Inner cities

The city I grew up in, Springfield, IL, was a typical mid-western town in many ways, one of which was segregation. The blacks lived in one part of town and stayed in their area. They had their own shops and schools and rarely did anyone go downtown. I lived in an area of white working class people. My father was a milkman and most of my neighbors were blue collar types many of whom were coal miners. People did not comingle like we see today. Families did not go to restaurants but did go to school functions and to church. Social activity was limited to neighborhoods. With the coming of TV we were all exposed to how different groups were treated in different parts of the country and one of the big changes I saw was how things were in the big cities. Here the blacks lived almost in ghettos and in the 60’s and 70’s the now famous white flight started. As the move to the suburbs gained in popularity the situation in the inner cities deteriorated even further and the tax based diminished and whole areas became urban blight. The states had to provide income for necessary services and black unemployed doubled the white numbers where it remains today. As black mayors were elected to represent the mostly black city the people became more and more dependent on government and that is the case today. The leadership in the cities over the past almost 50 years has resulted in whole communities becoming dependent on government for their survival. Some of these government programs not only fostered dependency but altered the culture. More and more children were born out of wed lock, more became involved in gangs which led to drug use and drug sales, drop-out rates rose and crime increased. The prognosis for the future is to continue to do more of the same and wring hands about the widening disparities in school performance and black on black crime. One ray of hope is that black unemployment rates are coming down and as the economy grows this trend should continue.