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What Michelle Obama Leaves Out About 'White Flight'
Townhall.com ^ | November 7, 2019 | Larry Elder

Posted on 11/07/2019 4:25:45 AM PST by Kaslin

Michelle Obama recently complained about "white flight" in her old Chicago neighborhood. By "white flight " she means that whites left her neighborhood as it became increasingly black. "Upstanding families like ours, who were doing everything we were supposed to do and better -- as we moved in, white folks moved out, because they were afraid of what our families represented," she said. "I always stop there when I talk about this out in the world because I want to remind white folks that y'all were running from us. This family, with all the values you read about: You ran from us. And you're still running."

My family was the second black family to move into my South Central neighborhood in Los Angeles. We moved there in 1959, when I was entering the second grade. By seventh grade, virtually all the whites in my neighborhood had moved out.

For one semester, I attended Washington High, a high school that still had a fairly large white student body, perhaps 50%, while a high school closer to my home was being built.

On my very first day, I was by myself eating my lunch. There was a white kid a few yards away eating his lunch, when three or four black kids approached him. One black guy reached into his pocket and pulled out a white handkerchief, placing it across the rail the white kid was leaning against. He told the white kid, "Pick up that handkerchief and shine my shoe." The stunned white kid said, "Excuse me?" The black kid repeated the demand, pointed to a clock on the wall, and said, "When the clock hits 1 o'clock and the bell goes off and you haven't shined my shoe, I'm gonna kick your a--." The white kid kept asking why, what did he do to warrant this abuse? The black kid replied, "Because I told you to."

The white kid refused. The bell rang. The black kid slammed his fist into the white kid's face. But the white kid knew some form of martial arts, so he assumed a fighting position and repeatedly struck the black kid, knocking him down. Then the black kid's friends jumped in and started pounding on the white kid. Soon several other blacks joined in and started hitting the white kid, too. The white kid started running, and a group of some 20 blacks ran after him.

This was my first day.

Throughout that semester, I observed several instances, thankfully not this dramatic, in which whites -- boys and girls -- were verbally abused and physically bullied. In one case, a big, muscular black kid walked through a crowded hall between class periods and struck white male students in the chest with his fist, pointedly allowing black kids to walk by undisturbed.

No doubt, there were instances of white versus black clashes in which white kids were the instigators. But I never observed any. How many white kids went home to their parents and complained about the taunts and the bullying? To what degree did this contribute to the "white flight" that Michelle Obama complained about and implied was completely due to anti-black racism?

Former Attorney General Eric Holder complained about the fact that black kids are suspended and expelled from school disproportionately more compared to their population in a given school. Holder attributed it to racism. But the disproportionate suspensions occur irrespective of the racial composition of the school board and irrespective of the race of the principal.

Michelle Obama also inadvertently offered another reason for "white flight." During the 2008 campaign, "60 Minutes" interviewed her and Barack Obama. Correspondent Steve Croft asked Michelle whether, given the possibility that Barack Obama could become the first black president, she feared for his safety. "I don't lose sleep over it," she replied, "because the realities are that ... as a black man ... Barack can get shot going to the gas station. ... So, you know, you can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen. We just weren't raised that way."

The white kid refused. The bell rang. The black kid slammed his fist into the white kid's face. But the white kid knew some form of martial arts, so he assumed a fighting position and repeatedly struck the black kid, knocking him down. Then the black kid's friends jumped in and started pounding on the white kid. Soon several other blacks joined in and started hitting the white kid, too. The white kid started running, and a group of some 20 blacks ran after him.

This was my first day.

Throughout that semester, I observed several instances, thankfully not this dramatic, in which whites -- boys and girls -- were verbally abused and physically bullied. In one case, a big, muscular black kid walked through a crowded hall between class periods and struck white male students in the chest with his fist, pointedly allowing black kids to walk by undisturbed.

No doubt, there were instances of white versus black clashes in which white kids were the instigators. But I never observed any. How many white kids went home to their parents and complained about the taunts and the bullying? To what degree did this contribute to the "white flight" that Michelle Obama complained about and implied was completely due to anti-black racism?

Former Attorney General Eric Holder complained about the fact that black kids are suspended and expelled from school disproportionately more compared to their population in a given school. Holder attributed it to racism. But the disproportionate suspensions occur irrespective of the racial composition of the school board and irrespective of the race of the principal.

Michelle Obama also inadvertently offered another reason for "white flight." During the 2008 campaign, "60 Minutes" interviewed her and Barack Obama. Correspondent Steve Croft asked Michelle whether, given the possibility that Barack Obama could become the first black president, she feared for his safety. "I don't lose sleep over it," she replied, "because the realities are that ... as a black man ... Barack can get shot going to the gas station. ... So, you know, you can't make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen. We just weren't raised that way."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: chicago; moochelle0bama; race; racism
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To: ArtDodger

I lived in a second floor apartment of a walkup three flat at 63rd and Cottage Grove Avenue right near the University of Chicago. My dad used to take me and my brother to Jackson Park when we were boys (1948) to escape the summer heat and the stench from the Union Stockyards. We used to lay on the grass and dad would point out the constellations to us. By 1952 we had three deadbolts on our doors and the gangs would routinely rattle our doorknob at night trying to get in. We moved out that year. It was a matter of safety. FU Moochell


41 posted on 11/07/2019 5:46:43 AM PST by tom paine 2
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To: ArtDodger
The moose leaves out the unspoken truth that, as crime got worse, many of the black families would have moved out, too, if they could have afforded it.

I went to a high school that sat on the border between predominantly white and black neighborhoods. As such it was naturally integrated. I had a lot of black friends there. Within a decade after graduation virtually all of their families had moved out of that neighborhood, as it had become a virtual druggie shooting gallery.


42 posted on 11/07/2019 5:47:44 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog (Patrick Henry would have been an anti-vaxxer)
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To: Chainmail
I still live in the same place but I carry full time.

Now that the DemocRATS control the executive and legislative branches, expect all-out assaults on your right to carry.

43 posted on 11/07/2019 5:49:32 AM PST by AlaskaErik
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To: Kaslin

Hey Mooch, some people might like flying around in space with a Wookiee, but few want to live near them...


44 posted on 11/07/2019 5:56:59 AM PST by Sicon ("All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - G. Orwell)
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To: Ancient Man
Jack Kemp once gave the best explanation of soaring black crime that I have ever heard. We created two societies with the Great Society. One socialist and matriarchal side by side with a capitalist society that was more patriarchal.

Young men at the age of 18 (or younger) are outcasts in the socialist society. They do not rate the benefits, but are untrained and ill equipped to move into the capitalist society. Hence they turn to gangs and crime. Socialist mothers are encouraged to make babies, so there is an endless supply of black disenfranchised young men raised in homes with no father.

It does not explain all gangs and violence but at the time he was addressing the black community specifically.

45 posted on 11/07/2019 6:00:04 AM PST by OldGoatCPO (No Caitiff Choir of Angles will sing for me)
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To: Kaslin
...as we moved in, white folks moved out, because they were afraid of what our families represented...

It's interesting that she presumes to know their motives, these people she's never even met...

...I want to remind white folks that y'all were running from us...

No. As you just claimed they were perhaps running from what was represented by the change. It isn't about race, it is about the types of change. Her assumption that race is tied to those kinds of changes is actually the real racism here.

Personally, my next door neighbors are a minority. BFD. They're great neighbors - I know this because I talk to them. He's a tech guy and family man too. They are the 2nd best neighbors we've ever had - and this is our 5th residence. Sorry, to get to #1 they'd have to beat being a helpful electrician and throwing a wild ho-down every fall with real southern moonshine and BBQ. Those neighbors back east set the bar pretty high.

If anything drives us out of our neighborhood it won't be our next door neighbors, it could be the {expletives} a few streets over. They have teenagers. They are not "good kids" nor are the kids' friends. There is a growing bad influence over in that area with increased petty crime. They are graduating from breaking into cars to a few garages now. One or more of them is/are going to get shot, probably within the next year or two if things keep going this way. Hopefully they'll leave mommy & daddy and move on and things will return to normal. If not... My wife is making noises like she's had enough of winters. It may be time to put in for that transfer to one of my company's more southern locations. Oh, and not that it matters one bit but these "not good" kids are not in fact minorities.

46 posted on 11/07/2019 6:03:56 AM PST by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: Texas Eagle

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a6668/oak-bluffs-african-american-community/


47 posted on 11/07/2019 6:04:45 AM PST by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: OldGoatCPO

I say the reason the military is different is because everybody either meets the standard or they are out. None of this identity preference crap.


48 posted on 11/07/2019 6:09:51 AM PST by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: Kaslin
Anyone notice the Obama's moved into wealthy white neighborhoods in DC and Martha's Vineyard after leaving the WH?

They didn't move back into their old hood in Chicago, now did they?

This woman is an overt bigoted racist against white people. Disguised as someone who matters.

49 posted on 11/07/2019 6:11:41 AM PST by HotHunt (Been there. Done that.)
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To: Kaslin

A flip side to this coin is that Hispanics and Asians have no “history” with blacks, so do not tolerate those who are badly behaved.

In Los Angeles, communities that had been all black were “encroached” on by Hispanics, and when the latter reached a threshold, they started encouraging the blacks to leave.

Often they were assisted in this by criminal organizations, such as the “Mexican Mafia”, who were acting out of complex reasons.

Conversely, during the Rodney King riots, after looting and destroying their own neighborhood, many blacks headed into the Korean neighborhood to do the same, but met some resistance. They decided to return with greater numbers the following day. But by then the Koreans were “armed to the teeth”. So the blacks stayed out.

However, the Koreans had been “offended”, and so contacted, then contracted for a large number of Korean mob thugs to fly to Los Angeles to carry out revenge attacks on blacks.

There were several very violent, mid scale revenge attacks by them, before the LAPD intervened and told the Koreans to be more discreet about it as it was attracting unwanted attention.


50 posted on 11/07/2019 6:13:26 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Liberalism is the belief everyone else should be in treatment for your disorder.)
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To: Kaslin

1976 to 1979. Milwaukee.

I went to a highschool that had about 2100 students and about 35 blacks. There were no racial incidents at all. The blacks were just us with good tans. Even the greasers didn’t cause troubles with them.

Then in 1977 the court forced integration on us. We went from 35 blacks to about 350. Almost all of them bussed in from the ghetto. The school went from a nice place to a war zone overnight. It was no longer safe for a white kid to use the restroom.

The problem was not the skin color, It was the culture. They were raised to be racist thugs and we responded to defend ourselves. They did not know how to behave in an acceptable manner at all.

Our blacks hated the bus kids with a passion. Our black kids had it great, good safe school, they were liked, they had good friends, they were safe. Then the bus kids came in and destroyed all that.

The more these things happen the more apartheid looks like the right thing to do. The “black” culture is not compatible with mainstream American culture. We cannot co-exist.


51 posted on 11/07/2019 6:17:32 AM PST by John O (God Save America (Please))
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To: Kaslin

Here is my 2 two cents: I believe blacks are not capable of creating or maintaining very basic civil society due to their limit in racial intelligence. Some of them are intelligent but the number of such a person does not surpass the threshold for them as racial group to thrive. If they leave them alone they will collapse. They HAVE TO rely on others for better life. Africa is the most resources rich continent but people there are the poorest.


52 posted on 11/07/2019 6:21:06 AM PST by Lee25
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To: Kaslin

I think when Eric Holder said he wanted an honest discussion about race in America he did not have in mind a discussion with Larry Elder.

Holder’s a racist punk, and a commie one at that.


53 posted on 11/07/2019 6:27:45 AM PST by SharpRightTurn (Chuck Schumer--giving pond scum everywhere a bad name.)
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To: yldstrk

Absolutely! But it carries over even after your service is finished. Another brother that I work out with, we became friends while discussing port-of-calls in Asia only to find out we probably passed each other on the street many times and had mutual friends. He is black and we actually can discuss race issues and politics, disagree at times and are still best friends.


54 posted on 11/07/2019 6:38:29 AM PST by OldGoatCPO (No Caitiff Choir of Angles will sing for me)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

I was in Cali at that time. So different now, almost unrecognizable.


55 posted on 11/07/2019 6:39:57 AM PST by OldGoatCPO (No Caitiff Choir of Angles will sing for me)
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To: Kaslin

As I have related before, I went to a high school in Brooklyn that was ordered to desegregate. To reduce conflicts the whites started school an hour earlier and were dismissed an hour earlier than the blacks. One day I had detention so I got out late. When I went to get on the first city bus I rode to go home it was packed FULL of black kids. It was standing room only and I was the only white on the bus. I held onto the overhead strap, my other arm was full of books (no one used backpacks at that time). All of a sudden the books were knocked out of my arm and a I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I looked down and there was a compass (the thing with the pointy end used to draw circles) sticking out of my thigh. I pulled it out and looked around to see who did it. It was a mass of faces all talking and yelling. No one was looking at me and I couldn’t tell who it was. I picked up the books and got off as soon as I could. I walked the rest of the way home with a hankerchief stuck in my leg to stop the bleeding. I never told my parents (I didn’t want them to know about the detention). I treated the wound myself and thankfully it never got infected. In the end I learned a valuable lesson about things to avoid.


56 posted on 11/07/2019 6:43:41 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Civil War II has begun, but only one side is fighting.)
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To: Phillyred

Here is a question for Michelle Obama, “Is there any instance in recorded history of a neighborhood getting better after black people move in?”.


57 posted on 11/07/2019 6:47:11 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Civil War II has begun, but only one side is fighting.)
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To: OldGoatCPO

Yes, I am still friends with military people I served with 30 years later.


58 posted on 11/07/2019 6:47:58 AM PST by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
Has the Mooch EVER given a speech where she doesn't say bad things about white people? She's such a hypocrite.
59 posted on 11/07/2019 7:01:38 AM PST by dandiegirl (BOBBY)
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To: neverevergiveup

” The problem is that the ghetto often followed them.”

It always follows them.


60 posted on 11/07/2019 7:07:38 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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