I had left out of the store, from my late night snack run, when I peered into the glass and noticed the title of a May 18, 2011 USA TODAY article, ‘Blacks’ exodus reshaping cities’. If you know anything about me, you’re not surprised that I immediately turned around, returned inside and purchased the last copy of that paper. The cover story, written by Judy Keen, examines newly released U.S. Census data that shows the trend of Blacks migrating to the suburbs and how that trend is (and will continue) affecting the inner city Black communities.
Although the article cites the shift as a surprise to many demographers and urban planners, I’m more surprised by their being surprised. The mere fact of record college enrollment rates for Blacks is some indicator of upward mobility. I say “some indicator”, because one might challenge the premise by saying we cannot assume that any significant number of those Black students are from the inner city, or that once they graduate would or wouldn’t be inclined to return there. I’m sure we can find ample statistics that will show an increase of inner city Blacks attending college and I can wholeheartedly appreciate any reason why they would or would not return home after graduating. Nonetheless, it is reasonable to presume that some of this black flight is attributable to more Blacks experiencing mobility through progress in education. That is not to say that progress has been made across the board, as other recent studies are showing that the social-economic condition of Blacks has been on a downward spiral. As The Nation article points out, “The economic gap between black and white has grown since Obama took power. Under his tenure black unemployment, poverty and foreclosures are at their highest levels for at least a decade.”
The continued subtitle of the USA TODAY article explicitly states the concern of policy makers and civic leaders; ‘Departure of middle-class blacks challenges cities’. Keen goes on to ask several policy implications:
As blacks who can afford to live in the suburbs depart, will cities have enough resources to help the low-income blacks left behind? Will the demand for housing be strong enough to support the revitalization of traditionally black inner-city neighborhoods? How will black churches, businesses and cultural institutions be affected? Will traffic congestion worsen because blacks moving to the suburbs keep their jobs in the city?
While these are all valid questions, it seems that Keen does not fully appreciate that those several hundred thousand Blacks, who have relocated, have been empowered to do so under the environmental conditions they are fleeing. It may be more reasonable to examine what factors contributed to their empowerment, which may or may not be primarily related to those questions. My research has shown that financial prosperity, through government supported policy, has not been the motivating force that has held Blacks together as a community. In fact, I can use Keen’s article to support the notion that the search for prosperity is a contributing factor to the deconstruction of the inner city Black communities. She cites Mike Alexander, the research division chief for the Atlanta Regional Commission, stating; “This black migration to the suburbs mirrors what whites have been doing for decades.” Juxtapose this sentiment with that of W.E.B. Du Bois, in a speech he gave at the Chicago Conference for the NAACP in 1926:
What do we want? What is the thing we are after? As it was phrased last night it had a certain truth: We want to be Americans, full-fledged Americans, with all the rights of American citizens. But is that all? Do we want simply to be Americans? Once in a while through all of us there flashes some clairvoyance, some clear idea, of what America really is. We who are dark can see America in a way that white Americans cannot. And seeing our country thus, are we satisfied with its present goals and ideals?…
If you tonight suddenly should become full-fledged Americans; if your color faded, or the color line here in Chicago was miraculously forgotten; suppose, too, you became at the same time rich and powerful;—what is it that you would want? What would you immediately seek? Would you buy the most powerful of motor cars and outrace Cook County? Would you buy the most elaborate estate on the North Shore? Would you be a Rotarian or a Lion or a What-not of the very last degree? Would you wear the most striking clothes, give the richest dinners, and buy the longest press notices?
Even as you visualize such ideals you know in your heart that these are not the things you really want. You realize this sooner than the average white American because, pushed aside as we have been in America, there has come to us not only a certain distaste for the tawdry and flamboyant but a vision of what the world could be if it were really a beautiful world; if we had the true spirit; if we had the Seeing Eye, the Cunning Hand, the Feeling Heart; if we had, to be sure, not perfect happiness, but plenty of good hard work, the inevitable suffering that comes with life; sacrifice and waiting, all that—but, nevertheless, lived in a world where men know, where men create, where they realize themselves and where they enjoy life. It is that sort of world we want to create for ourselves and for all America.
Ironically, Du Bois gave this speech, “Criteria of Negro Art”, in the same city that serves as the featured focus of the USA TODAY article. This is in no way to suggest that all migrating Blacks are chasing the flamboyant lifestyle Du Bois speaks of. However, it does serve to reinforce the notion that Blacks are caught up in trying to ‘keep up with the Jones’.
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