Reading About Ethnicity

It was interesting to read about the Bridgeport area as a Chicagoland native. This is the neighborhood the Daley's came from, and when one thinks of ethnic ghettos, the first thing that comes to mind isn't usually the single most influential family in a city for over half a century.
What the Daleys had, and probably still have in Chicago is an indisputable dynasty. From Richard J. to Richard M. and possibly even on further, having as much influence in a city as large as Chicago means your power doesn't end at the city limits.

What really shocked me about this article was that I'd never really thought about the de facto segregation of Chicago as much as I should have until now. Growing up it was never strange to me that there was the South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade or the Bud Billiken Parade, the oldest and largest African-American parade in the US. I had read in the past that Chicago remains one of the most segregated cities in the county (Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-segregated-cities-in-america-2011-3#3-chicago-has-a-752-white-black-dissimilarity-score-20 ) but I failed to really think about how that has affected the culture in which I was brought up.

My mom's side of the family grew up in Harwood Heights, a small community comprised of mostly Polish and Italian immigrants. Once my parents married, they moved out to the far northwest suburbs to raise their children. Once I was in high school, it somehow came up one day that 2 of my good friends' moms went to high school with my mom and one of them even ended up marrying someone from the same high school my dad went to. Looking back after this reading, maybe this shouldn't have surprised me as much as it should. My friend and I are both Polish whose parents went to the same Catholic high school, and ended up meeting at another Catholic high school in further out suburbs.