“Apparently, there are no grocery stores in Detroit.”
I live in a rural/suburban area about 15 miles outside a southern city that is about 50/50 minority/white inside the city limits. All politics is racial which is why I moved into the county. Every discussion regarding government spending relates to how much will be spent disproportionately in the minority dominate section of town.
The latest cause of the community activists is complaining about minorities being relegated to a “food desert”. Apparently within a two mile radius of the “core” of the heavily minority area there are no grocery stores, only convenience stores and fast food outlets. The activists want the city to do something about the inability of minority residents in the core to have access to the same supermarkets on the majority white side of town. There is considerable talk about the need for “investment” funds from the government which in reality is just a call for more taxpayer money to be poured into the usual advocacy groups that do nothing to actually elevate the lives of the people living in the minority community.
I am amused by the drumbeat of complaints about the food desert since the closest grocery store to my rural home is over five miles away, yet somehow I am able to secure healthy food for my family, even though no city bus line runs through my neighborhood.
If black community activists truly wanted to help poor black communities they would focus efforts on raising capital from their wealthy white progressive benefactors to provide seed capital for black owned businesses in poor areas. These business would provide management opportunities for minority college graduates as well as opportunities for less educated urban poor to develop job skills. Successful businesses would be required to repay the startup loans so more new startups could be funded.
It is fascinating that Pakistanis, Indians, Koreans, Vietnamese, Hispanics can move into primarily black poor urban neighborhoods and with no taxpayer money build successful businesses in communities where the residents complain about the lack of opportunity. At the same time billions of dollars in taxpayer money poured into those same communities of a period of decades result in no improvement in ability of the residents to provide for themselves.
As I pointed out, its the right values.
It doesn’t matter what public funds or private capital go to a certain city or region.
If the people living there don’t have the values necessary to maintain a civilized way of life, nothing will take root there let alone flourish.
No amount of money is going to help if that isn’t in place.
Its not the money, stupid.