It’s interesting how you mentioned lily white Detroit’s: thriving economy, successful schools, and a well maintained infrastructure. But what you and others like you, fail to mention is how and why Detroit had those better amenities when Detroit was mostly white. First thing that needs to be understood is that when Detroit was mostly white, the population was close to two million. with that being said, ofcourse, your going to have better schools, infrastructure and a thriving economy with less crime and safer streets because you have many more people working and paying taxes. This was the golden era of Detroit’s Automobile Industry and there wasn’t any foreign competition at that time and not to mention post WWII good times economy the nation was in with the G.I. bill, which Blacks didn’t have access to, even the black WWII Vets.
Now what you need to understand is..lets say, 500,000 of the 2,000,000 living in Detroit are Blacks, now remember we are talking about the early 1950’s right? Ok AT&T didn’t hire Black phone Technicians until 1967, blacks didn’t have equal housing opportunities, there were laws on the books in Detroit which prohibited whites from selling any of their property to blacks and some of those laws were on the books up until the 1970’s, Banks for sure didn’t give many blacks access to capital for startup businesses, blacks were subjugated to menial jobs with little hope of ever advancing, even if they were qualified. Blacks rarely ,if ever saw themselves protrayed in the local or national media in a positive light. And when blacks did get into positions, they were treated much worst than their white counter parts. I could go on for days writing about all of the racist injustices that were prevalent during those times and many still are today.
With all of those factors that blacks had to deal with and still do in many respects, When whites moved out, ofcourse they took with them many of those resources that you mentioned with them. The 500,000 blacks left in the city and their offsrings where light years behind competing with the white establishments. This was kind of like a rich family with 10 kids, two of those kids are step children who joined the family later on. This family had a very successful business for years. the Dad and Mom were the founders of the business and there 10 kids
all had a part in participating in the business. Eight of the Kids were given love, nurturing, access to whatever schooling was necessary to become a productive member of the business with all the rewards afforded to them. The two step kids from the moment of there arrival were never accepted as real full members of the family. They were treated like 3rd class family members not given the same love nurturing and access to the family business knowlege inheritance and its resources, they could only work in menial jobs sweeping, driving a truck. and doing back breaking dangerous jobs with little or no pay which ofcourse the family business benifited from greatly, not having any access to the inner workings of the family business. For years the two step kids are demeaned, demoralized, putdown,
on an emotional & phycological level. Then one day the Family decides to move the business upstate leaving the two step kids to fend for themselves. Not only do both of the two step kids have inadequate resources and know-how, they have to deal with two of the other family members who own the local media, who day in & day out year in/year out run stories about how
all of the short comings of the two step kids adding to further denigration and character assasination of the two step kids causing all members of the family and others outside the family not to trust them. In essense the world that has been created for the two step kids is an
enviorment which has limited resources and fosters a very real sense of hoplessness and a feeling of being castrated from the rest of society. I remember watching a PBS documentary on
how Nazi Germany before they put the jews and others in concentration camps and gased them, they first stripped them of ther citizenship possesions and then stripped them of their dignity by forcing them to live in Ghetto neighborhoods created by the Nazi government where there were very limited resources. This particlular Jewish survivors comments of the conditions paralleled some of the same conditions in Urban city Ghettos. Any trained phycologist will till you when human beings are put under certain types of constaint stresses where there is no hope of escaping, the human coping mechanism takes over. This coping mechanism can manifest itself
in many ways. I am under the belief from my own observations, research and experincing being black in America that this is part of the causes of Blacks behaviour patterens that have become part of our culture or subculture. Look at what happened to many parts of the former Soviet Union. They experinced a mega boom in crime and proverty, why because they were subjected to limited resources after the break up of the Soviet Union much like Blacks in America. And have you ever even factored in the massive Ghetto’s of London England during the 18th and 19th centuries and how many of those people lived impoverished beyond belief where it wasn’t uncommon for babes and kids to be left in the streets with the garbage, rats and filth, naked to die and or fend for themselves. Even India has a system where certain groups of their people can never by law, be allowed to move up in society..many people don’t know that or they have not bothered to mention it when discussing such issues here in the US. Most if not all of Blacks self destructive social behavour can be linked to the coping mechanism cause directly or indirectly to the United States historical racist policies and institutions being perpetrated upon blacks. Blacks are in a constant state of balancing out the endorphins in our brains which control many emotional and phycological feelings of self-worth and happiness. It’s no wonder why blacks spend more money on liquor, entertainment, cigarettes, clothes..and all other things bling. I mean come on folks! this thing is so simple and blatantly obvious that a fifth grader should have been able to figure it out. This is not to say that all blacks are affected by in the same way oe on the same level. But this does shed a bit of light on some of those 6 oclock News headlines such as teen shoot dead over a pair of gym shoes or a club got shot up because of an domestic argument. the pair of gym shoes to that teenager represents a constant endorhine rush or a method of balancing out his or her endorphines which are under a constant state of attack. It has become part of that persons character persona and self worth to the point where resulting to violence to protect your gymshoes or obtain another pair of someones elses gymshoes is acceptable defacto behaviour. With the club getting shot up issue, let me digress for a moment,
if I may, I recall several years back a relative told me that she and a few friends went to a mostly white club in the suburbs and to her surprise, she notice that the whites did not have any fancy dress at the club they were in jeans t-shirts and the like. I responded to her, "Oh yeh! don’t you get it, they don’t have to dress up to go out to party because they don’t have a pressing need to balance their endorphins by receiving praise and, they get treated like first class citizens in America everyday and there selfesteem and selfworth is intact so there fore they don’t have to spend extra money on flashy clothes, they can just concentrate on the partying.
Anyone who thinks blacks folks problems are only cause by blacks your very misinformed.
It’s interesting how you mentioned lily white Detroit’s: thriving economy, successful schools, and a well maintained infrastructure. But what you and others like you, fail to mention is how and why Detroit had those better amenities when Detroit was mostly white. First thing that needs to be understood is that when Detroit was mostly white, the population was close to two million. with that being said, ofcourse, your going to have better schools, infrastructure and a thriving economy with less crime and safer streets because you have many more people working and paying taxes. This was the golden era of Detroit’s Automobile Industry and there wasn’t any foreign competition at that time and not to mention post WWII good times economy the nation was in with the G.I. bill, which Blacks didn’t have access to, even the black WWII Vets.
Now what you need to understand is..lets say, 500,000 of the 2,000,000 living in Detroit are Blacks, now remember we are talking about the early 1950’s right? Ok AT&T didn’t hire Black phone Technicians until 1967, blacks didn’t have equal housing opportunities, there were laws on the books in Detroit which prohibited whites from selling any of their property to blacks and some of those laws were on the books up until the 1970’s, Banks for sure didn’t give many blacks access to capital for startup businesses, blacks were subjugated to menial jobs with little hope of ever advancing, even if they were qualified. Blacks rarely ,if ever saw themselves protrayed in the local or national media in a positive light. And when blacks did get into positions, they were treated much worst than their white counter parts. I could go on for days writing about all of the racist injustices that were prevalent during those times and many still are today.
With all of those factors that blacks had to deal with and still do in many respects, When whites moved out, ofcourse they took with them many of those resources that you mentioned with them. The 500,000 blacks left in the city and their offsrings where light years behind competing with the white establishments. This was kind of like a rich family with 10 kids, two of those kids are step children who joined the family later on. This family had a very successful business for years. the Dad and Mom were the founders of the business and there 10 kids
all had a part in participating in the business. Eight of the Kids were given love, nurturing, access to whatever schooling was necessary to become a productive member of the business with all the rewards afforded to them. The two step kids from the moment of there arrival were never accepted as real full members of the family. They were treated like 3rd class family members not given the same love nurturing and access to the family business knowlege inheritance and its resources, they could only work in menial jobs sweeping, driving a truck. and doing back breaking dangerous jobs with little or no pay which ofcourse the family business benifited from greatly, not having any access to the inner workings of the family business. For years the two step kids are demeaned, demoralized, putdown,
on an emotional & phycological level. Then one day the Family decides to move the business upstate leaving the two step kids to fend for themselves. Not only do both of the two step kids have inadequate resources and know-how, they have to deal with two of the other family members who own the local media, who day in & day out year in/year out run stories about how
all of the short comings of the two step kids adding to further denigration and character assasination of the two step kids causing all members of the family and others outside the family not to trust them. In essense the world that has been created for the two step kids is an
enviorment which has limited resources and fosters a very real sense of hoplessness and a feeling of being castrated from the rest of society. I remember watching a PBS documentary on
how Nazi Germany before they put the jews and others in concentration camps and gased them, they first stripped them of ther citizenship possesions and then stripped them of their dignity by forcing them to live in Ghetto neighborhoods created by the Nazi government where there were very limited resources. This particlular Jewish survivors comments of the conditions paralleled some of the same conditions in Urban city Ghettos. Any trained phycologist will till you when human beings are put under certain types of constaint stresses where there is no hope of escaping, the human coping mechanism takes over. This coping mechanism can manifest itself
in many ways. I am under the belief from my own observations, research and experincing being black in America that this is part of the causes of Blacks behaviour patterens that have become part of our culture or subculture. Look at what happened to many parts of the former Soviet Union. They experinced a mega boom in crime and proverty, why because they were subjected to limited resources after the break up of the Soviet Union much like Blacks in America. And have you ever even factored in the massive Ghetto’s of London England during the 18th and 19th centuries and how many of those people lived impoverished beyond belief where it wasn’t uncommon for babes and kids to be left in the streets with the garbage, rats and filth, naked to die and or fend for themselves. Even India has a system where certain groups of their people can never by law, be allowed to move up in society..many people don’t know that or they have not bothered to mention it when discussing such issues here in the US. Most if not all of Blacks self destructive social behavour can be linked to the coping mechanism cause directly or indirectly to the United States historical racist policies and institutions being perpetrated upon blacks. Blacks are in a constant state of balancing out the endorphins in our brains which control many emotional and phycological feelings of self-worth and happiness. It’s no wonder why blacks spend more money on liquor, entertainment, cigarettes, clothes..and all other things bling. I mean come on folks! this thing is so simple and blatantly obvious that a fifth grader should have been able to figure it out. This is not to say that all blacks are affected by in the same way oe on the same level. But this does shed a bit of light on some of those 6 oclock News headlines such as teen shoot dead over a pair of gym shoes or a club got shot up because of an domestic argument. the pair of gym shoes to that teenager represents a constant endorhine rush or a method of balancing out his or her endorphines which are under a constant state of attack. It has become part of that persons character persona and self worth to the point where resulting to violence to protect your gymshoes or obtain another pair of someones elses gymshoes is acceptable defacto behaviour. With the club getting shot up issue, let me digress for a moment,
if I may, I recall several years back a relative told me that she and a few friends went to a mostly white club in the suburbs and to her surprise, she notice that the whites did not have any fancy dress at the club they were in jeans t-shirts and the like. I responded to her, "Oh yeh! don’t you get it, they don’t have to dress up to go out to party because they don’t have a pressing need to balance their endorphins by receiving praise and, they get treated like first class citizens in America everyday and there selfesteem and selfworth is intact so there fore they don’t have to spend extra money on flashy clothes, they can just concentrate on the partying.
Anyone who thinks blacks folks problems are only cause by blacks your very misinformed.
good day
Lee