The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Camden is considered an economically depressed area. It has an unemployment rate of 36 percent, and one in three of its residents are poor. However, community leaders there do not agree with the company labeling it the nation’s most dangerous city.

Black community leaders told BlackAmericaWeb.com that, while they cannot deny that many cities with large black populations do have problems with crime and drugs, they seem to get an unfair amount of attention.

“You have to believe that race has something to do with these rankings – the black people have been stereotyped,” said Camden City Councilwoman C. Louise Dobbs, who lives in Whitman Park, one of Camden’s most notorious sections. “We’ve been known to have a bad reputation. Granted, the younger generation has a lot of anger, and they’re the ones committing a lot of the crimes. But kids are acting out everywhere. But people focus all the negativity toward [blacks]. So, yeah, I think [black cities being considered most dangerous] is because we have the high population of African-Americans and Hispanics. We’re considered the worst.” (read more)

Camden, New Jersey (A city that I am well familiar with being that I grew up minutes from there) was just recently ranked #1 as the “Most Dangerous City”. Camden was always a very depressing city to me (even with Philly being right across the river). My Dad (who was a community advocate in the area) had a very hard time trying to get various groups to not only work together, but to remain committed to the city. Needless to say, all black folks.