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

3.0

I started this book a few years ago but put it down because I found it really slow. But since I live in Baltimore, I wanted to give it another try so I bought the audiobook version hoping it‰ЫЄd be easier to read in that format. Unfortunately I really couldn‰ЫЄt get into the book. There was definitely a lot of interesting info given on redlining and other racist laws in Baltimore but I was not enraptured by any of the anecdotes. I didn‰ЫЄt care to hear stories of specific white people doing racist things because those stories are, quite frankly, a dime a dozen, especially in the time periods discussed in the book. It‰ЫЄs f*cked up. The author expressed hope for the future at the end of the book because Obama was elected but I take a more pessimistic view. Baltimore is still very segregated geographically. We have corrupt politicians, a governor who does not like or care about Baltimore, and companies like the Atlas group that continue these prejudice ‰ЫПtraditions‰Ыќ but in different forms and methods.

This book was well done for what it is but I just personally didn‰ЫЄt like the layout and writing style. I‰ЫЄm still interested in this topic though and plan on reading more books on the topic.