General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Statement from a friend who grew up in Baltimore [View all]jwirr
(39,215 posts)The surprise is that it started by talking about the era when jobs left the inner cities and that was not because of violence. The author talked about the aging of factories and the need to rebuild. They did not rebuild in the inner cities but instead removed to the suburbs. That is when this no jobs for black communities started and it had nothing to do with riots. Racism - yes.
The book continued to talk about the move from suburbs to the south to developing countries and cheap labor.
These kids have not had job opportunities for years. The urban renewal programs did little in the inner cities and what they did do was not finished. It is true that companies do not want to move into inner cities but rioting is most likely on the bottom of their reasoning. They cannot compete with the slave wages in the rest of the world and they are not going to locate where the poor do not have money to spend anyhow.