| Title Page | Introduction | Segregation | New Deal | Fair Housing | Conclusion | Bibliography |
Conclusion
Although the 1988 amendment is far reaching, it may have come too late. Denton writes, “the two decades from 1968 to 1988 were a wasted opportunity in U.S. race relations, during which segregation declined somewhat but attitudes against integration also hardened.” Furthermore, there are still some institutional restrictions that maintain segregated poor populations. An article in Journal of Urban Affairs argues, when “local governments enact regulations that encourage the construction of owner-occupied housing” they tend to limit the “choices of the majority of African American and Latino households who rent.” The article points out that if “race and income are highly correlated, then any policy with the explicit or implicit goal of raising housing prices” excludes racial minorities.[1]
![Picture of sign on lawn that reads: Thank You Chief Lawson and the Gretna Police [for] Protecting the Westbank Hurricane Katrina](gretna.jpg)
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| Sign on Gretna lawn after hurricaine. |
Institutionalized racism still exists. The Gretna bridge incident clarifies how institutions and power systems reflexively protect the rich from the poor when, in the summer of 2005, a group of desperate Hurricaine Katrina victims trapped in New Orleans decided to stop waiting for the government to save them from the flood. When they attempted to cross a bridge from New Orleans to Gretna, the Gretna police blocked the group and began firing warning shots into the air and pointing their guns at the crowd. Eventually, the Gretna police forced them off the bridge and robbed them of their remaining water and food.[2]
This incident is reminiscent of the aggressive segregation activities that occurred in the early 20th century. It is strikingly similar to the sort of reactions African Americans faced from whites when they attempted to escape the terrible condition of the poor, black ghetto. What happened on the bridge to Gretna is not only metaphorical for what has been happening to African Americans for the past century. It shows the degree to which white segregationist ideologies have not changed.