This week’s class explores why geographic segregation by income, wealth, and race has been on the rise.

Just double click above, and you’re in the class.

Some background:

Inequalities that depend on where you live are widening in particularly divisive ways.

To be rich in today’s America means never having to come in contact with anyone who isn’t. To be poor in today’s America means being trapped on islands of poverty from which escape has become more and more difficult.

The questions we’ll focus on today: Why is it becoming easier for the wealthier to segregate from the poorer within a nation? What forms does this segregation take in addition to geographic? What are the consequences? Is this much different from a nation as a whole cutting itself off from others around the world who are poorer?

Thanks for joining me!

Recommended Readings (just click on the title):

• Editorial Board, “The Cities We Need,” The New York Times

• Phillip Longman, “Why the Economic Fates of American Cities Diverged,” The Atlantic

• Jonathan Kozol, “Life on the Mississippi: East St. Louis, Illinois,” Savage Inequalities

• Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, “Separated by Design: How Some of America’s Richest Towns Fight Affordable Housing,” ProPublica