Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
segregation. Fiss (1977) argued that one problem
for the law makers was that of distinguishing
between segregation as a process or activity
whereby students were assigned to particular
schools on the basis of race, and segregation as a
demographic pattern with whites in one school
and blacks in another. In the Brown decision, the
court felt no need to make the distinction and
simply held the dual school system to be
unlawful. The issue of whether racial assignment
per se
was illegal was settled in the Swann case,
which judged that racial assignment was unlawful
if it was used to achieve segregation. On the
other hand, racial assignment intended to reduce
or eliminate segregation was lawful. Segregation
as a demographic pattern was judged to be
unlawful because it led to inequalities in
schooling and stigmatised black children.
Since the 1970s, the effectiveness of policies
to reduce levels of school segregation has
diminished for several reasons. First, white
parents have been removing their children from
state schools. This 'white flight' has involved
families with the means to afford school fees, and
the effect has been to maintain segregation and
widen disparities. Second, some judicial decisions
have strengthened the powers of school boards,
and many of the actions designed to produce
integration, such as busing, have been abandoned.
Third, the absence of any significant changes in
residential segregation means that school
populations reflect the residential areas in which
they are placed and remain segregated. Clark
(1984) showed that the changing ethnic
compositions of Los Angeles' schools were
directly related to demographic changes in their
neighbourhood catchment areas. His sample set
reflected the effects of white flight, outward
white migration and the large influx of Hispanic
families.
within mainstream society. There are other
minorities who arguably suffer even higher levels
of discrimination and segregation. Indigenous
Indian populations in both Canada and the
United States are still linked with territorial
reservations and rank lowest in terms of economic
status. In Europe, the gypsies have suffered
discrimination in many societies and remain on
the margins of acceptability. Sibley (1992) argued
that the boundaries of society are continually
being redrawn to distinguish between those who
belong and those who are excluded. Gypsies
commonly belong to this excluded category with
characteristics that make them not just different
but deviant. Because they have a way of life that is
regarded as negative and inferior, gypsies become
legitimised targets for discrimination. Their
economy revolves around domestic scrap, low-
level repairs and services and appears to fit their
designation on the margins of society. Gypsies
occupy marginal places that by association become
labelled as unsafe and undesirable. Gypsy sites have
to be provided by law in the United Kingdom,
but they are inevitably contested places as local
residents object to their proximity. Images of lack
of cleanliness, dubious work practices, violence
and antagonism are associated with gypsies. Those
who control nearby space will seek to exclude
gypsies.
Another extreme case in the landscapes of
exclusion has been the fate of the mentally ill.
Over long periods, they were institutionalised and
isolated by forces motivated more by fear and the
need to contain rather than by welfare
considerations. When the process of de-
institutionalisation that brought many mentally ill
people back into communities took place in the
1960s, it was driven by economics rather than by
any changing attitude towards the well-being of
the group. The experience of de-
institutionalisation has served to confirm the
prevalence of discrimination against the mentally
ill and to expose the myth of community care.
Conflict arose from both the assignment problem
and the attempt to match mentally ill people to
treatment settings and the siting problem, or the
fitting of type of facility to community. Unless
THE OTHER MINORITIES
Geographies of minority groups have focused on
the larger minorities such as American blacks and
British Asians, who aspire to accommodation
