White flight is where whites move out of a neighbourhood in large numbers. You see this in America when a place becomes more than about one-tenth black. It is a big reason why so many whites left American cities in the 1950s and 1960s – because blacks started moving in.
White flight is the opposite of gentrification. It is how the white suburbs became the opposite of the black ghettos.
White Americans left the cities for many reasons:
- In the suburbs you had much more floor space, more grass, more trees. And more quiet.
- After the Second World War the government made it easier to get money to build a new house in the suburbs than to repair an old one in the city.
- Government was shifting money away from trains, buses and streetcars to highways – before there was any huge demand for it.
But racism was a part of it too:
- It is well-known that real estate agents in the city took part in what is known as blockbusting: they would sell houses to blacks in white neighbourhoods in order to get whites to rush to sell their houses for less than they were worth – and then turn a nice profit by selling these houses to blacks.
- Once a neighbourhood becomes more than about 10% black, more whites will move out than move in. It becomes a snowball effect: white flight. After a point only the old people are white. When they die off it becomes all black.
Some whites say they are selling because they are afraid property values will fall: a self-fulfilling prophecy that all but admits that most whites are racist.
Some whites say they are selling because of crime. But the facts do not support that. They move out long before crime becomes an issue. Their move is based not on a close reading of police reports but on racist stereotypes about blacks.
Yes, some of their old neighbourhoods do become crime-ridden, but that takes years. In most cases whites are not selling to poor blacks, but middle-class ones. It takes years of bad police protection and maybe even a black flight of the black middle-class before a neighbourhood gets that bad.
White flight is not just a city/suburb thing: Nearly 90% of suburban whites in America live in a place that is less than 1% black, and yet 9% of the middle-class is black! White flight has little to do with class, crime or wanting a nice place in the suburbs. It has to do with whites not wanting to live with blacks no matter how rich blacks are.
White flight is not always a black/white thing or even a Hispanic/white thing. It seems that Cupertino, California in the Silicon Valley has experienced white flight because “too many” Asians have moved there. Some say it is because the public schools there have become “too hard”, but the schools in nearby Palo Alto, which is much whiter and far less Asian, are just as hard and yet whites there are not leaving in large numbers.
– Abagond, 2008.
See also:
Abagond 
Should we really care whether whites want to self-segregate? I think black folks or Hispanics folks should really be developing their own tax base structure to support good schools, etc. All of this white flight/gentification assumes minorities “need” whites or at least the money of whites to sustain itself. How is it Asians can seem to develop their own Chinatown or Jewish people can develop entire infrastructures of their own? I’m not saying racism isn’t a factor, I know, because I live near NYC but we can’t keep expecting the government to be there for us, we have to do things ourselves through grassroots organization.
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I’m sorry to be so silly but I could NOT read this article. I was DEAD WITH LAUGHTER after seeing the picture paired with this article. That was not very nice of you, Abagond.
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I am glad you got a good laugh, at least. White flight is a hard thing to put into a picture and the New Yorker does not do cartoons on it. I was thinking of putting up a race map of London, but I was afraid it would just look like a blob:
http://www.shieldofachilles.net/2008/01/london-housing-costs-symptom-of-disease.html
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Classic with the Pic. I was rolling as well.
Been busy with a new gig so didn’t have time to comment – but I thought the gentrification article you was magnificent. You got all your points across and kept it objective.
Outstanding.
Again, the picture had me rolling.
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Thank you for the feedback on the gentrification post.
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To Kathy, you are prejudice. Sadly, I am seeing white flight from churches. Whites who say they love people are running away from churches. That is not what Jesus would do. I really think white people think they are better than others. This is sad. Very sad. One day I hope they wake up to the truth. I congratulate the writer of this article.
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bingo!
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Abagond you are telling the truth.
If more people listened and understood God’s love for people they could see that white flight is a sin. Jesus says, “Love one another.” I am struggling with this too.
I hatye to see a neighborhood change because Blacks or Hispanics move in the area. However, it is what it is…WE are called to love the least. I Cor. 13.
Faith, Hope, Love…The greatest is Love.
Whites can’t keep running. Where are they going to go? Are they planning to flee earth and live on another planet?
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Thank you. But I must point out that the last three comments came from the same computer.
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Is it racism if you don’t want your kid getting beaten up by violent black kids at school and that’s why you moved to the whiter ‘burbs. Everyone who has been in an integrated school knows that a high proportion of blacks are violent and often pick on white kids.
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It can be racism. It depends. Whites stereotype blacks as being way more violent than they are and that racist fear seems to drive much of the white flight.
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You’ve tapped into that ultimate white phenomenon–white flight. Very good article. The violence defense doesn’t work when one factors in the Silicon Valley situation with Whites trying to get away from nerdy Asians.
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Abagond:
Whites can move as much as they want to, but it can’t hide the obvious. Whites gained much of their wealth and power thru slavery and colonialism, but, there is no such thing as forever. The romans lost their empire, and the british as well. Slowly but surely, white americans and europeans are losing their grip on power. White flight is about fear, Bottomline! Will black criminals target them? Will blackmen take advantage of naive white females who have chocolate cravings? Will they lose their political and economic power? Whites should be fearful of others, not black people. China, Iran, and Al-Qaeda should be their main concern, because black people don’t want anything from white people but simple respect and courtesy!!!
Tyrone
Reality Mode
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I’m white, 28 years old, I have had four broken ribs, one broken arm, Major head trauma, and years of tormented beatings from a black gang. Each time I was walking home from school, from the store, etc. I have been called honky, white devil, wonder bread. I have no criminal history, I do not do drugs, I do drink spirits I was never racist until I moved out of the city where we lived. now I fear and loathe most black people. Racism is not necessarily from being raised, my mother is baptist, and we went to an integrated baptist church. we moved out.. safest I have ever been. now after years and realizing that I am very surprised to be alive.. I realize that I hate black people.. i hate the thugged out intercity corn rowed with golden grills. they are the reasons why I feared to leave my apartment at night because I am afraid of what was down the stairs. and I personally do not concider this white flight racist, more or less self preservation. its people like you that made me afraid to go to school.
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Steven, I was beaten up by black gangs and individuals also, some of them sent me to the hospital. I was also mugged and robbed several times by blacks.
I was also attacked and beaten up (even more) by white gangs and individuals, some of those also sent me to the hospital.
What is your recommendation for me? My family thought a white neighborhood would be safer. It was not.
But I do notice that the police protection, schools and public services do go downhill after white flight– I suppose that is somehow not racist?
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To Jefe:
But I do notice that the police protection, schools and public services do go downhill after white flight– I suppose that is somehow not racist?
Well that’s not what I have seen in Millbrae or Cupertino..California.
As for places where crime is high. such as Detroit who’s making the decisions to staff (or not staff ) the police and ensure they patrol all neighborhoods adequately..? In Oakland California where the mayor is Asian and the two previous police chiefs were black.. the mayor ignored just about every suggestion to reduce crime put forth by the chief of police.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Chip-Johnson-Batts-leaves-hole-Quan-can-t-fill-2327231.php
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Kiwi:
I’d say she’s an embarrassment, both to Asians and to other minorities.
She’s just shouldn’t be in a position of authority.. I could see her being good in some professions.. but she’s been a huge disappointment in Oakland.
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The emergence of the Black ghetto didn’t happen by chance, but was the result of the deliberate housing policies of the federal, state, and local governments and the intentional actions of individual American citizens. With the large-scale departure of Whites from cities to suburbs came an unprecedented increase in the physical size of the areas in which Blacks lived. This expansion was also facilitated by White individuals looking to make a profit, who brought about rapid racial transitions in neighborhoods through the practice of “blockbusting.” These individuals sold one or two houses to carefully selected African-Americans and then capitalized on the other residents’ fear of declining property values, inducing them to sell their homes at low prices. These homes were sold to Blacks at higher prices, effectively resulting in a block-by-block expansion of African-American residential areas.
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@Michael Cooper
There is a post on that topic.
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/blockbusting/
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And further to Abagond’s statement
I have long wondered how government enforced racism managed to contribute to the sorry state of the USA’s transportation infrastructure.
Throughout the entire time I lived in the USA, I noticed something about a jurisdiction I know a bit about. Besides, I did a research project in university on urban mass transit.
Fairfax County, VA, vies with neighboring Loundon County as one of the 2 wealthiest counties in the USA. With a population of well over 1 million, it holds many of the main bedroom communities surrounding Washington, DC. Its commercial hub, Tysons Corner, is essentially the 2nd downtown for the DC area and the main hub for all of Northern virginia. It is located about 10-12 miles from Downtown DC.
The residents there fought tooth and nail from the 1970s – 90s to keep the metro from connecting to Tysons Corner and to keep rail transportation from connecting it further to Dulles International airport. The reason – to keep undesirable elements (ie, blacks and Latinos) from having easier access to the area, which is surrounded by upper middle class white neighborhoods. By the 1990s, Tysons became a hub of over 100,000 workers with NO good access to public transportation. It was saddled with daily gridlock automobile traffic. They also faced large labour shortages in service occupations. But most would be workers would not have access to the jobs unless they could afford a car and parking.
Still, residents fought vigourously to keep rail transit out of the area. I know people who attended those meetings, and the main reasons included keeping the blacks and Latinos out.
Finally, in the 2000s, they recognized that this was a mistake – DC’s 2nd commercial hub and its main international airport having no good functional mass transit was crippling it, so they have begun construction on the Silver Line. This should have been planned back in the 70s.
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@ Jeff
You might find this article interesting:
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/13716/freeway-construction-brought-neighborhood-destruction/
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@ Jeff
Thanks for mentioning Abagond’s “blockbusting” post. I read it and it was informative, to say the least.
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@Michael Cooper
The link you supplied was about the urban renewal project and the SE/SW freeway construction, which predated the Tysons Corner matter that I mentioned by at least 20-30 years. SW used to be a residential area — my father (before he married) lived on the SE Capitol Hill side, but my godmother lived in SW. They told me about it. By the mid-late 50s. it had grown increasingly black, which probably disturbed Congress as it was so close to the House office buildings and to the National Mall. They razed most of the building as your photos show.
That was years before I was born. However, when I was a very young child, my father, who was an electrician on construction projects, took me to the roof of one of the new buildings in SW near the freeway. But throughout my childhood, most of SW further away from the capitol (in the direction towards Anacostia) remain blighted for decades.
The impact of the SW urban renewal was … blacks were displaced and many spilled over the river into Anacostia. It was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of blockbusting. The building I lived in as an infant was blockbusted for this reason.
BTW, the blockbusting post was one of my guest posts. I mentioned about it because the first 2 neighborhoods I lived in during my early childhood got blockbusted. The others got subject to racial steering.
In my adulthood in DC I lived in a semi-gritty neighborhood that became gentrified. In each case, people get pushed out of their neighborhoods.
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@ Jeff
Very interesting. Thank you.
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