Monday, July 15, 2019

"Segregation Causes Crime"--Another Take

A few days ago, we posted a very, very, short take on an essay appearing in the local truth-bender, which essay proposed that 'segregation causes crime' or something.

George Mitchell writes a longer and far-more-nicer critique, and he will be called "RAAAAAAAAAciss" in due course.

...With segregation entrenched in much of Milwaukee’s north and northwest sides, this conclusion means the outlook is slim for improvement. As Luthern reports, “In Milwaukee, at least three in four black residents would need to relocate in order to live in fully integrated neighborhoods, wrote William H. Frey, author of a Brookings Institution study released late last year.”

An unstated but significant implication is that prospects for many Milwaukee Blacks are subject largely to factors beyond their control. That is, with little chance for meaningful reduction in segregation, higher levels of violence are a given.

The alternative view — that Blacks have a primary role in shaping their lives — is fraught with potential for controversy. Any suggestion to that effect by a white person is guaranteed to spur charges of racial bias. This effectively silences voices — Black and white. It results in a narrow, constricted public discussion about how to address seemingly intractable problems. 

The upshot is a disproportionate emphasis on actions that assume government has the primary role. The main losers in that dialogue are citizens who have accepted the view that their future primarily is tied to actions of elected officials in Madison and Washington....
Of course, Mitchell is not a racist.  He's a mostly-reformed ex-Democrat.  (The tell?  working for Dave Carley, a Kennedy 'crat of the first water).  Unfortunately for him, Mitchell is a realist.

...In preparing for that assignment, I reviewed data for census tracts in Milwaukee’s (segregated) near north side. I assumed the numbers were wrong when I read that more than seventy percent of children were born to and lived in single parent households. When told those in fact were correct numbers, my reaction was immediate: “That can’t work. No way.”

The research, of course, is voluminous and not in dispute as to the divergent prospects for children raised in one- and two-parent families.  While segregation admittedly is a factor over which Milwaukee Blacks have little or no control, that’s decidedly not the case when it comes to birthrates and family formation.  ...

That 70% number was true about 20-30 years ago, according to Mitchell.  I don't think that has changed by any significant amount, either.

Whether accidental or not, the KittyLitter article could easily be read as support for forced busing (Kamala Harris, anyone??) just as was ordered by John Reynolds, another--but more Lefty--'60's Democrat poobah. 

Maybe that 'forced busing' thing is coming back, eh?

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