Case Studies of Racism as a Force of Ruin

The connection between racism and the physical environment can be seen in the segregation, disenfranchisement, discrimination, and fear which, as culturally defining attitudes, become baked into where, why, and when cities develop. Strict neighborhood boundaries from previous redlining, decaying infrastructure from a waning tax base, and entire villages which have been wiped out speak to racism’s extreme power as a force of corrosion. This paper discusses how racism contributes to the creation of ruins as a method of artificial decay. In order to examine the effects of racism on infrastructure in different contexts, case studies of three different American cities are employed, namely Detroit, St. Louis, and New York City. Each city features unique and well-known examples of decay, all of which have a documented relationship with racism and/or segregation. In Detroit, the amount of abandoned and deteriorating sites, due largely to white flight and a diminished tax base, are infamous. These sites have been of interest to photojournalists and ‘Urban Explorers’ who advocate for the persistence and appreciation of decay, highlighting differences in personal proximity that govern interactions with Detroit infrastructure. In St. Louis and New York City, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project and the Seneca Village community experienced much more abrupt decay, as both were completely demolished. Casualties of the City Beautiful and Urban Renewal movements, the reasons for destruction in both sites are tied to histories of segregation and disenfranchisement, and their final state of decimation can be seen as a result of this history. Assumptions left unquestioned around the relationship between decay and race can be extremely insidious, emphasizing the power of racism imbued in the physical environment, and how it contributes directly to urban decay. Thus, it is vital to examine the ways in which this relationship manifests itself in cities today.