COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN
Well if true - and that's a big "if" because
measuring such things accurately is not easy - it would not surprise me.
In much of America this is very true despite the end of all
formal segregation many years ago. It has been replaced by informal or
voluntary segregation.
There are many reasons for this, and people should avoid
jumping immediately to saying "racism."
First, blacks tend to be, on average, less economically
successful for whatever reasons, so there are differences in worth or wealth.
More well off people always live in different places than less well off.
Second, it is an easily observed fact that people of one
type or another tend to show a preference for having people of their own kind
as neighbors. This is just as true of blacks as it is for whites. And, of
course, it explains phenomena like China Town or Korea Town or Spanish Harlem
or many other such concentrations.
Three, all the stats from places as diverse as the United
States, South Africa, Jamaica, and other places say that places with large
concentrations of black people tend to suffer more crime. That's not an
opinion, it's just what the stats say, millions of them.
In America, for example, cities or states or regions with
high black population concentrations - Detroit, Washington, Atlanta, New
Orleans, and increasingly, Chicago - there is a much higher incidence of crime,
especially violent crime.
In a state like Maine with few blacks, crime rates are
comparable to those in Canada. That is a major reason why whites often flee to
new locations as the population in an area changes noticeably. It's called
"white flight."
White flight also happens out of parents' concern for
children in changing schools, concern both over violence and a sense of
declining achievement in the schools.
These are very hard facts, but they are facts and society
cannot pretend to deal with a situation unless it starts with facts.
Prejudice owing just to skin color is much less common than
many people imagine. We see this in the United States, which, despite its
history and despite its voluntary segregation, has twice elected a black man as
president.
