What causes white flight (or flight of any sort)?

[Mr.Retired]

D_a_g_o ,Wop,guinea,goomba..................... oh yeah. Heard them all growing as italians on a predominantly irish block in the 60's in NYC. Constant fist fights just to play. As the wops moved in the Micks moved out. Oh those joyous sounds still resonate;
"That D_a_g_o can't play with us... too greasy. Smells like garlic..... " .
I tell ya though; One or two broken noses later, mine included, and trust me those little milky whites bled like sieves.
" Boy oh boy That guinea can hit. He's one of us! "
My best friend was Irish. Pop called him Red cause of his hair and freckles. I called him Bones cause he was so skinny. Gave you the shirt off his back. We hit it off first time we met and played stickball. He had a ball and a glove. I went and took grandmas broom handle she used to sweep the stoop for a stickball bat. Match made in heaven. If Bones saw me get ambushed by 5 or 6 bullys he would jump into the fray throw his licks just to stick up for me. We watched out for each other. Of all things,years later, died of an enlarged heart. His heart was just too big and too beautiful for this earth. Our friendship? Like two peas in a pod. I jerk a tear still 50 years later thinking about him. God rest your soul Bones. My only best friend. May the light of heaven shine on your grave.

The only way we can truly live and love amongst each other is when we are forced to scrap it out together.
When we assimilate and treat each other as equivalents.
Camaraderie such as this can be found amongst workers in the same field, baseball players,police officers,servicemen, etc......


Don't let the policies of political correctness deball this generation.
Protect the First Amendment.
The official nations motto is " In God we Trust "
Pray to God for inner strength.
And finally; Let all School Mottos across this land read the following upon entering classes:
Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me......... Fini

[Troyfan]

White flight is not why people leave cities. People go to suburbs because they like living there more than in cities. They prefer 1/4 acre lots, no upstairs neighbors, quite streets to their opposites in the city. For most, whether their city neighbors were black or white is of secondary importance.

Even millennials are moving to suburbs now. It's just a better lifestyle.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

I was a victim if this bussing back in the 70's. We lived in the suburbs of Jacksonville, Fl and they experimented with the 7th grade. My family didn't move and it was a miserable year. We were bussed to an inner city school and the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I got into a fistfight with another male (black) and the tension got even worse. 3 days before school was done for the year several older boys cornered me at my bus and threatened to knife me for beating up their little brother. The fight lasted all of 10 seconds before we were separated. The last 2 days of school my parents kept me home and I was told there were few, to no white kids in school. We did move to VA after this but it was job related for my parents.

That part of Jacksonville was horrifying.

As a Native American, I empathize with the sociological problems of the inner cities that are predominantly African American or Latino or recent immigrants. But in downtown Jacksonville I was trying to buy gas one day and a homeless local minority wanted to assault me while he was drunk. It was bizarre. I thought "Why would you want to assault a member of another minority group who actually empathizes with the inner city"? To make a long story short, I felt really betrayed. I chose not to fight and just drove off. But that guy was drunk and seething with very deep hatred at me - a brown Native American. Go figure. I also did not want to fight because I know if the cops show up they will just likely throw both guys in jail regardless of who started it. Then it would get infinitely worse. The Florida penal system is bursting at the seams with gang wars, HIV, disease, low budgets, staff turnover, etc. It's best just to stay out of trouble, so I left.

If I can go through that then I can only imagine your experience. It sounds awful. So downtown Jacksonville is still suffering from problems. After that, I spoke to African Americans in Tallahassee about that. I told them about the irony. They said that even they do not want to go to downtown Jacksonville because it's "gang" territory. So, they told me just not to go back there, and they clearly chose to avoid that part of town as well.

It's a good thing you left and did not end up in the Juvenile prison system of Florida. It would have gotten infinitely worse in there - riots, etc. The "state joint" in Florida is best avoided.

[Thoreau424]

White fear = white flight? Maybe just a change of scenery? The grass is greener on the other side of the fence? I've seen hispanic and black flights too, to better and improved conditions. Does that count, or are we to only focus on and worry about white people? Do we maybe have too much time on our hands to dwell on such movements and migrations?

[KimberlyAnn53]

Originally Posted by WestCobb

I was born in the 70s, so too young to experience this firsthand but I have heard accounts from my older relatives. I'm a pretty liberal guy with diverse friends and even family members who have married in, but I think forced bussing was a terrible idea. Throwing children together like that in that era did more harm than good to the cause of eliminating racism.

My mom lived in a white (somewhat rural) area of southern California during the late 50s and 60s, and blacks began moving in. She said it was hell. In high school, the black teens would harass her and the other white girls almost daily. Even though she was a law-abiding and respecting person, she had a soft spot for the Hell's Angels as an adult because they would come to the high school and beat up the black kids they saw harassing the whites. I know this sounds terrible, but that was just a different time. Of course the overwhelming blame should be placed on the laws and social infrastructure to support and maintain white supremacy -- this happened in every state, not just the South. That said, a lot of whites from this era had good reason to despise the blacks that moved into their areas and acted thuggish.

My mom's family moved away, and pretty much all of them were racists for life.

I had to really fight the urge to be racist. I was harassed/ beat up all through school cause I was a quiet white girl who was pretty much on my own. You couldn't pay me to go back in time. My life was a living hell. Throughout life I had learned not all black women are mean. It took time.

[NCN]

When you have children you have to consider their safety when you choose where to live. We left Charlotte because we didn't feel safe there.

[nurider2002]

It can be as simple as wanting to live among folks who share your cultural norms, e.g., some cultures are more boisterous, or have more casual or more strict manners of interaction and, prefer neighbors of the same ilk. I remember as a child, a neighbor expressing disbelief that another neighbor was hanging laundry out to dry on a Sunday. She felt this was a reflection of poor character or social class. So, it’s not always about racism or bigotry. A lot of people seek out neighborhoods where they “think” they are among like minded neighbors.

[censusdata]

In 2017 White Flight is less of an issue. It mostly occurs in working class areas. Educated Whites are moving back to downtown and urban neighborhoods. The main complaint today is about poor minorities being priced out of neighborhoods where generations of their ancestors lived. Even Detroit has seen an influx of over 10,000 Whites in the past decade.