Liberal Cities Bad For Blacks

"Why Are Liberal Cities Bad for Blacks?"

Francis Wilkinson explains.

Minneapolis-St. Paul. San Francisco. Chicago. Even Madison, Wisconsin. If you are politically liberal and value relatively high levels of income equality, you might live in one of these quintessentially liberal U.S. cities. Yet all four lurk in the bottom half of the 2014 National Urban League's State of Black America report on income inequality between blacks and whites. Among the many places where black-white income is less skewed are Phoenix, Arizona, Nashville, Tennessee and Columbia, South Carolina.

Nationally, blacks and Hispanics earn less than whites and generally have higher rates of unemployment. But there are significant regional variations. And looking at the Urban League rankings, I couldn't help noticing how many northern liberal cities fared poorly on the racial equality index.

Madison? Bad for blacks?

Not good, Leftists.

Milwaukee is not good either.

What now, Mayor Tom Barrett?

...Some of the most segregated cities in the U.S. are above the Mason-Dixon line, including Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Detroit. All were destinations for black migration from the South. None have the boutique real estate issues of Santa Monica or the high-tech pedigree of Seattle. So what's their excuse?

"Some of the greatest inequalities are in large Northeastern and Midwestern metro areas that grew very large black populations through the 1970s, often concentrated in inner city ghettos," wrote Logan in an e-mail. "This is certainly a factor. But some places somewhat like that (Allentown, Worcester, Camden, even Providence and Hartford) are at the other end of the distribution. I certainly don't think a city's 'progressive' image is very relevant here -- it is more a question of the history of black labor market incorporation, which varies a lot and keeps changing, especially in the South."

The ultimate reasons may be hard to pin down, but a lot of liberal northern cities have truly lousy track records of fostering black-white economic equality, as well as integrated neighborhoods and schools. "We noticed the same thing," said National Urban League President and Chief Executive Officer Marc Morial in a telephone interview. "That's why we thought the national index might shock and irritate some folks."

Clearly, the Leftists in control of these segregated cities don't have the answers.

Maybe they should listen to Paul Ryan.