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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Worst Cities for Black Americans
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/10/06/the-worst-cities-for-black-americans/Four of the cities with the worst racial inequality are in Illinois, two are in Iowa, and all are in the Midwest. 24/7 Wall St. interviewed Valerie Wilson, director of the program on race, ethnicity, and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank. Wilson associated the geographical clustering of these cities to the Great Migration the relocation of millions of African Americans from the South to cities in the North and Midwest between 1916 and 1970.
Over that period, African Americans fled from the oppressive Jim Crow policies of the South, among other forms of racism, to cities such as Chicago and New York. These areas the Midwest in particular were undergoing a manufacturing boom at the time, and black and other Americans sought economic opportunities there. However, the industrial Midwestern economies have declined dramatically since 1970, and the region today is a part of what is commonly known as the Rust Belt.
The manufacturing industries in those areas offered relatively well-paying jobs to relatively uneducated people many of whom were African American. As Wilson explained, those industries have essentially dried up, and the opportunities are no longer there, but the people still are.
appalachiablue
(41,171 posts)free market Voodoo Reaganomics and globalization. What a loss of capital, jobs, the middle class and more in the US.
marym625
(17,997 posts)Neither does Chicago making the list. However, I don't understand the grouping.
"Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI"
All of those are in illinois, no Indiana or Wisconsin in there.
Naperville is pretty far southwest of Chicago. It's a wealthy area with mostly white residents. It's practically rural. In fact, parts are.
Elgin is pretty far northwest. Also mostly white, wealthy.
I can understand how they made the list but if they're lumping together with Chicago, which is how it reads, not that they tie, it's hardly fair. There are many towns that boarder Chicago that I could understand lumping in. I just don't get this.
Regardless, it's a huge problem and it should not be ignored any longer
K&R
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)which extends up to Kenosha, WI and down to Hammond and Gary, IN.
marym625
(17,997 posts)I obviously didn't read it well. Thank you
marmar
(77,090 posts)There are much larger and stronger black business communities and community support infrastructure in Chicago and Detroit than say Seattle, San Francisco or Boston for example. This is one of those situations in which statistics don't even come close to painting a complete picture.
marym625
(17,997 posts)I was thinking the same thing. However, the segregation and inequality in many areas within Chicago is really bad. Terrible.