Shay Riley of the great website BookerRising recently commented on the recent printed story regarding the deteriorating cconditions of the Martin Luther King Jr. house in Atlanta, Georgia and its historical community that surrounds Auburn Avenue (a street that at one time used to be home to some of the most successful black businesses in the city). Notice I say “used to be” because today that part of town has considerably gone down hill (crime, drugs, poverty have been part of the norm there for years). Like many areas across the USA, as black folks are able to gather the financial means, they are leaving urban environments and are heading towards suburbia. Two questions I wish to explore a little bit here: “Are blacks chasing whites into the suburbs?” and “Are blacks who live in the suburbs aborting their responsibility to preserve rich heritages that are oftentimes left in the inner-city?”
My Atlanta Story (very short version)
Back in 1995, I made the decision to leave a very lucrative engineering position in New Jersey to work for a non-profit organization whose focus was on black students (Jr. high, high school, and college) in Atlanta, Georgia. Although I was very uncertain about my future (financially-speaking), I was very excited about the opportunity of working with kids on a full-time basis as well as moving to Atlanta.
Growing up, I always enjoyed reading the latest Ebony magazines that usually did a story on successful blacks that lived in that city. As a person that grew up in the Northeast, seeing black folks not only owning large beautiful homes that were brand new, but living in their own communities was something of a dream to me.
It didn’t take me long during my seven year stay in that area that the pictures that I saw in Ebony magazine only told part of the Atlanta experience. Poverty, crime, drugs, prostitution, etc. was also permanent fixtures of the Atlanta landscape. What I once thought was a “mecca” for black progress had turned into the same sad tale that I witnessed in cites in the Northeast–white flight followed by black flight.
Are blacks chasing whites into the suburbs?
On the surface, it would sure appear to be the case, but I think if you look a little deeper at this trend, you will see that this has very little to do with color.
Like any other people group, blacks want to live in an environment that is free from all that ails the inner-city. Unfortunately, it has primarily been the suburbs that has offered these better opportunities for minorities in this country.
As I have mentioned on this site numerous times in the past, family structure plays a huge part in what ails inner-city communities and unfortunately our low marriage rate does not help the situation. Statistics constantly show us that repeat offenders oftentimes come from broken homes. This places an extra burden on the local police force who now has to play part-time parent. This explains the usual high crime rates you find in inner-city environments. Single-parented homes oftentimes place a heavy burden on the local school system. Teachers who are only paid to teach are forced into a situation where they too in many cases have to play part-time parent to kids who are missing a mother or father back home. Non-English speaking children also tend to slow down the overall progress of a school system as they must also ensure that these children can understand basic English as they try to teach them on their peer level. For the families who are regular participants in the lives of their children and have the means to consider other options, they are usually left with no other option but to look to the more stable suburban environment.
Let’s face it, as a community (particularly Blacks and Latinos) we have a lot of baggage. We know this to be true. That is why many of us have made to the choice not to stay in the inner city–because of the drama! Again, this is largely based on the effects of a low marriage rate that fosters instability in our family structure. On top of all of this, many of us bring with us to the suburbs an expectancy for local government to fill in these self-induced gaps in our communities (the same expectancy that overloads local governments in the inner-city). As a result, as the years progress suburban communities will inevitably find themselves fighting the same problems that were once isolated to the inner-city.
FOR THOSE WHO THINK I AM “PICKING” ON MINORITIES, PLEASE READ…
One of the main characteristics of neighborhoods that are known to have the problems you would often find in the inner-city is the high rate of single-parented homes. This is regardless of race. One does not have to look too far to discover that even whites are not totally immune from this negative trend. The main point here is how family stability directly affects the stability of the community.
Because whites tend to have a more stable family structure than that of Blacks and Latinos, you will find in many cases that their communities tend to reflect that same stability (crime is much lower, schools perform better, more shopping choices, cleaner environment, etc.). So for inner-city minorities that are in search of a solution to the very unstable inner-city environment, moving to the suburbs seems to be the obvious choice.
What usually causes a suburban community to deteriorate has nothing to do with the increase of a minority presence. Instead it has plenty to do with an increase of a population with a poor family stability record (which eventually increases poverty, crime, etc.)
So are blacks chasing whites? I think the answer to this question is “yes” and “no“. Generally speaking, blacks that relocate to the suburbs are doing so because of one thing only: The desire to live in a stable environment. Unfortunately, this oftentimes is based on the stability of the white family structure.
Do blacks who live in the suburbs have a responsibility to the inner-city?
Generally speaking, yes. However, I still maintain that unless we make a serious effort to improve the family structure in the black community, urban revitalization will only be external solution to internal problem. Anybody with money can fix up some dilapidated buildings, but strong family and community structure is needed to maintain and build true progress across the community at large.
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