If the latter, it simply rephrases the question that I posted, because it is difficult to seriously argue that Jim Crow laws are still on the book. They are not, so there must be some other institutional mechanism behind it. Which is exactly what I initially tried to find out.
This brings us to the former. I am not arguing that there are no bad politicians and bad behind the scene politics (or idiotic policies) - obviously there is no dearth of those. My point is to highlight the role of the market, or rather market society, in amplifying prejudices and other bad traits in human behavior. Prejudices are a part of the human nature - but they are not always institutionalized. One way to institutionalize them is through a legal system (Jim Crow.) But another one, and far more insidious, way is the working of the markets and profit motive. It is more insidious, because it works as if it were as an "invisible hand."
To make a long story short, I do not think that in the past fifty or so years, the pattern of geographical segregation was caused by some kind of prejudice lingering from the past, which was the point Charles argued. In fact, it is the other way around, prejudices were caused and amplified by the pattern of geographical segregation, and geographical segregation resulted mainly from the working of free markets, especially in real estate. Obviously, there were politicians and politics involved in it as well, but behind the scene politics alone is not enough to explain the deep cultural divide that separates different ethnic groups in the US. You need geographical separation to accomplish that, and that geographical separation is, lo and behold, the effect of the so much cherished free market and too much free choice in real estate development.
Wojtek
On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 4:14 PM, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> At 01:01 PM 9/27/2010, Wojtek S wrote:
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>> a far more interesting question is why segregation patterns persists long
>> after the "peculiar institution" and its legal
>> vestiges have been gone.
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>> I have a strong feeling that it has something to do with the operations of
>> the market, which seems to permeate the U
>> society to a much greater degree than elsewhere. There are a lot of ways
>> in which the market can contribute to solidification of
>> prejudices, chief of them being catering to those prejudices to market
>> stuff for sale, and people being able to act on those prejudices to
>> design their entire way of life
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> Operations of the market are dependent on public policy so the "legal
> vestiges" you mention are not long gone.
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