Warren

Mark Warren makes a number of good arguments about the importance of community organizing in this country's future in Dry Bones Rattling. He proves how much it has declined in the past half century, the unfortunate effects that decline has had on the poor, and acknowledges the challenges we currently face in attempting to revitalize communities. Out of all the points he makes, however, I want to focus on a specific one, and that is racial segregation within and between communities. It's no secret that many towns/neighborhoods/cities have demographics which tilt heavily to one race or another. This could easily lead to members of the minority races feeling alienated in their own area. As a result, these members of the community could turn to one of the many small, specialized groups that Warren talks about, and make that group their community instead. These small groups can be built around many things, but race especially tends to be a strong binding factor. People's allegiances to these respective racial groups only increases segregation within communities, and Warren stresses how important bridging these groups is to being able to effectively organize a community. However, he realizes the difficulty of this as many racial groups could feel almost in competition with other racial groups who most likely do not share the same concerns. In terms of our map, I think the interconnectivity we offer to these various small groups will be huge in terms of encouraging said bridging. It will offer such a wide variety of other smaller, non-racial groups to connect with that each group will hopefully be able to find others it can connect with over shared concerns/beliefs/goals/etc., regardless of race. With each group connecting with just a couple others, we will be well on our way to forming a more cohesive community unit.