The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation – Natalie Y. Moore
Like Natalie Y. Moore, I’m a child of the south side of Chicago. While our upbringings were not vastly different, where we lived was, and it created unique perceptions about the city around us.
For Moore, raised 11-miles south of downtown in the Black middle class enclave of Chatham (which she jokingly refers to as “the Black Mayberry”), she benefited from a tight knit community that had a thriving business district and culture before it was largely decimated by the 2008 housing crisis.
While she didn’t realize it at the time, her life was impacted by legal segregation in almost every way. From where she lived, how houses were sold, to where she went to school and the businesses that were incentivized to operate in Chicago’s predominantly Black neighborhoods.
I grew up in predominantly white northwestern Indiana — about 25 miles from Moore — in what is the southeastern portion of the Chicago metro. I spent a lot of time visiting and traveling in South Side neighborhoods, but my perception of the area was rooted in myth and innuendo — mostly stemming from public housing.
The Robert Taylor Homes, a public housing project in the Bronzeville neighborhood, was a notable landmark driving into the city on I-90 from Indiana, or if you were catching a White Sox game at what was then referred to as Comiskey Park. Further north, Cabrini-Green terrified me thanks to the 1992 film “Candyman.”
Even though my personal experiences in these neighborhoods were always positive, I feared them. In my mind they were violent, gang-infested and drug-riddled slums populated by people waiting to prey on the innocent.
Where did these ideas come from? Thanks to Moore’s book I can trace it back to a combination of the Chicago media and local politics. The media’s “if it bleeds it leads” approach in the 1980s and 1990s unfairly magnified South Side crime, and politicians — notably the Daley family — peddled Jim Crow North ideals about neighborhood segregation that unfairly singled out Black residents who make up a third of Chicago’s population.
Throughout the text Moore weaves her personal experiences into macro discussions about the city’s past and present segregation challenges. She tackled the topic from several angles — real estate, education, crime, public housing and gentrification — which shows how sanctioned segregation has thrived in the city for decades.
While there’s a lot to unpack, Moore keeps things focused and entertaining — insomuch topics like this can be — with well-placed curse words and anecdotes. Often nonfiction books of this nature bog the reader down with deep history and details that detract from the broader message, but that’s not the case here.
After each chapter I was able to hold a mirror to myself and reflect on how these policies and perceptions impacted my view of housing and crime, specifically. It opened my eyes to the deep-rooted and pervasive ways Black people were — and continue to be — mistreated and impacted by politically-motivated racism in a city I perceived to be a northern haven.
While I’d encourage people interested in the topic to read this book, I think it is probably best suited for people familiar with Chicago and its surrounding communities. Like any book that focuses on a subset, there’s a lot of nuance between the lines. However, if you have a loved one that perpetuates half-truths and pundit-created headlines about the Second City, get a copy of this in their hands.
The audiobook, narrated by Allyson Johnson was well-done, but I was surprised to learn she was a Chicago native since her accent veered Southern. I would’ve loved to have heard more Chicago dialect in her delivery, but regardless, it’s a solid way to tackle the book.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: February 4 – February 10, 2023
Multi-tasking: Good to go, but if you aren’t familiar with Chicago you may have a difficult time keeping track of the names and places.
