LOIE
Gold Member
- May 11, 2017
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I'm still seeing comments that blame all of the problems of the predominantly black inner cities on the people who live there. I want to share some things from "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander that speak clearly to this issue:
We faced a fork in the road one decade after Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were laid to rest. During the last 1970s, jobs had suddenly disappeared from urban areas across America, and unemployment rates had skyrocketed. In 1954, black and white youth unemployment rates in America were equal, with blacks actually having a slightly high rate of employment in the 16-19 age group. By 1984, however, the black unemployment rate had nearly quadrupled, while the white rate had increased only marginally. This was NOT due to a major change in black values, behavior or culture; this dramatic shift was the result of deindustrialization, globalization and technological advancement. Urban factories shut down and the nation transitioned to a service economy. Suddenly African Americans were trapped in jobless ghettos, desperate for work.
The economic collapse of inner-city black communities COULD have inspired a national outpouring of compassion and support. A new War of Poverty COULD have been launched. Economic stimulus packages COULD have sailed through Congress to bail out those trapped in jobless ghettos through no fault of their own. Education, job training, public transportation, and relocation assistance COULD have been provided, so that youth of color would have been able to survive the rough transition to a new global economy and secure jobs in distant suburbs. Constructive interventions would have been good not only for African Americans trapped in ghettos, but also for blue-collar workers of all colors, many of whom were suffering too, if less severely. A wave of compassion and concern COULD have flooded poor and working-class communities. All of this could have happened, but it didn’t. Instead, we declared a War on Drugs.
The collapse of the inner-city economies coincided with the conservative backlash against the Civil Rights Movement, resulting in the perfect storm. Almost overnight, black men found themselves unnecessary to the American economy and demonized by mainstream society. They were vilified in the media and condemned for their condition as part of well-orchestrated political campaign.
We faced a fork in the road one decade after Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were laid to rest. During the last 1970s, jobs had suddenly disappeared from urban areas across America, and unemployment rates had skyrocketed. In 1954, black and white youth unemployment rates in America were equal, with blacks actually having a slightly high rate of employment in the 16-19 age group. By 1984, however, the black unemployment rate had nearly quadrupled, while the white rate had increased only marginally. This was NOT due to a major change in black values, behavior or culture; this dramatic shift was the result of deindustrialization, globalization and technological advancement. Urban factories shut down and the nation transitioned to a service economy. Suddenly African Americans were trapped in jobless ghettos, desperate for work.
The economic collapse of inner-city black communities COULD have inspired a national outpouring of compassion and support. A new War of Poverty COULD have been launched. Economic stimulus packages COULD have sailed through Congress to bail out those trapped in jobless ghettos through no fault of their own. Education, job training, public transportation, and relocation assistance COULD have been provided, so that youth of color would have been able to survive the rough transition to a new global economy and secure jobs in distant suburbs. Constructive interventions would have been good not only for African Americans trapped in ghettos, but also for blue-collar workers of all colors, many of whom were suffering too, if less severely. A wave of compassion and concern COULD have flooded poor and working-class communities. All of this could have happened, but it didn’t. Instead, we declared a War on Drugs.
The collapse of the inner-city economies coincided with the conservative backlash against the Civil Rights Movement, resulting in the perfect storm. Almost overnight, black men found themselves unnecessary to the American economy and demonized by mainstream society. They were vilified in the media and condemned for their condition as part of well-orchestrated political campaign.
