Segregation and diversity increasing

It might seem counter-intuitive, but Richard Wright and his team of cartographers at Dartmouth are documenting both the rise of diversity in the US — and the rise of segregation. As Wright notes in the video below, we are seeing “increasing segregation and increasing diversity at the same time” … including “the persistence of segregation of African Americans.” It is, he suggests, “premature to celebrate the increasing diversity of the US.” I am not surprised at this. We’ve spent the last year trying to keep a voluntary integration district’s schools open, and have heard over and over again that the suburbs are more diverse now and we don’t need to work on integration. What we didn’t look at — and what I will now push to see if we can find — is whether African American segregation, in particular, remains strong in the Twin Cities. I’m guessing it does — particularly in the east metro — and that may yet another reason for us to continue to argue for the benefits of Harambee and Crosswinds.