People Like Us David Brooks Summary

I believe David Brooks makes a valid point in his article, “People Like Us.” Many people self-segregate and it is not always purposeful. Yet, some people do self-segregate for their own beliefs. Either way, America is still in some ways segregated. I agree and disagree with Brooks’ statement, “It is a common complaint that every place is starting to look the same” (357.) I agree because in some areas, it can be seen that only a specific race of people lives in certain neighborhoods. Also, this can be associated with schools mainly composed of people with similar backgrounds. Yet, I disagree because I have moved around Alabama several times and have been exposed to different areas. In my experience, I have always lived in neighborhoods that were a mixture of people of different races and
This may be true for jobs that require special training or education. But, in base level jobs like at restaurants, I do not think there is any divide. When I worked at an Italian restaurant, the employees were racially diverse. Although, I do believe there is a definite divide in race in school systems. It is very obvious that some school’s populations are primarily made up of Caucasians and others are mainly African American. This is due to the school zoning and the certain neighborhoods included in the school zone. So, the school is grouped together almost as though to put people with similar backgrounds together. This does not allow much exposure to diversity for students of these schools prior to college. College is different because students can choose where to go and it is not zoned so there is opportunity for the population to be diverse. I have witnessed self-segregation in the past. In high school, I could see people segregate themselves from others during lunch. Somehow, the cafeteria would almost have different sections of people. Although, there was some differences and a little mixture of people