Is white flight and re-gentrification responsible for the impoverishment of black communities?

Question

“White flight” has a strong negative connotation in polite society. It is used to tar the motives of mainstream America. Americans returning from service in WWII chose to live in the suburbs rather than urban life.

White flight continued throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s. It was driven by knowing that city neighborhoods that had become inhabitable were falling into further into disarray. That included the influx of blacks that had moved there.

It is in discernible form in Democrat run cities like Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Newark, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore and Memphis, among others. More recently, some white, affluent residents have moved back into central-city neighborhoods such as Dorchester, Mass.

This is sometimes called Gentrification and is described as a reversal of white flight; something that many had wished would happen. This movement now has a negative image, a classic example of "white guilt".

The reinvestment in and reinvigoration of city neighborhoods brought accusations that longtime black residents were being displaced. This is a mythology that has emerged and blames white flight for the impoverishment of black communities.

Academia has strained to attribute this to government policy, dealing with housing finance, highways, schools, zoning, and taxation to create wealthy white suburbs at the expense of black neighborhoods. These strained attempts to deflect from the inherent failures within Democrat and black leadership have existed for over a half century.

White flight was a major force in 20th-century American urban history, but mythology that paints it as a bad thing is false. Black leadership should embrace gentrification for its own people.

emeraldsaphire · Accepted Answer

I kinda disagree with some of the retelling here. I think after WWII many service members had easy access to cheap loans because of military benefits, combine that with the idealization of suburban life in media and the housing boom, and that's what lead to the creation of suburbia. I just don't think the suburbs were caused by racism.

In the 60s we did see massive race riots that destroyed entire neighborhoods. Rather then rebuilding many people just chose to cut their losses and move somewhere else. This wasn't "white flight" it was people trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I do agree with your criticism of many of the policies enacted in cities during the "Great society". Prior to their enactment Black Americans were the fastest growing group economically. Poverty in america was going down each year. Today, black people are about as poor as they were 60 years ago, and the poverty rate has stayed the same.

The funny thing is the New democrats have done all the things that the old Jim crow era democrats could have dreamed about. They have destroyed the black family. Stopped them from getting richer. Gotten them to abort nearly half their population each year. And they have done all this well getting them to vote 80% democrat each year. Margret Sanger and Woodrow Wilson would be so proud of the supposed "anti racist" Democrats

Kelley1 · Accepted Answer

Blacks have a lower average income because they have a lower average IQ. The Vietnamese Boat people were far more impoverished than blacks and they didn't know much English. However, because they have an average IQ equal to whites, it only took them two generation to equal or exceed the income of whites. Blacks and Whites with an equal IQ have near equal incomes. In time, the average IQ of Blacks and Whites will approach equality and when that happens the impoverish rates of Blacks and Whites will equalize.

jshm2 · Accepted Answer

LOL, tell me you're racist, without admitting you're racist.

Black communities were not “naturally” impoverished. They were excluded from mortgages, redlined out of wealth-building neighborhoods, segregated into underfunded districts, denied equal public investment, then watched capital leave through white flight and return later as gentrification — usually without the original residents sharing in the upside.

So no, the problem is not some moral failure of Black communities. The problem is that White America drained value from those communities, suppressed their assets, and then acted surprised when the balance sheet reflected it.

NaultD · Accepted Answer

Wouldn't red lining and unable to sell black homes at market value a bigger contributing factor?

Homes are supposed to be retain value but gets destroyed while the minority group is trying to gain generational wealth. From their white gentrification can buy it as cheap as possible.

Ariesman81Nshiiit · Answer

White flight. Minneapolis is a prime example. All major retail stores are or will be jumping ship. With loss of convenience goes the affluent, with the loss of the affluent goes the tax base, with the loss of the tax base goes the police department, with the loss of the police department goes the neighborhood.

MrChinaski · Answer

I have enough fun throwing myself into socio-political minefields in my own country without taking up your kind offer to throw myself into yours.

exitseven · Answer

Most of the democrat run cities have been run into the ground with crime and drugs and homelessness. Anyone who has enough money not to live there will go elsewhere.

strateguy632 · Answer

that was not the cause. flee was the effect of a different cause.

Mike_Hum · Answer

If a black person moves into a white neighborhood it's called diversity If a white person moves into a black neighborhood it's called gentrification.

Cidknee · Answer

All of that reeks of liberal presence. They are the sum total of 100% of what's wrong with the entire world and should be exterminated! Fuck'em!!

Agape93 · Answer

Lol no

Is white flight and re-gentrification responsible for the impoverishment of black communities?

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Is white flight and re-gentrification responsible for the impoverishment of black communities?

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How much do white people become targets of racism?

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