[quote=Blogstar]. . . The grow your vegetables commentary was about the some what irresponsible food desert comments and I said what the response would be from many people in the “food desert” based on my having lived in one with decendants of slaves ,if you suggested they grow their own vegetables. I think many people would still say it. BG, Lots of the white people would make excuses too, even in my family. Too be even fairer to me, which is totally appropriate, the food desert was brought out as a black equality issue when it came out in the public. . . [/quote]
Russ, you don’t have to “justify” your opinions on here to me or anyone else. You’re entitled to them as I am to mine. Our opinions are borne of our own personal life experiences.
By bringing up the “food desert” in semi-rural and rural parts of “flyover country,” I was trying to point out the different lifestyles there as opposed to living in Cali (yes, including the lower-income Central Cali and other rural areas of the state). It’s NOT a “race issue.” It’s about the availability, quality and cost of fresh food to all residents who live there.
Remember from my earlier link that the current “student population” of McCluer South-Berkeley High School, located in Ferguson, MO, had a 99.8% Black student population.
But this really isn’t the case with Ferguson OR the other towns which the school serves.
Nor do those stats necessarily mean that BOTH parents (and both sets of grandparents) of a current Black HS student at McCluer South-Berkeley HS are actually African American (or even 1/4 African American) themselves. All it means is that the surrounding K-12 population which that school serves (5 towns) have an overwhelmingly Black student population.
Observe that the Ferguson police force is comprised of more than 50% races OTHER than African American (based only on photos in the news that I’ve seen).
How many active police officers/supervisors on the force are older than 45 years old? Older than 55 years old? Could it be that some of (or most) of these officers grew up in the immediate area?? How do we know that Ferguson’s “White” officers don’t still live nearby? If you look at the 2010 population stats for Ferguson, MO, we see that it was just over 2/3 African American:
. . . The racial makeup of the city was 29.3% White, 67.4% African American, 0.4% Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 2.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.2% of the population. . . . The median age in the city was 33.1 years. 28.7% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 25.2% were from 25 to 44; 25.3% were from 45 to 64; and 10.3% were 65 years of age or older.. . .
For the year 2000, we see:
The racial makeup of the city was 44.8% White, 52.4% African American, 0.1% Native American, 0.7% Asian, < 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.4% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.0% of the population.
What is says to me is that Ferguson (as a microcosm of “flyover country”) has experienced “white flight” since 2000, perpetuating the racial segregation that its state and local government has likely been trying mightily to correct … to no avail.
The “Historical Population” chart on the right of the link indicates that Ferguson actually lost over 14% of their population in the 1970’s. It is very possible that it used to have an overwhelming majority of Whites 40+ years ago.
Even though the Black and White populations of flyover country share a lot in common, culturally, I believe the self-selecting segregation which has taken place in many areas of this region is due to the ingrained cultural biases of both cultures, partly due to influence from their elders in combination with White rural students of previous decades going off to college and never returning and younger local families being offered family support to help them buy/build a home elsewhere, as is the custom there. Believe it or not, it is not always the “Whites” who do the selecting.
Don’t get me wrong here. Whites and blacks routinely work together, shop together, go to church together, hire each other, patronize each other’s businesses and do everything else together in “flyover country.” But segregation in residence is still alive and well within cities and even “sides of town” in a big city. In semi-rural/rural “flyover country,” segregation can be much more pronounced where entire towns end up with an overwhelming preponderance of residents of one race, while being surrounded for miles by predominantly residents of another race who use the town’s stores, post office, banks and schools and are counted in the town’s population.
I strongly suspect that this is the case with Ferguson, MO.
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In SD County, even areas which are (generally presumed to be) predominantly of African American residents … in actuality, are not. All races are actually well-represented in these areas’ populations. SD County differs from most areas of “flyover country” in that it has only a <6% African American population versus 25-85% in many parts of "flyover country" and parts of the east coast. Thus, SD County doesn't have actual "racial segregation," which, in part, keeps it from having a lot of the problems experienced by the residents of Ferguson and surrounds, IMHO.
I don't know what the answer is except that I believe the self-selecting segregation in "flyover country" is heavily influenced by deeply ingrained biases of the older generations of both races and isn't easily changed. As the elders pass on, this will be less and less of an issue.
