America is self-segregating

Diversity doesn’t mean unification. We, citizens of the United States, proudly announce that our country is the most diverse nation in the world with many races living together in a long-standing history. But, as we don’t notice, our America is self-segregating. Danah Boyd – the author of “Why America Is Self-Segregating” argues the unfairness in our daily life, which we thought it would be innocuous to join in a familiar environment deliberately. Time goes by, it is no longer about our past, it’s about the present - a modern world; the gap and the battle in segregation is noticeable in genders, races, social media and surprisingly academic environment. Danah Boyd once said in her writing: “The American public is self-segregating, and this is tearing at the social fabric of the country. ” (Boyd 220) It was clear that her statement shows the outsize influence of the negative polarization of this “united” country in a desperate long history. The author’s background has said much about her knowledge of the current technological era. Besides being a main researcher at Microsoft Research, Boyd is an adjunct professor in New York University’s interactive telecommunications program. She is also the author of “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens” and the establisher of Data & Society, a research institution which focuses on the cultural and social problems resulting from datacentric technological development. And this essay was published on Points, a blog of Data & Society in 2017. Self-segregation of America is significant, and it’s always start with the most controversial issue – racism. Concerning races, America has failed to mend the torn fabric of unification for a long time ago. We thought it would be the end of slavery and racism in this modern era since the Civil War and Jim Crow laws, but up till now, our naive minds have let it transition into a new form of incarceration, perpetual racist policies and societal attitudes that allow oppression to flourish progressively. Michelle Alexander once mentioned in her essay “The New Jim Crow”: “As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. ” (Alexander 232) The intense mentioned in this statement is a new racial caste system functioning in this liberal country. Every single day, the incarcerated citizens are being isolated legally from the ability of gaining employment, housing, emancipation, and other public benefits “much as African Americans were once forced into a segregated, second-class citizenship in the Jim Crow era” (Alexander 235). It’s unfair for people to be treated that way in a developed country which emphasizes human rights of its citizens. We can’t ignore what it seems to be not involved with our story and let persecution happen steadfastly. This has become a great segregation for a united country like America, which has been and will be there perpetually. Racism is not the only compelling and flagrant segregation issue, but the inequality between genders – men and women, has also been a controversial topic remaining throughout decades. Even though America is considered as a developed country with strong feminist movements fighting for women’s rights, our society remains its heavy prejudice and scrutiny judgment on female individuals, especially working women with children. Raynold Kington – the author of “I’m Gay and African American. As a Dad, I Still Have It Easier Than Working Moms” told a story about his mother giving up her passion to upbring her children, which cost his mother a huge sacrifice in the meantime while Kington’s father remained in his job. As a gay man – who states not having emotional attachment to women’s parenting debates, Kington has shown the way society treating women: “but the reality is that I couldn't truly be in my mother's position, because it's different for men – society doesn't put the same pressures on us. And the choices we make are not judged in the same way” (Kington 580) and thereby if there is significant change in policies and laws, it would stay the same “but those changes will never eliminate the trade-offs required in parenting, and the trade-offs ultimately are strictly personal-or they should be. They aren't always for women. ” (Kington 580) The author argues that the prejudice on women is that they must be staying at home taking care of their children and nothing more, and the trade-offs would be a great cost to choose between family and personal career while men are free to do what they want - enjoying privileges. The society doesn’t judge men the same way as they do on women when both genders are on the verge of making decisions. Equality needs no barrier. Besides genders segregation, technology is considered as a means of polarization in America. Why would it be a segregation for America? Because the boundary between the truth and falsification is transparent enough to cause unexpected separation for communities. In the writing “Google, Democracy, and the Truth about Internet Search” of Carole Cadwalladr, she shows the harsh reality as automatic search creates misconception for Jewish: “Google offers me two new searches and I go for the first, “Islam is for society. ” In the next list of suggestions, I'm offered: ‘Islam must be destroyed. ” (Cadwalladr 484) Due to fake news and unreliable information, we easily misunderstand the truth, which causes bad separation between ethnicities. All the reliable information is scattered over the place on the Internet, but the mother company still don’t have capacity to deal with significant task of managing misconception leading to polarization. The author once says in her essay: “I would say that everybody has been really naive and we need to reset ourselves to a much more cynical place and proceed on that basis. ” (Cadwalladr 498) Technology is a useful tool, but we must be the one who reclaim what we read and be rational to prevent fake news that cause segregation. Moreover, education is the following concept that is involved in segregation. Academic institutions have an unexpected separation among students. Colleges tend to help students connect with each other through the inclusion of many ethnicities. One of the biggest problems is that they choose to be with familiar environment rather than involving with new people. “Minority Student Clubs: Segregation or Integration? ” of the author Gabriel Moro has a statement: “college student in general tend to self-segregate as they enter an unfamiliar environment”. Due to the differences in culture, the author advises colleges should organize events to help students meet each other and make friends, which will be a cross-cultural environment. Academic institutions must be a statue of unification since it is a fundamental of our society. In conclusion, Danah Boyd has shown a harsh reality of our country as America has been self-segregating for decades. Segregation is a pessimistic issue of our country. A powerful country is made of the unification of its citizens. Without that important factor, a country would be a torn fabric with desperate future. We should consider living unitedly like our country's name: the United States.