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Xavier Journal of Undergraduate Research

Disparities and Consequences

Abstract

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Most residents consider the city they live in a civic space, somewhere they can work, play, raise a family, and fulfill their ideas for being their best, most productive, contributing selves. However, cities throughout the United States often lack ways to meaningfully unify and engage their communities, resulting in citizens being less-informed about local conflicts. Often, these local conflicts arise out of inequalities between adjacent neighborhoods. While problems such as these inequalities are common across America cities, local organizations that research and understand their cities’ troubles are better poised to engage and address the inequalities between residents who, although literally neighbors, may lead drastically different lives. Organizations at the local level who conduct research and publish their opinions often inform the best scholarship on local-level issues. This type of source, in conjunction with pieces of national scope comprise the body of research used to explain the pattern of inequalities found across neighborhood borders of both Cincinnati, Ohio and St. Louis, Missouri. These inequalities are evident in racial and socioeconomic demographics, and the national research speaks to the repetitious nature of the differences; similar discrepancies are found in cities throughout the United States. Analyzing data trends on income and race, spanning both time and location, makes it clear that there is not only a correlation between income and race. In fact, a person’s location alone may almost determine their experiences and achievements during their lifetime. As the frustration with racism and injustice mounts in cities with a history of inequality (as recent events in Cincinnati or St. Louis suggest it has), communities often protest through heated or violent backlash. Linking demographic analysis with an examination of recent events, this study seeks to explain a) the historic rise and policy causes behind the inequalities between two neighborhoods in both Cincinnati and St. Louis and b) the economic, health, social, and other effects of the inequalities. Ultimately, cities with issues like the ones presented in this analysis must address residents’ lack of unity as a civic and philosophical contradiction to the purpose of a city.

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