The Gated Community Mentality

Americans, perhaps unconsciously, live with a gated community mentality. Most Americans could call themselves “Trayvons” (Trayvon Martin case 2012) because we are victims of our culture’s negligence of community, and reuse of place, and we have created a separate, isolated “bunker mentality” (Benjamin). Since the 1950s, the suburban home in the exurbs served as a protecting force in the case of an atomic bomb blast. As a result, we are the alleged perpetrators, the “George Zimmermans,” for supporting this mentality by owning these homes and keeping up with this lifestyle, by surrounding ourselves with walls and security systems. 

At least this imaginary community has a little greenery; many such communities do not. 

We fear criminality, whether or not it has to do with race, even though we are clearly exaggerating perceived threats. Sometimes we reassure ourselves that gated communities are okay and not backward ways of living because we listen to realtors give these neighborhoods pleasant names like “Serenity” and “Sierra Valley II” (these communities actually do exist). Real estate agents now brand them “master-planned community,” “landscaped resort community,” “secluded intimate neighborhood” to make Americans feel better (Benjamin). This is as foolish of a label for a product as the packaged, turn-pike suburban home which was once the Jeffersonian country estate because gated communities are artificially traditional, overly “safe” and secluded settlements which often bring together people from the same income or ethnic background, and even if they don’t do that, the residents will almost always be like-minded. This sheltered lifestyle sets residents up for a false image of security and comfort, and worst of all, complacency because they have no vision of actual threats in the world like the energy crisis, poverty, or climate change. What is actually threatening them is paranoia, the most dangerous of all, which leads them to own multiple firearms and discriminate against harmless people.

The hospital clean landscape adorned with security guards, video cameras, and speed bumps creates an us vs. them mentality, as described by a former gated community resident, in which the inhabitants believe outsiders to be poor because of their race, culture, and age. This led to the 17-year old Trayvon Martin, who was wearing a hoodie on his way to buy Skittles in a gated community, to be profiled as “suspicious,” someone who was poor, black, and up to no good. Mr. Zimmerman, who was named a private property owner by investigating police, was the alleged assailant, but wasn’t drug tested like Martin was. What is frightening is that “more than 10 million housing units” can be found in gated communities across America (Benjamin). According to the 2009 U.S. Census Bureau, that number is about 10 percent of America’s occupied homes, not counting second homes which are in gated communities. The U.S. saw a 53 percent growth of in such housing between 2001 and 2009.