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The flight usually starts long before there are any crime problems. In metro Detroit as soon as a black family moves into a neighborhood everyone moves because of fear of crime, property values go down and it's a self fulfilling prophecy because it becomes a low income area which tend to attract drugs, which attracts crime.
At some point people have to stop moving out of fear, most likely if everyone had stayed put that neighborhood would be a nice mixed race working or middle class area.
I grew up in a nice family oriented part of Detroit and that is what I saw happen.
But would the people who flew away be better off if they had stayed? Just why exactly are these flying whites (who everyone seems to want to live next to) afraid of blacks in the first place? Might they have a good reason for wanting to take off? The best advice that I can offer blacks is not to get fixated on white flight but rather to focus on the reasons for white flight (and black flight too). It begins by asking these questions:
"Why don't whites (and well-to-do blacks and middle class blacks) want to live with us?"
"Why is it important to us for whites to live near us anyway?" Do we just regard ourselves as low quality people who can't live amongst ourselves? Do we really need whitey to save us and to show us how to live properly?
The proper response to white flight is not to cry about it but rather to look inward and figure out a way to change your culture so that instead of crying, the response would be "Good riddance!". "Good riddance--the people in our community will be of higher quality now that the whites are moving out--we'll have less crime, better parentage, and better schools."
Blacks really need to get over this victimhood ideology and start looking inward and trying to change their culture so that people won't want to flee. What does that mean? It means no more crime. No more drugs. No more alcohol abuse. No more babies having babies. No more out-of-wedlock births. No more into-poverty births. Small family sizes. A change to the culture so that education, productive ability, and work ethics are values. Of course that's easier said than done. Consequently, many of the black people who do live rationally and who do value those things fled for the suburbs, and who can blame them. (Note that a great many white people suffer from these very same problems and that upper class and middle class whites don't want to live near them either.)
So what is to be done with the people who engage in criminal activity, abuse drugs, and have children they cannot afford to have? They need communism--they need to be told what to do and how to live. Perhaps some or all of these people should be sterilized (which might help improve the black gene pool). (Likewise, similar measures might also help improve the white gene pool.) Of course, as an evil whitey, I can't come out and publicly advocate something like that regardless of the idea's merit. Rather, the rational black people (Bill Cosby and the like) who are sick of this crap need to take the gloves off and do it. Perhaps the people who are lamenting white flight could face reality and advocate real solutions?
But would the people who flew away be better off if they had stayed? Just why exactly are these flying whites (who everyone seems to want to live next to) afraid of blacks in the first place? Might they have a good reason for wanting to take off? The best advice that I can offer blacks is not to get fixated on white flight but rather to focus on the reasons for white flight (and black flight too). It begins by asking these questions:
"Why don't whites (and well-to-do blacks and middle class blacks) want to live with us?"
"Why is it important to us for whites to live near us anyway?" Do we just regard ourselves as low quality people who can't live amongst ourselves? Do we really need whitey to save us and to show us how to live properly?
The proper response to white flight is not to cry about it but rather to look inward and figure out a way to change your culture so that instead of crying, the response would be "Good riddance!". "Good riddance--the people in our community will be of higher quality now that the whites are moving out--we'll have less crime, better parentage, and better schools."
Blacks really need to get over this victimhood ideology and start looking inward and trying to change their culture so that people won't want to flee. What does that mean? It means no more crime. No more drugs. No more alcohol abuse. No more babies having babies. No more out-of-wedlock births. No more into-poverty births. Small family sizes. A change to the culture so that education, productive ability, and work ethics are values. Of course that's easier said than done. Consequently, many of the black people who do live rationally and who do value those things fled for the suburbs, and who can blame them. (Note that a great many white people suffer from these very same problems and that upper class and middle class whites don't want to live near them either.)
So what is to be done with the people who engage in criminal activity, abuse drugs, and have children they cannot afford to have? They need communism--they need to be told what to do and how to live. Perhaps some or all of these people should be sterilized (which might help improve the black gene pool). (Likewise, similar measures might also help improve the white gene pool.) Of course, as an evil whitey, I can't come out and publicly advocate something like that regardless of the idea's merit. Rather, the rational black people (Bill Cosby and the like) who are sick of this crap need to take the gloves off and do it. Perhaps the people who are lamenting white flight could face reality and advocate real solutions?
The initial blacks who moved in were of the same class as the whites and just regular family people, not criminals. Those blacks who could afford too also ended up moving as property values declined and the area ended up a low income area with crime. If everyone would have chilled out before fleeing it might have stayed a decent mixed race neighborhood. If whites flee and middle class blacks follow and then the whites flee again, it never ends. We will run out of places to go or end driving 3 hours to work because of the idea that black=criminal.
Detshen is right they mostly move before the crime starts going up because they think with blacks moving in more crime will follow. Poverty matters alittle bit but not as much as they have you believe. Statistics show blacks are more likely to do crime then whites even if they both live in poverty stricken areas.
dre71, I cannot agree with that at all. The color of a person's skin does not determine if someone is going to commit a crime. Like I said before, there are many factors attributable to crime. Those factors could be any or all of the following: a person's family background, integrity, religious beliefs, education levels, unemployment, and poverty levels.
IMO, to put it all on race is not thinking logically.
dre71, I cannot agree with that at all. The color of a person's skin does not determine if someone is going to commit a crime. Like I said before, there are many factors attributable to crime. Those factors could be any or all of the following: a person's family background, integrity, religious beliefs, education levels, unemployment, and poverty levels.
IMO, to put it all on race is not thinking logically.
I agree. Statistics can be skewed to support any point of view and you can always find studies to support the opposite of any study. I don't waste any energy on people who say things like "statistics don't lie" because intelligent people realize it's so easy to mislead with statistics.
I didnt mean to sound like I was saying all blacks do crime cause they dont but yes things like religion,integrity,etc have an effect but it doesn`t excuse the trash,80% fatherless society, crime, welfare, drop outs,etc. These happen with all but it is way more prevalent in the black community.Just drive thru a black then white neighborhood with the same poverty income and such the white neighborhood wont have stripped,burned,houses stores.
I didnt mean to sound like I was saying all blacks do crime cause they dont but yes things like religion,integrity,etc have an effect but it doesn`t excuse the trash,80% fatherless society, crime, welfare, drop outs,etc. These happen with all but it is way more prevalent in the black community.Just drive thru a black then white neighborhood with the same poverty income and such the white neighborhood wont have stripped,burned,houses stores.
That has more to do with inner city life than race. A lot of people don't realize how many whites live in the inner city and act the same as the poor blacks, latinos, and even asians who tend to excel in life outside the inner city form criminal gangs. Most poor whites are rural so we are less aware of them, but the effects are the similar, drop outs, fatherless children...
Middle class black people do not have a tendency to commit crime in my experience, working class blacks with good jobs do not have a tendency to commit crime. There are two main types of criminal behaviour, one is drugs, robbery, vandalism etc. this is related to low socioeconomic status and a sense of hopelessness and lack of community support.
The other main type is cheating and lying "white collar" crimes and frauds, that are based on sheer greed and selfishness. Those crimes are almost exclusively committed by middle to upper class white people. We tend to ignore these crimes, but they actually cause a tremendous amount of loss and and pain to far more people than are ever affected by inner city crime.
It's so easy to say that blacks are born to be criminals and not take any responsibility for how racism and lack of opportunity has caused this situation. It's time the american people, black and white realize how alike we are, given the same set of circumstances we tend to behave in the same way. We are more alike than we are different. It's human nature to fear people who don't look like us. That came from our tribal history, but we have the brains to see past that, and look at each other as human beings who all just want a decent life.
It's likely our next president will be a black man so blacks need to stop saying racism is the only thing holding them back, get back in school, stop having children they can't afford and re-stigmatize that behaviour. Whites need to stop saying blacks are generally less intelligent and tend to be criminals. We all need to be better people
detshen, I sgree with that as well. I just want people to be careful about the fact that if Obama does become president, that doesn't mean that racism is over either. I think people over hype the Black people think it's just racism thing anyway. People have to rightly devide between not letting it get you down and overcoming it. Just because someone "makes it", doesn't mean that they didn't have to deal with it or that it is irrelevant or not a factor at all.
With that said, I think the flight is becoming MORE economic as the "middle class" becomes more diverse and people decide on moving to places that they desire to move to. People still have their views of what a suburb looks like, stereotypically and it's not too far off. That's really a thing of common sense though as well, demographically.
With gentrification taking place in many cities across the nation, you might see more balance in cities and suburbs, as more people with "money"(mainly White) move back into the cities and people from what were more impoverished and working class neighborhoods, with people of different backgrounds, move to suburbs. It's happening in various places across the country already.
I agree nice post detshen. I think people of all colors, religions, ethnic backgrounds want a safe place to raise their families.
That said I don't think its wrong to want live among what is familiar to you. All classes of different color, ethnic, religious backgrounds have certain cultural norms that they feel comfortable with. When others with different cultural norms start to surround someone, they want to leave and find their comfort zone again. That can be confused with racism which I don't support, and sometimes its hard to tell the difference, if there is one. Some people are more adaptable than others. But I also think that seeking what's familiar to you is just natural.
If a black family finally saves enough to buy a house in a better part of town with better schools has two choices all other things being equal but for one being a black neighborhood and one a white neighborhood (assuming there is no racism in the white neighborhood) - do you blame them for choosing the black neighborhood?
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