<p>Actually, I studied at Johns Hopkins Hospital. It wasn’t in a bad neighborhood because the neighborhood was black. It was in a bad neighborhood because there wasn’t one - most buildings were run down, dilapidated and abandoned. There were many warehouses in the area. There were few street lights and lots of hiding places, with no one around if you screamed. And just as an FYI - most of the derelicts & drunks I saw around the hospital area were white.</p>
<p>I suppose it would also have to do with what you mean by “bad”. There are a few neighborhoods where I live that have bad areas that are predominately African American. They are considered bad neighborhoods due to drugs and such. Then again there is a very white neighborhood downtown where there are a lot of rapes and muggings.</p>
<p>Ahh, if it isn’t MovieBuff of the infamous “is New Haven a bad area?” thread. Well, I’d suggest you being a little more careful on this thread MovieBuff, cause these ain’t the same “kids” on that Yale thread, and quite honestly, it’s threads like that that make me come here to the parent’s site to post cause we both know that that thread was full of racist bs. </p>
<p>And wasn’t it you who so “honestly” pitt Penn and Columbia as the Ivies in “bad areas.” Wasn’t it you who said, and I quote, “well Phili and Harlem… enuf said,” when speaking about the areas surrounding those two schools. You so “honestly” expressed your opinions on that thread, which basically said if it ain’t white it aint safe. </p>
<p>You should check out paying3tuitions on this thread and read what she has to say about your claims.</p>
<p>Oh, and Tufts New England Medical Center? Not a bad area at all.</p>
<p>One other note, whoever thinks they can say “being a minority will work for you” in righteous tones has some serious issues. If that’s the case, why are black men incarcerated at 5 times that of white men. Does being a minority work for them?? Why in corporate America are there so painfully few numbers of black men working in middle or upper-level management, but stuck in the company’s cafeteria or cleaning service? Does being a minority work for them?? How come black men make 10 cents to every dollar a white man makes? Does being a minority work for them. So, how suddenly does being black work for students applying to college? Penn’s population of blacks has to hover around 3 or 4 percent, so how does it help to be black when applying there? </p>
<p>Maybe it helps to be a URM (Hispanic, Asian, or foreigner from Europe), but to suggest that being a “black” minority will work for you is a statement that begs for confrontation and rebuttle. Also, how is that a factual statement?</p>
<p>No kidding, the Tufts New England Medical Center is in the very hip “theatre district” which is in the very safe Chinatown.</p>
<p>Look!.. the parents forum is staying on the subject…</p>
<p>Datdude,</p>
<p>If you want to argue that affirmative action in college admissions is a good thing fine, it may be. There are reasonable arguments on both sides of that arguement. But this is a pretty well informed audience and your position that the statement: “being a minority will work for you,” in the context of a discussion of college admissions, is anything other than a simple statement of fact only illustrates how big a chip you are carrying around on your shoulders. The same is true on the neighborhood issue. You seem to want other people to pretend that “bad” neighborhoods are not often black, just to make you more comfortable. What do you want people to do, remain silent on the issue of neighborhood quality when discussing colleges?</p>
<p>when people speak of a “bad neighborhood” they usually mean one of a lower-socioeconomic class, it depends on the area you are in.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>True when there is no black or Lation population (as with some towns in Maine) - - otherwise, it’s code for both poor and black/Latino.</p>
<p>It was also said that Columbia is in a bad neighborhood, which I would have to disagree with. Columbia is in Morningside Heights, which is a good neioghborhood. Just becuase it is near Harlem doesn’t make it a “bad area”, and that doesn’t make Harlem a bad area either. It depends where you are going and how used to the city atmosphere you are.</p>
<p>nyc is right though, a bad neighbood IS usually generalized with minorities, such as black or latino. I am a latina living in NYC, so I overlook it. But many poeple take those stereotypes to heart.</p>
<p>I drive to Chicago from the south via Stony Island fairly often. I don’t know what the neighborhood there is called but it is a little south and east of U of C. It’s highly commercialized with a Starbucks, a Burger King, Walgreens, gas stations, a mosque, a hospital, elderly housing and various other businesses and housing. There are also a smattering of boarded up buildings. It is a predominantly, if not completely, African American area. It is bustling with people crossing the street, walking together, driving in mostly late model cars. The buildings, in general, are in average repair. The streets are not especially clean nor especially dirty. As I get to the park areas just south of the Museum of Science and Industry, there are always football or soccer teams playing or practicing and people hanging out on the park benches or riding bikes–all black people. </p>
<p>When I tell neighbors in my 98% white town that Stony Island is the best way to get to Chicago, they invariably tell me it’s “a bad neighborhood.” Now it’s Chicago, a big city, so I’m sure there “bad” things going on there that I don’t necessarily see (have never seen) when driving through or stopping for gas a veggie burger at BK, but I cannot imagine what would make someone call this a “bad neighborhood” unless it’s “bad” because it’s black. So, I guess it depends on who you are talking to because I agree with those who have said that a “bad neighborhood” is determined by it’s socioeconomic makeup, but I definitely get the impression that many people do not even see the neighborhood beyond the skin color of its inhabitants.</p>
<p>I lived in a bad neighborhood in Chicago.
There was a gang of kids who terrorized people in the neighborhood, vandalized buildings & cars,etc</p>
<p>They were white (ukranian youth gang, I was led to understand).</p>
<p>To me, a “bad” neighborhood is one where there is a high crime rate. There may or may not be sociological tendencies as to what groups are contributing to that crime rate. But if you are evaluating how safe you are likely to be, who cares about sociology theory. What you might best be concerned about is whether or not the area is in fact relatively safe or it is not relatively safe. There should be quantifiable measures of this(eg violent crimes per 1,000 people, etc), if you care to investigate, which are not solely someone’s opinion or a prejudice.</p>
<p>Incidentally, there is a great department of education website where you can look up the crime stats of the schools you are interested in:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp[/url]”>http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp</a></p>
<p>Not quite curious,
I was looking for something more tactful, insightful and sensitive (cause that matters too) when I posted this thread in the first place. Thank God for paying3tuitions and some other posters for having the insight and communication skills to speak elaborately about the bad neighborhood issue without simply stating the obvious, that the term “bad neighborhood” is synonomous with “black neighborhood.” </p>
<p>On the other hand, who said I was a big fan of AA?? What I tried to communicate is that I find it offensive that people use AA to assume that, in any context, being black opens doors for any of us. I’m trying to understand how people automatically associate AA with blacks being the beneficiaries of it in the first place. Wasn’t welfare supposed to benefit blacks primarily? Look how that shaped up, white women take advantage of it in far greater numbers. </p>
<p>What I am looking for is better insight into these subjects. Don’t tell me being a minority will work for you because that is a simple, shallow statement. If there are greater opportunities now than 20-30 years ago for minorities (blacks included), say that. But to suggest that being a minority, and again I state being a “black” minority, will work for, how come that same statement doesn’t apply to the fields I named in my previous posts (the legal system, job market, media)? I don’t want anyone to be silent on the count of me, but if you’re going to imply that bad neighborhood’s are predominantly black neighborhoods or being a minority will work for you, there needs to be an explanation why that’s the case (see post #25 by paying2tuitions).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Please note that i said “traditionally”. Part of the problem is that some perceptions stay on people’s minds. Columbia was always described as being in a very “depressed area of Manhattan” by several guides a few years ago. New England Medical Center was in the middle of the old red light district and it was “bad”. The area has cleaned up and become somewhat gentrified now days. The University of Miami Medical School was in one of the worst parts of Miami (a joke was that medical residents could get shot while crossing the streets ), now that has also changed for the better.</p>
<p>Now…what did all these bad neighborhoods have in common? They were poor, mostly black neighborhoods full of crime. That’s the association that prevailed. Isn’t that the OP question ?</p>
<p>Columbia is a perfect case in point. Harlem is increasingly upscale - - but both Harlem and the area surrounding Columbia are characterized as “bad” b/c the residents are predom black. No one would describe a White neighborhood where townhouses cost upwards of a $2mil as “bad.”</p>
<p>Before you start making accusations, I suggest you look up and post the crime rate statistics in the relevant neighborhoods, vs. the cities as a whole.</p>
<p>Isn’t it possible that the neighborhoods that are considered “bad” in some cases actually ARE bad, comparatively,as a factual matter from the police blotter?</p>
<p>In that case, any racial implications are essentially a red herring.</p>
<p>You only have a case if the neighborhoods in question actually are NOT “bad”; ie do not have an unusually high crime rate vs. the greater area. Or were not “bad” in the recent past.</p>
<p>In some instances, it may be the case that, though the area has improved, it was quite “bad” (ie statistically dangerous) in the past, and this reputation continues to linger as a holdover from that era. Regardless of the complexion of the inhabitants. Either then or now.</p>
<p>datdude</p>
<p>I suppose few who have answered yr question are african-american, because for many of us a “bad” neighborhood is one that many whites would feel totally comfortable in. In some places, sometimes, the anti-black vibe can be be overpowering, enough to make sure no person of color ever wants to be there. </p>
<p>specifically, I knew the son of a friend who wrote Brandeis U off his college list because he felt the townsfolk, mainly white and working-class, hostile to his presence when he went off campus. I know a woman of my generation who crossed any school in Boston off her list because she had grown up there and thought it was just a “bad” city for black people–dangerous and unfriendly. She grew up amidst the school busing troubles, but I have been to Boston since, and found it unfriendly enouhg for me to get carded at a dowtown bar–and I am a long long way from 21. Many years later ny friend goes back to Boston only to see her relatives. I know the black son of another firend who decided against applying to UVA because he felt unwelcome in the town of Charlotesville, what with the stares and being followed around. </p>
<p>A bad neighborhood is very much in the eye of the beholder, and if the beholder is black, you’ll often get a very different answer than if you ask white people.</p>