Writing Journal Entry

writing journal entry
The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Y. Moore
In the first chapter of South Side, Moore writes about her childhood in the middle-class black neighborhood, Chatham. “I certainly never saw any non-blacks living in Chatham. But growing up in segregation felt like air and water – a constant, but something I never pondered until a small incident upended my detachment.” (page 17). She then describes boarding the L train from downtown when she was 14 years old in 1990, when she observed a large group of whites staying on and packing the train past 22nd street, the South Side of town. Then on 35th street, the white riders emptied en masse at the White Sox baseball stadium.
Why do you think she begins the book this way? How does it influence the development of the argument she is building? Can you think of any moments in your own childhood, or life, when you first became keenly aware of racial or class distinctions?

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