Past and Present: The White Flight

Fifty years ago, the president Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (better known as the Kerner Commission) released a report which found racism and segregation to be the causes of riots in Newark, Detroit and New Brunswick which took place in the summer of 1967. The report found that "social and economic conditions in the riot cities constituted a clear pattern of severe disadvantage for Negroes compared with whites." Compared to the White suburbs, Blacks faced two times the unemployment and more expensive but far worse living conditions. The second half of the Kerner Report asks why it happened: "pervasive discrimination and segregation in employment, education and housing, which have resulted in the continuing exclusion of great numbers of Negroes from the benefits of economic progress." So the question is how did the two groups become so polarized in the first place?

This suburban white flight began around 1945 in a post-WWII America. Before the war, 13% of Americans lived in the suburbs while after, about half of the population did. Veterans returning from war struggled to find housing so critical suburban structure was put into place. The federal government and the Federal Housing Administration stepped in to help fill the suburbs. The core of the FHA policy was the handing out of mortgage insurance. The requirements for building material, lot sizes and other features ruled out loans to large portions of urban US. Unsurprisingly, the breaks where received by whites and this suburbanization and migration became known as the "White Flight."While learning about this in my US History class in high school, an accompanying video showed us a critique of this type of movement -- the video is actually part of the into to the TV series "Weeds" White Flight Video (from Weeds).

The Kerner Report in the 60's was right to blame the segregation for the violence. It had been coming since the 40's. And unsurprisingly, with such separation still in place, the 1992 LA Riots happened. Additionally, it is has become more than just Blacks and Whites. In a study conducted by the news source, The Atlantic, researchers found Hispanic-white and Asian-white segregation has remained virtually unchanged between 1990 and 2010. It seems the white flight is not over. How can we work together for equality when we are so far apart? More conflict is to come unless we fix socioeconomic issues which began in the simple fact of undeniable segregation and the inequalities which comes with it. In 2015, in the case Supreme Court v. Neighborhood Segregation, the court ruled certain policies violate the Fair Housing Act. The Obama Administration backed the court and was optimistic. Three years later, we are left to wonder what the future holds for America. 


-Nicole Winiecki