Because segregation permits large organizations, like the state, to easily provide differing classes of services (or sets of rights) to the different, segregated groups, again with small biases having outsized systemic consequences.
Example: when I was growing up, the original 313 Detroit area code broke off the then-new 810 (and later 248 and 586) zone, leaving only the city of Detroit and the west side as 313. To a majority of the metro area, after that split, non-810 denoted non-white. It allowed people who might not otherwise be able to discriminate an easy tool to do so, and some businesses would implement bias against customer database records that had area codes that strongly correlated with race and socioeconomic status, furthering the historic divide. Prior to the area code split, this wasn’t as easily available to those who might do that.
It furthers systemic inequality, and some of the core tenets of our society are that we are all equal before the law and all deserve a level playing field in the market.
Wouldn’t it be easier in some ways to suppress a minority if they are just scattered about through the general populace and have a tougher time developing a community and addressing common concerns and interests?
Example: when I was growing up, the original 313 Detroit area code broke off the then-new 810 (and later 248 and 586) zone, leaving only the city of Detroit and the west side as 313. To a majority of the metro area, after that split, non-810 denoted non-white. It allowed people who might not otherwise be able to discriminate an easy tool to do so, and some businesses would implement bias against customer database records that had area codes that strongly correlated with race and socioeconomic status, furthering the historic divide. Prior to the area code split, this wasn’t as easily available to those who might do that.
It furthers systemic inequality, and some of the core tenets of our society are that we are all equal before the law and all deserve a level playing field in the market.
Separate isn’t equal.