What Michelle Obama Leaves Out About 'White Flight'

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.

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."

“I lived in a second floor apartment of a walkup three flat at 63rd and Cottage Grove Avenue right near the University of Chicago”.

Almost my old ‘hood from the 40’s and 50’s. 75th and Coles to 84th and Ada to the fricken hell outta there to Iowa in 1953.

I know that 90% of the blacks in a nearby low-income black neighborhood wouldn’t hurt a fly — and might even help me if I had to change a flat tire. But in my own neighborhood of whites, I don’t have to worry about the other 10%.

It’s a cycle - neighborhoods with white families, the blacks move in, whites flee, crime rises, neighborhood and schools decline. After several decades, Starbucks, fags and pajama boys move back in with no kids.

Every morning, when I was a Kindergartener walking to school, a group of black kids who were 8 or 9 would rob me of my milk money (5 cents). I was threatened not to tell. I resolved to walk to school the long way around the block. I had to leave 5 minutes earlier which my Mom thought was strange but I never told her.

That was my introduction to black people and I remember it. Have I known nice black people? Sure. Does my experience put an extra hurdle in the relationship? Sure.

My family moved into an all white neighborhood in Baltimore in 1956. By 1965 the neighborhood was changing. In 1970 my parent’s home was broken into while they were away, several times. Local thugs were caught but the belongings stolen were never recovered. In 1974 my father was shot and killed in front of his home by a teenager who lived a block away. I was forced out of the community a few years after moving into the home. Today that community is a high crime area.
The liberal establishment in Baltimore has tolerated crime for decades. It is not a racial issue. It is a political issue in which a segment of the population is encouraged to run wild for the sake of their vote.
Moral corruption at the highest level is precisely the condition we are facing locally and nationally.The Democrat party has become the party of crime, of corruption, of incivility, and of elitism. Their political influence must be destroyed, absolutely.

“100 percent wrong” plus “certain blacks” equals an illogical comment. My comment was about the myth of blacks being better athletes as a race, period. The predominance of blacks in football as compared to the racial makeup of the population makes no sense whatsoever unless social influencers are factored in. Thus the point of my comment. To say I’m 100 percent wrong while in the same breath saying CERTAIN blacks have an advantage actually makes you 100 percent wrong, as 100 percent is an absolute...thus ANY exception nullifies your comment. While there is certainly truth in your comment otherwise, and is a separate aspect worth discussing, it does not make my comment wrong.

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