Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

More "Desegregation" blather from a white liberal

Over at Sunspot.net website. Dan Rodricks lays out his liberal credentials by dreaming of a future in Baltimore where whites and blacks live side by side in perfect harmony. Of course with Dr. King's birthday around the corner we should be seeing more articles about peoples dreams and why folks live where they live. Now this is no way negates the very real problem of housing and lending discrimination that has been well documented, but this perenial beating of the desegregation horse is annoying. Dan is of the opinion that the cost of housing will cause whites to buy property in black neighborhoods. Good for Dan. If Dan were to look at Harlem he would note that when whites move into largely black neighborhoods, Rents increase and prior residents are eventually pushed out. And since, by and large Blacks make on average $10,000 less income than whites and have next to nothing in intergenerational wealth, the rates of ownership in places once economically viable for blacks will shrink. But that's really not the point of Dan's piece. His real gripe is how he feels that whites wrongly move once a critical mass of blacks move into an area. Ok, while i may not agree with the motive, I'm not a member of the thought police. If a particular person does not want to live around some ofther people, then that's there right. They can up and go as their wallet allows. What they should NOT be able to do is prevent people from finding housing in that area or harrass them once they are there.

But the other most glaring problem with Mr. Rodrick's article is the focus on black living spaces. I don't see him discussing whites moving into largely Indian or Chinese enclaves. I don't see him discussing Catholics moving into largely Jewish communities or vice versa. Of course not, because in the American discourse, blacks are people to be manipulated. We need to have our children bussed here or there. We need to be "integrated." we just can't be left to our own devices. Why do people continue to have a problem with that?

Links:
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.rodricks18dec18,0,1438445.column?coll=bal-home-columnists