News-Record.com

Mr. Wonderful has been thinking that perhaps it is time to think about moving since Bundle of Joy #3 is heading off to college in the fall and the suburban house in which we raised three children might be a little big for us. (If we downsize QUICKLY maybe they won't come back!) Unfortunately we disagree on WHERE we should live. I say a flat in downtown Greensboro. He said a ranch house WAY out in the country. He wants to see a real estate agent. I want to see a lawyer. It's complicated.

Allen,

The neighborhood you describe sounds exactly like the one I live in in High Point. I live in a very diverse neighborhood, people are generally friendly toward one another, and most people do pick up after their dogs.

I bet there's one major difference. I bet the kids in your neighborhood know where they will attend High School. I bet your neighborhood won't be divided up among 3 Greensboro High Schools. I bet the kids in your neighborhood have a traditional neighborhood high school. I bet the kids in your neighborhood aren't forced to a magnet school regardless of their desire for the particular subject.

Be glad for the neighborhood you have. The Guilford County Board of Education has managed to kill the term neighborhood here in High Point.

I agree that schools can provide precious "glue" for a community. But I dare suggest that there would be no need for magnets or "choice plans" if we could master the still-evasive art of living together.
Too many of our neighborhoods remain segregated.

Allen,

As long as the parents voluntarily choose to send their children to a magnet school, it is fine with me. What is offensive is that those in High Point send their children to magnet schools against their will.

Are you stating that it is the job of the school system to ensure that neighborhoods have increased integration?

No. I'm simply saying that it makes life harder for school administrators when we don't take care of that job ourselves. Here it is, 2005, and we are still too segregated as a society.

Allen,

Although I can see Asians, white, and blacks from my porch in the neighboring houses, I would have to be honest and say that the majority of my neighborhood is white.

Also, BOTH of the houses on either side of my house are for sale. Are you suggesting that it's my responsibility to make sure that a minorities buy these houses?

How do we "take care of that job ourselves" as you state above?? Should I give a black family money to buy it if they can't afford it?? Should the realtor ONLY advertise this for sale "for black or minority families only"?

Please clarify just how it is that we should go about this.

No, I am not suggesting that.
I am only hoping that, assuming you are white, you would not move if a pair of black families bought those homes.
There still is something in real estate called the "tipping point." According to this phenomenon, a smattering of black families is OK. But if a neighborhood exceeds a certain percentate of black residents, then whites have tended to move away.

Mr. Johnson,

Yes, your assumption is correct, I'm white. Would I move if black families moved in? No, nor have I ever known a family that has done this.

The only "Tipping Point" I'm aware of right now is the one being created by our School Board and Superintendent.

It goes like this: Your schools are screwed with....some families move away. Your schools are screwed with even more....you're "tipped" over the edge, and you move.

I understand your concern about the schools.
Hete is an excerpt from a 2001 News & Record article that explains the racial tipping point. I know it's a little long but I didn't want to lose the context.

During the last decade:
More black people moved into what were once mostly white neighborhoods.
The Triad, along with the rest of the Southeast, grew, and people of all races moved into new subdivisions not labeled as historically white or black.
The minority population grew faster than the white population.
Despite these changes, many Triad neighborhoods remain mostly white or black.
"Segregation's not crumbling; it's being chipped away," said Steve Lilley, a demographer and sociology professor at N.C. State.
"It's an important and notable trend because residential barriers are the last major barriers between whites and African Americans," Lilley said. "We attend the same schools, shop in the same stores and work on the same jobs. Where we live is one of the real last bastions of segregation anywhere."
David Kline saw that while house-hunting when he moved to Greensboro from Pennsylvania two years ago.
"It was very apparent when we moved here," said Kline, 48, a white man who bought a home in The Reserve community in north Greensboro. "The east end of town was black, and the west end was white."
About one of every two black people or one of every two white people would have to move to completely integrate Guilford County's blacks and whites.
"Race still matters," said Robert Davis, a sociologist and associate vice-chancellor at N.C. A&T who has studied segregation.
Just how much race matters, though, is difficult to gauge. The News & Record interviewed about two dozen people in Greensboro about segregation, in neighborhoods ranging from very mixed to majority white or majority black. The subject makes some people uncomfortable. They will not discuss it or will offer candid opinions only anonymously.
That's the baggage of history, Davis said.
"We live in a society where we have a history of slavery, and following slavery, a history of Jim Crow," or legalized segregation, Davis said. "All of that has colored how we see each other."
That history, he said, includes barriers to blacks living where they want to, such as real estate agents steering them to black neighborhoods, banks scrutinizing their loan applications more critically and many blacks not earning as much as whites.
"If the market was driving it, if it was what you could afford, then poor white people and poor black people would be in the same neighborhoods," Davis said. "Middle-class black people would be in the same neighborhoods with middle-class white people."
Integration is rising because more racial minorities, mostly blacks, are living in what were once mostly white communities. The prosperous 1990s helped.
"Housing is largely a function of income, and as income increases for the various groups, they can afford to move where they want to," Lilley said.
A decade ago, 55 percent of Guilford County's census block groups -- areas several city blocks wide -- were at least 80 percent white. Now, only 38 percent of block groups are 80 percent white.
Some of that change, though, could be a statistical mirage.
The U.S. Census Bureau combined some of the smaller block groups to form new, larger block groups for the 2000 Census, merging data from several neighborhoods. So it is difficult to measure how individual communities have changed.
Integration has increased, but not enough for some.
Karen Sofia and her husband were the third family to buy in their Summerfield subdivision.
She watched with some concern when most all the homes built after hers -- except for four bought by Lebanese families -- were snapped up by other white families.
"I like my neighbors. But (the lack of diversity) is one of the few things I don't like," said Sofia, a 36-year-old nurse. She's considering sending her children to magnet schools so they can appreciate diversity.
Other people -- black and white -- are more apprehensive about diversity and tend to seek out neighborhoods where their race predominates.
"Some people don't want to live with people who do not look like them," Davis said. "Black people have those concerns. Whites might feel uncomfortable saying that because they don't know how to express that sentiment without appearing racist."
Some white or mixed neighborhoods do become all black because white families feel threatened and move out.
"It's something called the tipping point -- white families will allow some blacks to move in," said Davis. "But once the percentage gets to 15 percent, whites start feeling uncomfortable. By 30 percent, the 'For Sale' signs start going up."

Thank you for the 2001 article.

It has points that could be argued, especially the "Whites feeling uncomfortable at 15%..." But for the most part I will not argue with history. I will just say that I hope with each year the disparity improves. I too, a "whitey" and a "yankee" to boot--embrace diversity at home and in schools.

What we must remember though, it cannot be forced, just as it couldn't be bused.

The only "For Sale" signs I see NOW in my neighborhood are due to school issues. This new "tipping point" should be just as concerning as the one that you point out.

Thanks for taking time to read that long excerpt.
I understand your passion about the schools. These issues are complex and emotional, but I believe they can be solved if they are viewed as community issues -- and if we all consider the broader implications beyond our individual blocks or neighborhoods.
I know that isn't always easy but it is the only way to get past the problems we're seeing today.

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