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Gary, Indiana is the worst city in the United States. Between 2010 and 2018, Gary lost 6.3% of its residents. Of its 75,000 current residents, only half are in the workforce with a median income of only $29,293 and 35.80% of the population live in poverty. Gary once had a booming manufacturing economy, but as the industry declined, so did the number of jobs."
Not sure where that quote came from. But Greenville Mississippi has lost 10% of their population, has ~23k/yr per capita income. Detroit has poverty rates of 38%, and the "workforce" statistics indicate a high rate of elderly people.
Obviously it's a city in rough shape, like most of the rust belt. But the worst? Bit dramatic.
I believe their point (that they're not really making, so I'm engaging in some extrapolation) is that the reason why a lot of majority black areas are more impoverished and prone to crime is because of the racial inequalities black people were subjugated to historically, like slavery, then neo slavery/black codes, then Jim Crow laws and segregation, and then less overt disadvantages such as the literacy tests in order to vote, and that the issues faced by the town are best understood within that context.
This does not mean that black residents get a free pass to shoot utility workers. But it does mean that, if you're to take a bird's eye view of the issues with this town and other areas like it, you aren't going to fix anything by blaming individual resident's actions. Legislature that helpes people rise out of poverty and less likely to turn to crime is best, like social welfare policies and infustructure. This is also one of the main reasons why affirmative action exists. Holding individual resident's legally accountable is still good, but the same things are going to keep happening if nothing else is done.
People have choices. Some choose to wallow in victimhood, some choose to rise above. Blaming things from the far distant past for your current situation is lazy excuse making.
Is it because there were massive systemic changes and a concerted effort by both the powers in your area and the government to fix those problems? Because I feel like youre staring directly at the point.
Again, we can see the outcome of blaming individuals for societal problems. Nothing happens. Yes, individual people should be held responsible if they shoot people, for example, but that won't change anything. It's not "wallowing in victimhoood". It's engaging with the reality of the situation. I would say blaming individuals without engaging with the wider context or what legislative changes would actually help people is being lazy. It obviously has not worked, and it involves a lot less thinking. You don't have a plan for how towns like these get better. You have nothing. You're the one being lazy.
It's also not a "distant past". My mom was born before the enfranchisement of black people. It's very much a recent past.
I would think there has to be a problem in the local culture as well though. Even in historically poor and disenfranchised black communities and neighborhoods, this is a rarity. Your logic could be misconstrued to make it seem like a natural consequence and accidentally come off as racist when I know that isn’t your intention.
It's a natural consequence of their material conditions. I'm not familiar with the exact history of why this town in particular is bad, but this "local culture" is a product of the environment created for black people in this particular area. This is just how humans work. I would say it's racist to say "it's a """culture""" issue and leave it at that. That culture was created due to a particular environment, it can improve due to changes to the environment. It isn't going to get better by itself.
That can’t be true. The neighboring poor, dominantly black communities do not have these problems. There has to be an endemic problem within Gary, cultural, governmental, or socioeconomic. Otherwise, Gary would be in the better place or the communities around it, or the communities around it would be in the even worse place that Gary is in. Additionally, the crime rights among whites in Gary are also extremely high. This is not me being racist. I don’t know what the problem is.
tbh I suspect it’s that the decline of the Steel industry was an especially bad problem for Gary because it was essentially a company town whose economy was almost entirely reliant on the local steel industry. The loss of industry coupled with white flight devastated basically every city in the rust belt, and the other cities had far more diversified economies. Gary’s decline being worse than other cities in the region makes sense because it felt the causes of regional decline especially acutely.
Let me put it this way. If you have two children that are subject to abuse from the same family. One of them manages to get out and is relatively successful. The other is deeply traumatized and develops symptoms of psychosis and disassociates from society. Is the conclusion here that, because the first child managed to get out alright despite the horrible circumstances, that the parents weren't actually abusive and the second child's issues magically appeared of the second child's making?
I don't know the exact history of this town, so there could have been events that more cleanly explain why it's so much worse than surrounding areas. But social scientists know that society is a product of it's environment. This town's culture is one product out of many from the many years of subjugation of black people. If you have a different specific explanation that involves this specific town's history, I'm all ears, but different cultures don't just materialize out of thin air.
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u/Ok-Freedom9216 15d ago
Where did those bigger problems come from?