Posted on 11/27/2006 6:55:39 PM PST by blam
White flight 'increasing segregation'
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 2:01am GMT 28/11/2006
The flight of the middle classes from the inner cities is threatening to undo 30 years of progress that has made Britain the best place in Europe for ethnic minorities, the country's race equality chief said yesterday.
Trevor Phillips, the outgoing chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), said increased polarisation and segregation in areas deserted by the better-off was "the great threat" to the development of a diverse and harmonious society.
Trevor Phillips: warnings
Speaking at a conference in London to mark the 30th anniversary of the Race Relations Act, which set up the CRE, he said: "Britain is by far the best place in Europe to live if you are not white."
But he feared that trends unforeseen in the 1970s were placing this in jeopardy.
"As a nation we are becoming more ethnically segregated by residence and inequality is being amplified by our separate lives," he said.
"The real crisis lies in the areas which the middle-class minorities are leaving behind — areas which are becoming more and more ethnically concentrated and exclusive."
Research commissioned by the CRE for the convention showed that despite the greater number of ethnic minorities in Britain, few mixed. Two out of three people hardly ever choose to meet someone of a different ethnicity in their own homes.
Success: Brick Lane has a strong Bangladeshi community
A quarter of Britons want to live in an all-white area and more than half — including those from ethnic minorities — think there is too much immigration. More and more communities were "shut off" and vulnerable to political and religious extremism.
Mr Phillips said the public education system should be teaching children to live together but appeared to be doing the opposite. Nine of the country's best universities did not have more than 30 African Caribbean students.
His warnings about deepening divisions have landed him in hot water with some race lobbyists and led Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, to boycott the conference.
But Mr Phillips has become increasingly concerned that the departure of the predominantly white middle classes from the inner cities — and out of the country altogether in some cases — will make the creation of a multi-ethnic society harder to achieve.
advertisementHe said the ethnic changes taking place in parts of our country were the most rapid ever known.
"But the change isn't just one of sheer numbers. It is also characterised by a new fierceness with which people express the aspects of their identity — heritage, ethnicity, faith — that make them different from their neighbours."
Official internal migration figures show that white and ethnic minority communities are becoming increasingly separated by growing levels of population movement.
A study last year based on the 2001 census found evidence for the first time in Britain of what is known in America as "white flight", as middle-class families — including those of Asian background in some parts of England — leave areas of high ethnic minority populations.
Opening the convention, Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, said: "The challenge is how we ensure diversity does not become separation. It is about the hard graft of breaking down distrust and building up a shared sense of purpose and belonging, about creating opportunities for interaction as well as respecting differences."
Very interesting observation.
To help spread the community spirit?
I think within the city limits of Detroit the population is 85% black. If an ethnic city was ever going to work that should be the perfect proving grounds.
They control everything. Government, schools, police, business, housing, etc.
Crime is off high end of the scale, the graduation rate is something like 25%, unemployment around 30%, not sure about the welfare rate but 50% might be a good guess, and they have no tax base.
You guessed it...They blame the problems on whites leaving and taking all the good jobs with them.
I read a study about white flight. It said that Black/White communities were very stable until it reached a 'tipping-point' of 23% Blacks to Whites. Whites start leaving when the Black population reaches 23% and it's a stampede by the time it reaches 25%.
Best thing that happened to me was move out of Detroit. I was the the minority on my block. (the only caucasian) Wife & I went back a few years ago, her parents house was torched, my parents house had no roof, both our grandparents houses were vacant lots, and our house was in the process of being raided by the DEA. Our deceased family members are doing somersaults in their graves.
"stampede by the time it reaches 25%"
Kinda makes you wonder how long it took to go from 25-85%?
Its not even safe to drive through there in the daytime now.
They drop cement blocks on cars from the overpasses.
Zimbabwe is an interesting example. Killing or driving off the white farmers off the land has resulted in famine, unemployment and high rates of crime. Why can't the majority feed themselves when given free access to all the "best" land? That was the excuse for confiscation of the land cultivated by the white farmers.
There is much more to being a virtuoso than the mere possession of a fine instrument.
I wont even drive through there if I can avoid it. I sure as heck would never stop for anything.
The house where I raised my kids in Mira Mesa (northern San Diego) was in transformation to a hispanic barrio by the time I left in 2000. The Circle K built in 1985 had more ads in Spanish than English by 2000. One of the two movie theaters had been demolished, the other converted to Vietnamese market. Some of the kids from the old neighborhood have been killed in drive by shootings. Leaving that place was a good idea.
I almost purchased a very nice house in San Ysidro. It was literally half a block from the international border with Mexico. I had an opportunity at a new job in Mira Mesa in place of the job downtown. That negated the value of riding the trolley to work, so that purchase was halted.
Ironically, Jackson is so bad that there is a lot of "black flight" going on as well. My neighborhood, south of Jackson, is crimeless and 50% black. It has nothing to do with the color of the people living here, but the ambition and zeal for life of those people.
Don't forget N'awleans, the Chocolate City!
Interesting that the race nazis not only couldn't answer those questions, they appear never to think of even asking them. A great illustration of how entrenched bigotry defines the question and leads to tunnel vision.
That same building now hosts a scrap book business. The parking lot is always full. It has been doing fine for over a year now.
Clearly, the persons who chose to use that property had very different concepts of the local market. Both parties put forth a first class effort at the outset. One had a real market, the other did not.
There is a new Mexican restaurant (Bajio) scheduled to open in Pocatello shortly. I predict the place will be wall to wall customers...just as it is in Idaho Falls. Good food. Good service.
You nailed it. The problem is the Collective.
Pretty freakin' scary that they even have such a government post over there.
the hosts ain't sticking around to be killed by the parasites
Let's see, this evening there is another article about a bunch of black kids who beat up some white women. Maybe people just don't want to live near people who have an underlying hatred for them? Throw in the fact that there are probably Muslims involved, and I'd be running from those terrorists as fast as I could, too.
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