West Virginian resident and white activist SHOCKED to discover segregation still exists through a conversation with a person of color. During an interview with this resident, they expressed deep frustration with the state of the nation. Saying,

"I knew things were bad, and that a lot of things were hidden under the surface of our societal facade, yet I had absolutely no idea segregation was not only still legal, but also in practice."

The practice to which they are referring is called "Municipal Underbounding" explained apply by civilrights.org, saying,

"This modern form of residential segregation occurs when cities and towns expand around communities of color without including them in the municipal boundaries where city services are provided, thus denying these communities basic municipal resources"

This selective process occurs when municipalities select only the areas they find desirable to annex. There is no law protecting people of color from discrimination during this process.

Any areas that are not annexed into a municipality will go without the basic resources provided by the state. Such as garbage collection, street sweeping, sewer lines and even, sometimes, running water.

"I couldn't believe I had never heard about something so awful happening in our own country, the deliberate exclusion of areas with a high minority population and areas with low income statistics is deplorable and deeply racist whether that was the intent or not!"

The problem is, this happens everywhere thanks to our current tax system. Not only do affluent areas receive the bulk of the taxpayer dollars, they also happen to be mostly white. You've already seen these areas, clearly labeled by signs as "unincorporated areas". The unclaimed territories where, despite often times working in the more affluent areas and contributing to those economies, the tax dollars necessary to fund their schools barely make the cut. Sometimes, there aren't even enough tax dollars to fund the schools. Leading to legal battles trying to get children into schools in municipalities they aren't claimed by, despite in some cases being in the center of the municipality.

"I just... can't believe this, I knew most of this but it was like I had never connected the dots before, my lack of experience and exposure to the issues people of color face on a daily basis encouraged my own cognitive dissonance in regard to these blatant abuses of civil rights."

Most people know about the economic inequality associated with tax districts, and funding allocation. However, few people are aware of the specific practices involved.

"Color me shocked!"

In addition to the problematic process called municipal underbounding, few people know what involuntary annexation is. This is a process in which a mildly affluent area is gobbled up by a municipality, which leads to increased taxes, and very rarely any additional services from the municipality, as the affluent areas already had the services the less than affluent areas go without. That's right, not even rich white people like this process, but for different reasons. While they dislike being forcibly annexed into a municipality that offers them very little by way of services, they would also insist that annexing a poor area would be 'unfair' to the rest of the municipality as their tax dollars would largely go towards providing services to an area that didn't have them to begin with.

Yes this problem is largely based on classism but the undertones of racism are prevalent, and largely complicated due to a system designed to ensure failure on all fronts. Racial profiling actually raising reported crime rates (as you can always find some law that someone is breaking.), racial discrimination during hiring leading to lower income for people of color (despite all that affirmative action white people keep complaining about.), and generally ignoring minority rich areas when it comes to tax dollars.

So does this mean that municipalities should be forced to annex lower income areas and minority rich areas? Alas, another problem. Gentrification. By fixing up these low income areas you then increase the property value of those areas which drives up the cost and the taxes, if you do all of this without fixing the hiring discrimination then people of color will not be able to afford the areas they live in and will be forced to move.

"I'm appalled at the catch 22 here, a system designed so obviously to ensure that people of color largely cannot exist outside of poverty unless they are a part of a 'white' community. As if our government is somehow allergic to the success of minorities!"

I'm sure we're all aware, even the white West Virginian activist, that life as a minority in america, to this day, can still be hard. Yet the fact that we're not talking about this, and even that activists who largely fight for social justice don't know the details specific to the struggles people of color face until it's made the mainstream news and become the new hot button issue.

So I ask you to help make this a hot button issue by sharing this article with your friends, because I am that white activist who had no idea what municipal underbounding was, or how generally screwed minority communities are. We need to talk about this.