Unequal City: Race, Schools, and Perceptions of Injustice

by Carla Shedd

Overview

Chicago has long struggled with racial residential segregation, high rates of poverty, and deepening class stratification, and it can be a challenging place for adolescents to grow up. Unequal City examines the ways in which Chicago’s most vulnerable residents navigate their neighborhoods, life opportunities, and encounters with the law. In this pioneering analysis of the intersection of race, place, and opportunity, sociologist and criminal justice expert Carla Shedd illuminates how schools either reinforce or ameliorate the social inequalities that shape the worlds of these adolescents.

Shedd draws from an array of data and in-depth interviews with Chicago youth to offer new insight into this understudied group. Focusing on four public high schools with differing student bodies, Shedd reveals how the predominantly low-income African American students at one school encounter obstacles their more affluent, white counterparts on the other side of the city do not face. Teens often travel long distances to attend school which, due to Chicago’s segregated and highly unequal neighborhoods, can involve crossing class, race, and gang lines. As Shedd explains, the disadvantaged teens who traverse these boundaries daily develop a keen “perception of injustice,” or the recognition that their economic and educational opportunities are restricted by their place in the social hierarchy.

Adolescents’ worldviews are also influenced by encounters with law enforcement while traveling to school and during school hours. Shedd tracks the rise of metal detectors, surveillance cameras, and pat-downs at certain Chicago schools. Along with police procedures like stop-and-frisk, these prison-like practices lead to distrust of authority and feelings of powerlessness among the adolescents who experience mistreatment either firsthand or vicariously. Shedd finds that the racial composition of the student body profoundly shapes students’ perceptions of injustice. The more diverse a school is, the more likely its students of color will recognize whether they are subject to discriminatory treatment. By contrast, African American and Hispanic youth whose schools and neighborhoods are both highly segregated and highly policed are less likely to understand their individual and group disadvantage due to their lack of exposure to youth of differing backgrounds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871547965
Publisher:	Russell Sage Foundation
Publication date:	10/19/2015
Edition description:	1
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

CARLA SHEDD is assistant professor of sociology and African American studies at Columbia University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

About the Author ix

Preface xi

Chapter 1 Introduction: Crossing Boundaries of Race, Class, and Neighborhood 1

Chapter 2 "And We Are Not Saved": Safe Passage Through a Changing Educational Landscape 19

Chapter 3 Of the Meaning of Progress 45

Chapter 4 The Universal Carceral Apparatus 80

Chapter 5 To Serve and Protect? 120

Chapter 6 Conclusion: Paradoxes of Progress 157

Acknowledgments 163

Appendix A Methods 167

Appendix B Survey Questionnaire: Perceptions of Social Injustice and the Legitimacy of the Law and Compliance with the Law 171

Appendix C General Interview Protocol 182

Appendix D Chicago Community Areas 184

Notes 187

References 205

Index 217

Editorial Reviews

Unequal City is a revelatory study that shows and tells how inner city young people struggle to acquire a decent education. It powerfully describes the everyday challenges these students face—illuminating how they navigate school and their local communities and the way they confront what too often holds them back. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the relationship between inequality and urban education.”

—Elijah Anderson, William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Sociology, Yale University

“Carla Shedd has written an important book about how race and place shape the experiences of young people in Chicago. Unequal City stands out for many reasons, but most importantly for its empirical richness. Shedd has amassed amazing data and uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to amplify the voices of young people. If you want to understand what young people think about such topics as the police, schools, and in-equality, you should read this book. It is a timely and insightful book.”

-Cathy Cohen, David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

From the Publisher