Society Archives

Suburban Flight and the Role of the Government

What does suburban flight mean? How did the government encourage white flight to the suburbs? Suburban flight describes the migration phenomenon of predominantly white families from the urban areas in cities to suburban tracts. The government encouraged white flight by promoting the phenomenon as a mechanism to avoid racial tension and excluding African Americans from the financial support offered to the white families that moved out. Read on to learn more about the role of the government in the rise of suburban flight.

How Exclusionary Zoning Perpetuated Racial Inequality

What is exclusionary zoning? How did exclusionary zoning laws turn black neighborhoods into slums? Exclusionary zoning is the use of racial zoning laws to prohibit Blacks from owning homes in white neighborhoods and vice versa. These racial zoning laws were structured to ensure blacks were confined in densely packed zones adjacent to industrial areas or the pollution industry leading to the deterioration of these neighborhoods into slums. Read on to learn more about how exclusionary zoning laws disadvantaged African Americans.

The Post-Truth World: The Era of Entertainment

Are we living in a post-truth world? How did modern society come to value entertainment over truthfulness? And how has looking good on camera become all that matters? Neil Postman, the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death, believed that we were entering a post-truth world—and since this book was published in 1985, many believed we have entered this era already. Postman feared that the public cared more about the entertainment value of the news rather than the truth and relevance of the information. Here is how the invention of television pushed us into the post-truth era.

The New Deal: Redlining Policies Segregated America

How The New Deal Redlining Segregated America

What was redlining under the New Deal? How did the New Deal’s redlining policies segregate American communities? In the New Deal, redlining was based on a color-coded map for evaluating the value of homes in each neighborhood. The redlining practice contributed to segregation because the vast majority of neighborhoods colored red were African American neighborhoods. Read on to learn more about how the New Deal’s redlining practices entrenched segregation in America.

Housing Segregation Today and Why It Persists

Why do we still have housing segregation today? Why is it difficult to fix the causes of persistent housing segregation? We still have housing segregation today because of the historical legacy of segregationist public housing policies and the vicious cycle those policies created. Persistent problems like income disadvantages, race-blind policy, and flawed social programs have made it difficult to fix housing segregation. Read more to fully understand the nature of housing segregation today.

The Psychology of Conflict: Biases and Mindsets

What do we know of the psychology of conflict? What do you think causes interpersonal conflict at a high level? According to the Arbinger Institute—a leading consultant in conflict resolution, mindset change, and leadership training since 1979—conflict arises when the parties’ biases prevent them from seeing a situation clearly. Specifically, being biased blinds one to the fact that they are part of the problem. In this article, we’ll first take a look at four biases that Arbinger says prevent us from seeing the true causes of conflicts, and then discuss two conflict resolution mindsets.

Education as Entertainment in the Era of Television

How does educational entertainment undermine traditional, classroom learning? Has television redefined the way we approach education? After the introduction of Sesame Street in 1969, educational entertainment has become the norm for children. Because of this, kids now expect the classroom to be just as entertaining as tv. Here’s how educational entertainment effected the curriculum over time.

Why Is Healthcare So Expensive in the U.S.?

Why is healthcare so expensive in the U.S. compared to other countries? Why do American doctors make so much money? There are several reasons why healthcare costs in America are so exorbitantly high. Medical school fees are only part of the problem—the most salient reason is that U.S. healthcare prices are determined by market forces. In most other countries, healthcare is at least partially under the control of the government. To understand how this state of affairs has come to be, we need to go back to the middle of the 20th century.

Cooperative Conflict Resolution: Avoid These 4 Biases

What causes conflict? What is the role of cooperation in conflict resolution? According to the Arbinger Institute, conflict arises when one or both of the parties harbor one or more of the four biases: 1) the superiority bias, 2) the entitlement bias, 3) the performative bias, and 4) the inferiority bias. Cooperative conflict resolution is only possible when both parties recognize they are biased and are willing to work through their biases. In this article, we’ll explore how to recognize when we’re biased, how to remove that bias, and how to cultivate a cooperative mindset.

Brave New World: Neil Postman Saw It Coming

Why did Neil Postman think the future would look like Huxley’s Brave New World? How can changing how we watch tv help us avoid the Huxlean dystopia? In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman predicted that the future would look similar to the one depicted in Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World. Postman explains that the only way to avoid this fate is to see and question what we’re seeing rather than blindly trusting the media. Keep reading for more on Neil Postman’s Brave New World future.