I'm surprised there wasn't an influx after the Civil War. The article sort of glosses over that period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodusters
Between the beginning of this general 'migration' to urban areas and the MLK riots, white people became increasingly 'motivated' to move to the suburbs, which led over time to the urban centers deteriorating until they were completely unstable, usually necessitating rescue by the state [affordable housing, food stamps, etc]. Eventually a trickle of white development/business starts the reverse process of gentrification.
I am not aware of a single case of increase in urban development having a net benefit to the black community, mainly because they are almost never the target demographic for that development.
When people complain about shitty urban areas full of blight, homeless, mentally unstable, crime, etc, they're basically complaining about the state of the urban center which white people created when they moved out decades ago.
Blacks who fled the South forming enclaves in the Cities of America were refugees. But unlike other refugees they never received the post-trauma treatment we give other survivors.
They also encountered crushing discrimination wherever they went. They were shut-out of opportunities to improve their lives and the lives of their families, the effects of enslavement, slavery, terrorism, segregation, and discrimination do not disappear because a new law is passed making those things illegal. They reverberate across generations.
We are saying that racism is one of the driving engines—if not THE driving engine—of these processes.
EDIT: And being blind to that perpetuates the problems!
I said, "Tell me how a person's absence means they're at fault for what happens to a place after they're gone". I've achieved some level of economic success since I moved myself out of 'the hood'. The implication I'm picking up on is that the blight that has continued/worsened since I've left is somehow, inexplicably, my fault for not sticking around. Please, explain how that is or is not the case.
IMO comes down to the economics of how a city operates. The city needs money to provide services. The people need money to afford to patronize businesses, keep up their properties, and keep their city government afloat. Businesses need paying customers, and employees.
If you don't stick around, you can't contribute to any of that, other than if you were perhaps a business owner. But then if the people working there aren't from there, or if the owner moves the money out of the city, it can still provide no net benefit.
Try not to take it personally, but yes, moving away does not help and may even do the opposite of helping. But maybe if you stayed you would have ended up worse off and dragged the whole thing down? Can't say for sure, but it is obvious, and widely accepted by academics, that in the general case, white people leaving hurt black communities more than it helped.
There's also the social aspect of which people that make up the community to consider. The less homogeneous the community, the more difficult it is for people to empathize with and help people different than them, which perpetuates systemic racism and inequality, etc.
The main thing you're doing to cause a slide into a "lawless hellhole" is continuing to make pointed statements with no evidence in order to elucidate your world view that you have no responsibility whatsoever for abandoning impoverished communities. You do have a responsibility, even if you really don't want it or think you should have it. It's a civic responsibility that everyone in a democracy has. And it directly benefits you a lot of the time, which is what I find so ironic about this position.
You are trying to perpetuate ignorance and selfishness, which does indeed contribute to a "lawless hellhole", not that I or anyone else has claimed such is the state of things, but the hyperbole sure helps your obviously misguided and uninformed argument. I recommend you stop fearing your culpability, and accept that anyone who isn't helping is indeed making the situation worse. Collecting wealth at higher social levels, deepening social and financial inequality, willfully segregating communities and ignoring their problems, yes, all of this makes things worse.
If you reply again, please make it with some kind of evidence or other remark that isn't inflammatory or puerile. Trolls are boring.
So you're literally re-stating that it is in some part my fault, with different words - "You do have a responsibility, even if you really don't want it...".
Because I choose to not shunt what money I may or may not have towards Atlanta, or Gary, I'm deepening 'social and financial inequality' or whatever your babble is. So my question for you is, where does it stop? At what level of removedness can I, in your hilarious and impractical worldview, stop having to feel guilty for any success I may have gained?
If it's not the country, perhaps the continent? Do I still need to have some vestigial guilt over not sending money to the far-flung reaches of Canada? Am I supposed to lay awake nights, beating my chest over inequality in the favelas and how just maybe, if I'd sent half my paycheck to a random orphan (which orphan though?), it would've fixed all the things?
This breaks the HN guidelines. If you find yourself carried away enough to abandon civility in your comments here, please stop for a while.
Being a moral agent doesn't stop you from being unfairly accosted—or killed—by law enforcement.
Being a moral agent doesn't mean you don't get death threats for trying to enroll your children in better public schools.
Being a black moral agent is actually likely to get you in more trouble— not less.
Blacks seeking there own betterment find roadblocks in every direction each step of the way.
White people push back against black kids going to their schools, businesses, etc. Few good jobs for blacks. Eventually white people move out, bringing their businesses, and revenue, with them to the suburbs. Money doesn't come into the city, no new businesses are developed, racially-divisive restrictions from banks make things worse. Crime and drug abuse increases, partly due to the squalid nature of the resulting segregation and lack of economic stability. Riots in a reaction to all this and the biggest civil rights leader of the century dying verifies white people's worst fears and the white flight moves into overdrive.
With record low access to education, jobs, housing, record high drug use/crime, and racist authority figures/policies, what was a not very good situation becomes a terrible situation, and literally the whole society is engineered to fail, with no recourse for improvement.
Read my other comment below for reading material.