Social Stratification and Boise – Moving away from the Plethora of Ghettos

I am absolutely enjoying life here in Boise, and it has me thinking a lot about the broader spectrum of life than the atmosphere of life I was experiencing while living in Chicago. Provided the size of Chicago, there is no question there aren’t more elements or dimensions to life; however, having lived in several cities, in different regions, I can say one thing: “the more medium-sized a city is, the easier it is to find a broader spectrum of life.”

In retrospect, I find I am getting more to life’s dimensions here in Boise than I was in the much larger Chicago. I realize this is fairly abstract, but a great way to ponder is for one take a step back and look at her or his life in college. I say that because, if one were to go back and look at their lifestyle in a big university, and from this context, odds are good they would find the following bits of reality. One, they would find quick social stratification, kids coming from money hanging around others with money. This was especially true in the Greek system, where wealthier young women or men would tend to be drawn to the same sororities or fraternities.

In another way, because these groups of students are arriving at a large state school, coming from various backgrounds, those coming from especially strong High Schools were afforded the opportunity to place higher in classes right on the front-end. I can continue to spell out such examples, but rather than doing that, I will assume my point is made. The net of it is that we are a collegial species. We form groups or clubs, and rise up a barrier of entry, whether we do it consciously or not. If we aren’t consciously working to do so, more often than not, we are doing so subconsciously, or we are simply joining on with others of the same mindset or body of experience.

A classic example of this was how, in going to a large public state institution, we had lots of different ethnicities, but more often than not, kids of the same ethnicity would socialize together. The same applies to cities and life outside of one going to a Division I university; they are analogs.

I say that, because I assume that if one went to a small Liberal Arts College, because of size constraints, more often than not, their classes would place them in a broader mix of socio-economic varieties. With that, in the same way, I feel as though being in Boise is providing me the same broad variety of experience I was more accustomed to in primary and secondary school than I was at the University of Illinois to now. The one exception in that arc, of course, was living and working in Memphis.

In Memphis, because of the composition of economic class and ethnicities, at the office I was more than likely going to see and interact with folks of many different persuasions, pertaining to socio-economic categorization. Upon moving to Chicago, I relegated myself rather continuously to ghettos of young, largely Caucasian, affluent ghettos. By that, while living in Chicago, I lived in the West Loop, River North, Old Town and Lincoln Park. If one were to take a random sampling of the demographics of those neighborhoods, undoubtedly, they would find neighborhoods full of aspiring eighteen-to-thirty-five white folks. That is not to say that is always the case, but by percentage, I am going to argue I am more correct than not. In working for a smaller firm, leaving a more ethnically diverse large company with many people making the spectrum of incomes, I relegated myself further to one more ghetto. That is not to say that there weren’t more working class ethnically diverse folks working at company two, but it was so small there weren’t too many in all directions. In short, if work was where I was finding diversity, then the second employer in Chicago wasn’t the place to find it.

Now, I am in Boise. I cannot say there is a plethora of varying ethnicities here in Boise, as it is a largely Caucasoid population; however, there is more variety in economic status here than there was for me in Chicago. That is the trick, I surmise, by positioning self in a smaller city is more than less likely that they will be confronted with a wider variety of economic stratification. That is not to say we, or I for that matter, still don’t relegate and ghettoize ourselves wherever we go. I would argue we inadvertently do; however, being somewhere smaller allows more heterogeneity in people and experience. It’s something for one to consider, I suppose.