Is the North more racially segregated than the South?

[moose]

Is segregation necessarily a bad thing? or is it just that some people like to live near people they feel they have something in common with?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Is segregation necessarily a bad thing? or is it just that some people like to live near people they feel they have something in common with?

Yes, it's a bad thing.

 

[moose]

I'm interested in what constitutes segregation. Let's take rural Somerset for example. Would you call that racially segregated because there are no black or Asian people there? (even though those communities might not want to move there for other, non-culturally-motivated reasons?)

 

[northernhord]

Is segregation necessarily a bad thing? or is it just that some people like to live near people they feel they have something in common with?

Asian peeps have moved to Bolton over the years (apart from textile labour reasons) cos members of their extended family lived there or members of their ethnic/cultural community

 

[Spion]

Is segregation necessarily a bad thing? or is it just that some people like to live near people they feel they have something in common with?

i think if it just hasn't happened because given the time that immigrants have been around they simply haven't had the inclination to go to places that are away from where they've been used to living, then fine. But when you see whole areas of cities being mono ethnic and you know that is at best a reflection of division - that some other people are the 'other' - or at worst its due to racism, then that's a bad thing, IMO

 

[dash_two]

I'm interested in what constitutes segregation. Let's take rural Somerset for example. Would you call that racially segregated because there are no black or Asian people there? (even though those communities might not want to move there for other, non-culturally-motivated reasons?)

Wouldn't have thought rural Somerset is racially segregated. There's pretty much only one ethnic group living there, ie English people, so there are no ethnic boundaries to speak of. The term 'segregation' describes a situation which has come about deliberately, either as the aggregate of many individual choices of where to live and who to have as a neighbour, or as the result of organised force.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I'm interested in what constitutes segregation. Let's take rural Somerset for example. Would you call that racially segregated because there are no black or Asian people there? (even though those communities might not want to move there for other, non-culturally-motivated reasons?)

'Separation' of groups may occur naturally when people in the groups, move into specific areas. 'Segregation', imo, implies enforced separation, in that when members of the specific groups try to move out to other areas, they are discouraged or prevented, either overtly, or through more subtle pressures.

 

[moose]

Yup - that's what I think, too. So I'm not sure why people use 'only ever seeing white faces' as an example of segregation. How do you really know whether that is indeed forced segregation, or the fact of people from different races not wanting to live there?

 

[UTJF]

'Separation' of groups may occur naturally when people in the groups, move into specific areas. 'Segregation', imo, implies enforced separation, in that when members of the specific groups try to move out to other areas, they are discouraged or prevented, either overtly, or through more subtle pressures.

Using that definition I don't think segregation really exists in any of England's core cities. Towns and the countryside may be a different matter tho...

Seems to me it's more of a city / smaller town and countryside divide than a north / south one.