* Everyone prefers to be around folks similar to themselves, it is just human nature. If people would just respect their neighbor and his or her stuff, this would NOT even be an issue…
* You can’t make people want to see their property values plunge and their lives put in jeopardy. People live where that stuff can be prevented.
* Imagine that. Some people are concerned about where they live. They are concerned about how houses are maintained, about the schools their kids go to, about safety, about feeling good about going home each night. I don’t think most people care so much about the race of their neighbors but more that those neighbors share and show similar feelings about the area they live in.
* Different cultures determine where a person will choose to live. European Americans usually choose to live out of high crime, failed cities by working hard, staying out of trouble. African Americans seem to want to stay in high crime, poverty areas in the cities. Different values, different cultures.
* We live in a very diverse community. No one decorates for any holiday. No flags for patriotic holidays, no indications of any religious holiday. Nothing. It’s grim. You may not notice something like this until it’s gone; then you start feeling a bit lonely. When we moved in, there was less diversity and much more color and an upbeat feeling.
* Renting is way different than buying real estate. Maybe people may take a chance on a cheaper apartment in a neighborhood that they wouldn’t at first have considered, but buying a house or condo is a different matter altogether. You are investing a lot of money and you want to ensure that the real estate prices either remain stable or increase (not go down). You want good schools and a safe neighborhood. And living a few blocks from a slum is not a good idea since the crime spills over.
* Honest question, why is “diversity” so valuable for a neighborhood anyway? I live in a really diverse neighborhood – Columbia Heights. Blacks, whites, hispanics, asians etc. projects next to penthouses, all living in relative disharmony. Never seen or heard of any white people mugging, assaulting, raping, and/or harassing anybody, vandalizing and/or stealing property etc. Conversely though, I’ve repeatedly seen, read about, and have been a victim of black crime for ten years.
So who exactly is benefiting from this diversity? I’m not, and as far as I can tell, black people in my ‘hood certainly don’t seem terribly welcoming or happy that I’m there.
* Of course blacks are more willing to move to places where predominantly whites live. Those places tend to, on the whole, be safer, have better schools, more well-kept, etc. It’s not a surprise people would like to live there. Those are neighborhoods viewed as where “good things can come from being there”.
Whites dont want to live in predominantly black neighborhoods because they tend to be poorer areas, worse schools, less safe, etc. And the perception tends to be (not incorrectly) that bad things tend to happen more in those neighborhoods than in predominantly white neighborhoods.
I’m a white female, 30’s, and I can tell you I would pretty much absolutely never be willing to move to a neighborhood that was predominantly black. Just wouldn’t feel safe or comfortable or like a place I’d ever feel like was “home”, in a way that a predominantly white neighborhood (or honestly, one with a fair mix of Asians) would.
* Who among us wishes to be forced to live where they do not want to live or to be forced to endure government-imposed and supported neighbors with whom they have absolutely nothing in common? I am white and did not inherit anything from my parents. I worked very hard to pay for my own college education and to be able to afford, in retirement, a place where I feel comfortable among people of similar backgrounds. I would never choose to live among people, white or black, whose crime rates, out-of-wedlock births, and drug use/dealing are high. Why is that so hard to understand? And why is it considered to be racist?
* If the word “crime” is used anywhere in this article, I missed it. Isn’t that the reason blacks often move into predominantly white neighborhoods but whites very seldom move into neighborhoods which are predominantly black?
