Final Reading Response

While reading the "Cycle of Liberation" from RDSJ I had a hard time understanding what really was going on. It seemed very hard for me to follow. The author's definition of liberation "critical transformation" did not help me at all (Harro 463). However, after doing some research online and according to Wikipedia the definition of liberation is simply just the condition in which the individual has the ability to act to his or her own will (Wikipedia 1). The figure "The Cycle of Socialization" was also hard to follow and very confusing. However, this important with all the different phases they are showing us with the transitions used from one phase to the next. On the other hand, I liked how the author said you can enter the cycle at any stage. Furthermore, one can repeat or stay in the same cycle because oppression does last forever (Harro 464). To me the core was the easiest part of the cycle to understand, it just seemed like all of those things really belonged ex: love, balance, joy, support, etc. The core also seems like the most important part you really do need a strong core to build on the rest of the stages.

Reading Response

I found "The Construction of the Ghetto" article to be very informative. I never really understood ghettos very well. Such as: where it originated and when it started, but after reading this article I feel like I have a better understanding on explaining the color line and can go more in depth on the topic. I had no idea that ghettos went way back to the turn of the century. Something that I found helpful was the table,(Isolation Indices By Year). This was rather shocking to me because I had no idea how low the black neighborhood percentages were starting out with the majority living in white areas. Almost every city started out with a low black percentage and then significantly increased. Take Chicago, which once started out at 8% black in the 1890's and then boomed to well over 70% by the 1930's. Most cities were like this except Minneapolis and San Francisco both saw the black ghettos stay about the same. The author made a good point while stating that blacks started mainly out in the north, ex: like Indianapolis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, etc. However, they made there way down to the south within that forty year period.