Harks back to the San Fran conversation we had a month back. Austin is a very strange case, because as the reporter points out, it really makes no bones about its segregation. The interstate highway near-perfectly divides the races.
A point worth making is that south Austin (very Hispanic) and east Austin (black and Hispanic, more or less) are by far the most interesting parts of town. I grew up in west Austin, being white. West Austin's just a giant suburb. I spent all my time in south Austin, where the food, head shops and fun neighborhoods are. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the segregation is in my opinion extremely detrimental to both sides of the coin, not just the segregated group. Strange situation in Austin.
And of course disregarding for what purpose the segregation was originally begun, it's a largely economic thing now. That's pretty hard to reverse.
The article uses this statistic as the bedrock of its claim that Austin is in trouble re segregation. First, it's a statistic of income based segregation, not race -though I realize the two often go hand-in-hand (unfortunately) : Secondly, Austin is TENTH on the list behind cities like New York, DC, Philly etc. -Not saying it's good to be "tenth" but it's also not terribly surprising given the large hispanic population. When people hear/read the word segregation they tend to automatically think "black" in the US based on our history. You mention that West Austin is black/hispanic while South Austin is more hispanic. Seems the income inequality is largely hispanic vs. white in Austin compared to other cities. -just a guess. You are right, it's largely an economic thing and imo has less to do with businesses/white people intentionally segregating and more to do with businesses grabbing up cheap realestate and giving jobs to the educated. So, as always in these types of conversations the solution lies in educating our populace -ALL OF OUR POPULACE. By the way, I've noticed that many other cities, Durham included, have adopted the keep ____ weird motto. Copy-cats. I love Austin, had a great time at scrimetime's wedding there. South Congress (SOCO) is a blast.
Those of us who grew up in the Southwest automatically assume "white people" and "everybody else." I saw more black people in Albuquerque than I did in Austin and I see more black people in Chinatown LA than I did in Albuquerque. Native Americans? Check. Hispanics? Double check. What truly confounds the issue for Easterners is the fact that the Mexicans were there 150-200 years before the white folx (Santa Fe was founded in 1610 - that's ten years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock) and the fact that the Hispanics and the Indians actually hate each other more than they hate the white folx. I find Austin to be squarely in Texas. I hate Texas. But then, I was born in New Mexico. "Must hate Texas" a prerequisite for getting a driver's license. Add to that the fact that any time we wanted to do anything vaguely fun, we had to drive to Texas... because our other choices were Colorado or Arizona. Which meant twelve hours across hot, racist, cattle-filled nothing in order to get to a Sbarro.When people hear/read the word segregation they tend to automatically think "black" in the US based on our history.
I guess that is a sign of being from the east coast if you notice fellow honkies completely ignoring the Spanish-speaking population that was there first. It screams at me when I leave my apartment. I didn't expect to see a conquered people when I move to Los Angeles. I learned about the Mexican American War in school, but it was a far-off thing for an upstate New Yorker. It's not until you're sitting at the light when you're heading down Fairfax that Pico Blvd would have been 13th Street -- the unlucky general of a vanquished people gets his name on the main drag for orthodox Jews and repair garages. The billboards are in Spanish. The taco trucks have permanent encampments all over town. The city was ranch land until someone started making silent movies in the land of eternal sunshine.
The south Austin and east Austin racial breakdown seems fairly accurate to someone who has only been here for 4 years. I've spent most of my time near campus but I did live on east riverside (south-ish side of town) for a year. Not only is the city visibly segregated, it's clear that a lot of people prefer it that way. I have witnessed much more overt racism than I expected when I moved here. I can't believe some of the things I hear said to/about hispanic and black people. The only place that I frequent where I can't recall instances of bigotry is on the basketball court, which is where I saw it most often in Dallas. I'm not sure why all my experiences with this are so contrary to what I was used to or expecting, but I agree with thenewgreen that it is an education issue that manifests itself in job and income inequality.