Outstanding it is to discover Chicago. Living in Chicago for the past 12 years of my life has definitely played a very important role in my life. To my surprise, in just one day of touring around the downtown area, I became aware of things I had no clue existed. Before today, I was in love with the city of Chicago, and now, I am blown away by its beauty. I am very proud of how Chicago has developed from nothing but a river and a lake, to skyscrapers, tourism and the most magnificent view ever; Lake Michigan.Today has been a surprise to me. The tour changed the way I look at Chicago in many ways. First of all, I see Chicago with pride and excitement. Even though I am familiar with the city, I was unware of the truth behind it. Second of all, what caught my attention the most was the actual structure of Chicago. Having the "dead zones" by all building in order to keep the people moving was surprising to me. Knowing that architects commit mistakes after finishing up their buildings and the genius way of reparing their mistakes, as they did to the building next to Loyola's campus and adding a pendulum makes me want to learn even more.
Understanding how many buildings have been built in order to have a better economy in Chicago, knowing how important the Drake hotel was in time of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Chicago, learning the structure behind the Hancok building and experiencing an evening walking by top designer boutiques has changed my thoughts on Chicago. Even though there is crime and "bad" things may occur, Chicago, specially down town, has a magnificent view, plenty of busy streets and a welcoming atmosphere, but there is never a present, without the past.
As I was reading the article, Black, White and Shades of Brown: Fair Housing and Economic Opportunity in the Chicago Region, I rememebered of a picture I took today, which is on the upper right hand corner. The purple part in the picture represents the middle- class white people shopping and/or hanging out downtown, while the light blue represents the middle- class African Americans. As you can see it shows how they are the minority, how after so long, African Americans remain as minority. It is just one African American family, while there are plenty of middle- class whites. From the reading, this proves how dominant the white people are, how they have a higher income than the African American people.
In addition to the picture I also witnessed the way the African American people are still different than the white people. As the tour was going on, we entered the Drake hotel. I saw how a white family was standing outside the hotel waiting for a car. As soon as the car arrived, a black man got down from the car handing the white man his car keys. The white still remain at a higher position than the African American people.
Overall, I feel that I can now notice things I would not have noticed before today's tour as well as the reading. At first it was just a picture I took on the spot, and now, with knowledge of how discrimintation, income, and the dominance of the white people affect the city, I can understand Chicago in a very different perspective.
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ReplyDeleteVery nicely organized post! I'm glad to see that a number of points from the tour stuck with you. I particularly like how you highlighted parts of the photo you took to demonstrate the social segregation you observed during the tour. You also did a great job of integrating your experiences on the tour with the assigned reading.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you; in many ways, Chicago is a beautiful city. The only challenge I would present here is that while there are certainly a number of great things about Chicago, there are many social issues that continue to deeply impact the city. As you so aptly put, "there is no present, without the past", and Chicago's past is full of contention and conflict, much of which still has a tremendous hold on the city. In this course, we will be focusing primarily on these social problems and exploring ways to address them. (There is always room for improvement, right?) Great first post!