Session 5: Putting on new lenses
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