Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 1

For many years I was part of a Girl Scout troop that would regularly volunteer with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Although I spent countless years volunteering with the foundation, my experience was marked by a single, defining moment. I entered the third floor of St. Jude’s Research Hospital where I met two young boys, both the same age, with the same life-threatening disease that was in the same stage, and with the same survival rate. The only things differentiating these boys were 4.4 miles and the city limits separating Claremont, an upscale, affluent college town, from Pomona, a poverty-stricken, dilapidated town. Shortly after meeting them, I asked the boys what their wishes were and received surprisingly diverse answers. The boy from Claremont asked for another Nintendo 64, so that he could play from his hospital bed, while the boy from Pomona asked that his mother receive more flexible work hours so she could go to his soccer games upon his recovery. Beyond the obvious question of how just a few miles could serve as the defining boundary between such economically diverse neighborhoods, this story left me wondering, even at such an early age, how two boys, nearly identical in every way, could be so fundamentally different. This blog was born out of my desire to answer these, and hopefully other similar questions, as well as to contribute to my research on the psychological debate of nature vs. nurture. More than that, this blog was created to document social difference within the regions of Los Angeles through my eyes, a UCLA student. Over the next 10 weeks, I will be exploring the different parts of LA, ranging from the high-class, elitist yacht clubs to the crime-ridden streets of skid row, describing not only my experiences, but my perception of how the different areas of the city interact with the themes of social inequality and social difference. While I will be addressing a plethora of themes and concepts throughout my next 9 posts, the basis of each post will be around a central concept proposed by Robert E. Park, who stated that, “The City is a mosaic of little worlds which touch but do not interpenetrate.” Although I’m sure that I will find evidence that conflict with this statement, I believe this statement to be true and assert that any evidence to the contrary is merely the exception, not the rule.