lcl_reads's Reviews (211)

An informative book that incorporates various references. Cashin pulls together multiple threads to create a cohesive analysis that focuses on the systemic nature of inequitable opportunities for Black and Brown folks based on where they live. She highlights how the divestment in certain areas has been politically and racially motivated and how attempts at investments have been stifled, canceled, and blocked. She ends with examples of ways to repair the harm that has been caused.

I enjoyed reading this book and it was organized well, loosely moving from the past into the present. The primary strength of this book came at the end. I appreciated the examples Cashin gave the centered the folks she calls the descendents as change agents. I feel like in earlier chapters she focuses more on Whiteness and proximity to Whites as what will "save" the "hood."

There were parts I was more critical of, especially when Cashin focused on moving to high opportunity areas as a solution. She also dichotomized schools into good and bad, without critical reflection on the metrics (standardized testing) that measure school success or the sociological impact on Black and Brown children in predominantly White schools (although to be fair this book isn't about school, but that just bothered me. I think Original Sins by Eve L. Ewing would be a good read to balance Cashin's cursory mention of schools). Finally, she notes that higher earning Black people are more likely live in close proximity to poor areas and underlying that assertion is that this phenomenon is due solely to barriers, but I would like to push back and ask what extent choice plays (I say this as a person who has actively chosen to live in Black and Brown communities). There is something about her focus on integration that just does quite sit right with me.

I think this would be a good book to read with The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee.