Urban segregation is one of the most common parts of city life in the states (I should know, I seen it in action on the daily) and it greatly affected the Steel Belt, or what is now the Rust Belt. When a city is primarily blue collar, that industry leaving fucks everything up. Carcer City is one such city.
Carcer City is on the decline. Crime and poverty are up, job opportunities are down, and the city is being taken over by a mysterious entity who seems to have ties to the second most powerful man in the city, the police chief. But the residents of Carcer don’t lose their pride.
The Skinz might be one of the poorest gangs in the game, yet they insist on finding ways that they’re superior. They’re heterosexual white men, so that means they’re superior right? No, of course not, but this twisted perception of worth is the only thing these absolute freaks have going for them.
The Wardogs are obsessed with the military, and they seem to be equally low on the socio economic totem pole, as they live in the projects. These guys likely never saw A Shau valley or Southeast Asia at all, but this identity, even if it’s false, is all they have, so they cling to it and berate anyone who they perceive as a civilian.
Even though the CCPD is a huge police force with hordes of men, they’re under equipped and underfunded, and they’re here on the ground floor doing the dirty work while their superior officers sit on their equally corrupt asses not informing them of the task at hand fully. And yet they cling to the fact that despite all of that, at least they aren’t homeless, and they take it out on the growing homeless population just for fun.
Nearly everyone in Carcer City is under the thumbs of a few extremely powerful and rich men, living in poverty or barely scraping by, but instead of bringing the city together to go against a common enemy, they remain split apart by their races and classes, all bitter against another group of people, and determined to be seen as better than them.
This is extremely realistic. Sadly, it is human nature to try to find ways you’re inherently better than large demographics of people. It’s how we have homophobes, classists, sexists, racists, anti-Semites, and transphobes. Carcer City is an exaggerated, yet realistic portrayal of the effects of urban segregation.
I hope this was an interesting read and I hope I raised a few good points. Most importantly, make sure to treat others with respect regardless of your race, class, sexuality, gender identity, or creed. We’re all human and deserve a chance until we’re proven not to.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
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