Beyond the Tracks

“Why are they all walking that way?” I would ask my mom in confusion. 

Throughout my childhood I would see young Latino high-schoolers walk home from school past my house towards the east side. My west side neighborhood consisted of predominantly white families. It was rare (and alarming) to see a person of color in that area of Lodi. When I was young I never realized the reality of my living situation, but rather it was “just the way it was”. I figured it was just a coincidence that all my Latino friends happened to live in the same area. But as I have matured, I now see how intentionally segregated my little town is.

Lodi is heavily divided along racial lines. The railroad tracks (the big white blank space between the dots, below) keep one side predominately White, while the other side is Latino. This is startlingly illustrated in the image below from the 2010 census.

Indicated above is the demographic layout of Lodi, with the orange dots representing Latinos and the blue dots representing Whites. It is evident that almost all Latinos live on the compacted east side, while the spacious west side is home to the majority of white people. The segregation is further confirmed by the dissimilarity index of Lodi, which is .59. This indicates that 59% of Latinos (or Whites) would need to move in order to achieve a uniform distribution of population by race. This racial segregation in housing not only restricts contact among the different races, but it also concentrates the poverty.

            Latinos in Lodi are significantly poorer in comparison to the white population of Lodi. Approximately 28% of the Latino residents have an income below the poverty line. This is a shocking statistic when measured against the 8% of the white residents who have an income below the poverty line. Knowing that most Latinos live on the east side, it can be confidently concluded that the east side is riddled with heavily concentrated poverty. All the poor Latinos were funneled into the same area due to the inability to afford moving anywhere else. The housing industry perpetuates this segregation.

            Currently, the average price for a house on the east side of Lodi is between mid-high $200,000. However, on the west side the average house price is between $400,000 - $500,000. This separation of races between the railroad tracks was not something that came out of thin air or was an act of nature; rather this segregated environment arose from policies, or lack of policies. Institutional racism keeps lawmakers from creating more mixed income housing. Furthermore, individual racism from the white population kills the idea that Latinos would be welcome on the west side. Moreover, the real estate industry helps keep that from ever happening. The more west you go in Lodi, the more expensive the houses get. The high prices create a barrier that keeps Latinos on the poverty-stricken east side of town. With this, there is an “us and them” attitude that has formed and the physical barrier of the railroad tracks only reinforces it. Unfortunately, this housing segregation is not confined to Lodi, but it is a national issue.

            Golash-Boza explains that both the past and the present work to keep housing segregation alive through unequal wealth. It is stated that, “historical racial disparities in the U.S., as well as ongoing discriminatory practices, ensure that white families are more likely to accumulate wealth than blacks and Latino families” (pg.287). On average, Latinos in the United States have less than 8% of the wealth of whites.  As a result, these people of color experience a lack of resources in their communities due to the concentrated poverty. Similar to Lodi, the national living inequality is perpetuated by the whites unwillingness to live by people of color. Only less than 1/3 of white respondents expressed willingness to move into a neighborhood that was split evenly between black and white families. 

“Bye Yessica, I’ll see you tomorrow!” I said to my Latina friend as school got let out. I gave her a hug and then we parted ways. She turned and walked toward the East side beyond the tracks, and I made my way home continuing westward. I grew up seeing this divide, and sadly this divide still persists. Racism, despite laws no longer permitting it, continues to linger. At the root of it all, I feel racism is still a part of society because there is a strong belief in race itself and the ideologies that accompany it. Many people see those of color and identify them another as aliens . Though biology says that there is no genetic difference between races, people still view each other as "the Other"; as if we're actually a different species. This thinking serves to justify acts of organized repression and racism, much like the housing market and the funneling of different races into different areas (as illustrated in my hometown). Thus enduring structures of Jim Crow still exist. Though racism persists, there is always hope. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “There’s no east nor west…but one great fellowship of love”. One day…one day our nation will become a nation of love.