A review by lem119
Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila

2.0

The book focuses on the way racism and the laws surrounding it during the post-reconstruction period up through the world wars, civil rights movement, and today, shaped the city of Baltimore (and can also be somewhat used as a case study for other urban areas). It's a very interesting topic, particularly given the context for which I'm reading it (a class on The Wire and its representation of Baltimore's social and economic divides), but it's so dry and full of statistics that it was very difficult to get through. There are so many names and places that aren't fully identified or explained that I found much of it confusing, and an overall interesting thesis was lost under the mountain of stats. The parts about specific people and bits of legislation were interesting though.