Income gaps widen for inner-city poor, rural South as affluent blacks leave industrial cities (Atlanta: low income, sales)

[arjay57]

Several comments relevant to discussions we've had here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/income-gaps-widen-for-inner-city-poor-rural-south-as-affluent-blacks-leave-industrial-cities/2011/12/08/gIQAnZa8dO_story.html (broken link)

[cqholt]

Sad that in these modern times there is still a huge racial gap between the haves and have-nots. African Americans still make up the largest part of the urban poor and politicians don't want help. They just want to throw money at the problem instead of encouraging businesses to open in poor neighborhoods. There are no banks and grocery stores in poor communities.

[Indentured Servant]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Sad that in these modern times there is still a huge racial gap between the haves and have-nots. African Americans still make up the largest part of the urban poor and politicians don't want help. They just want to throw money at the problem instead of encouraging businesses to open in poor neighborhoods. There are no banks and grocery stores in poor communities.

Modernity has no influence over human nature. The flaws in humans that resulted in years of racial oppression have nothing to do with modernity or antiquity. The truth is that black people are and have been at competitive disadvantage in this nation. That was the inheritance of oppression. Even if one argues that it is more class than race, which I do not, given that the inheritance of oppression was a much larger percent of blacks in poverty, classism becomes racism.

The fact that years of racism created a skew in black poverty rates, relative to whites, classism, hence, manifest as racism because it impacts blacks unfairly due to a higher percentage of blacks being poor. America never FIXED what it broke and it left black America with a limp that keeps us from running the race as fast as the competition.

[tonygeorgia]

I blame slavery

[ATLTJL]

Can't speak to the rest of the nation, but in Atlanta the civic leaders have no incentive to help the impoverished population.

If they did, how would they get re-elected? It would throw a huge monkey wrench in the current system of promise handouts to the poor to win their votes, then get into office and do whater you want and be as corrupt as you want. Then at re-election time, just promise more handouts. So long as you keep the handouts coming, you can keep getting back into office and doing whatever you want.

If they actually did help educate and bring up the poor, they might start electing decent local leadership. Good for the city, bad for the politicians.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Sad that in these modern times there is still a huge racial gap between the haves and have-nots. African Americans still make up the largest part of the urban poor and politicians don't want help. They just want to throw money at the problem instead of encouraging businesses to open in poor neighborhoods. There are no banks and grocery stores in poor communities.

Hmmmm....I recall there was a story about a Publix in one of the crummier parts of town that closed a while back because their shoplifting rate was something like 10x the normal rate, and it made the business unsustainable. Maybe instead of "encouraging businesses to open in poor neighborhoods", someone could "encourage poor people not to steal from the businesses in their communities".

Just a crazy idea....

[GRS86]

It's simply that the business and job opportunities for professional, educated African Americans are greater in the larger, more sophisticated metro areas of the South than they are going to be in the Northeast or the Midwest.

Did I mention the better weather?

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Hmmmm....I recall there was a story about a Publix in one of the crummier parts of town that closed a while back because their shoplifting rate was something like 10x the normal rate, and it made the business unsustainable. Maybe instead of "encouraging businesses to open in poor neighborhoods", someone could "encourage poor people not to steal from the businesses in their communities".

Just a crazy idea....

That part in bold about the Vine City Publix was nothing more than a nasty rumor that no one has ever been able to produce actual evidence of. At the time of it's closing, Publix stated the real reason why it closed: It wasn't meeting sales quotas to justify staying open. Imagine that. In a low income neighborhood, people didn't spend money on the big ticket items that Publix stores in higher income areas thrive on. It also lacked a Pharmacy for some inexplicable reason, another reason for people not to shop there.

The shopping meme is nothing more than libel drivel rooted in a incorrect social assumption about a demographic that lives in that area, not fact. And trust me, shrink from shop lifting isn't a reason to close a store usually. Just look at retail establishments in Buckhead, they have more product loss to shoplifting than probably any other retail district in the city. The difference is that the people who shop at that store offset the losses by buying lots of expensive stuff.

[RoslynHolcomb]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

Hmmmm....I recall there was a story about a Publix in one of the crummier parts of town that closed a while back because their shoplifting rate was something like 10x the normal rate, and it made the business unsustainable. Maybe instead of "encouraging businesses to open in poor neighborhoods", someone could "encourage poor people not to steal from the businesses in their communities".

Just a crazy idea....

Yet another ecological fallacy. The assumption that the "poor people" and the thieves are one and the same population. There's no proof of that. In fact most criminals tend to be single males. Most poor people in this country are women with children. Two different populations to be sure.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by GRS86

It's simply that the business and job opportunities for professional, educated African Americans are greater in the larger, more sophisticated metro areas of the South than they are going to be in the Northeast or the Midwest.

Did I mention the better weather?

If you're talking about only the smaller industrial northern and midwestern cities which might not have diverse economies, there may be some truth to that.

That said, I would speculate that my own midwestern home metro stacks up rather well against the Atlanta metro for such positions regardless of race.

No reason to leave the midwest just for a job. The weather is a factor for a lot of people, tho, I know...