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The Legal Discrimination No One Talks About

We've been hearing a lot about police brutality lately in the wake of what has happened in Ferguson and other places. While I agree that police brutality is an issue that needs to be addressed, and some communities have been addressing it long before Ferguson, there is another issue that is not being talked about--and that is the economic consequences of all these protests and civil unrest.

The other day I heard on NPR (National Public Radio) that a study had been done of the communities that had been hardest hit by the riots of the 1960's. Not surprisingly, almost none of these communities had ever recovered from the effects of the riots, and in some cases were even worse off. Detroit is a prime example. Not long after that I heard that a university near Ferguson has had to lay off some of its faculty since enrollment has dropped quite a bit in the last few months. Some people would say, oh, well, that is collateral damage and is part of the price we must pay to make a more just and free society. But is it?

In the 1950's Ayn Rand wrote a novel called "Atlas Shrugged" in which she asked the question, what would society look like if all the wealthy capitalists disappeared and took their wealth with them. We are seeing the effects of a real-life "Atlas Shrugged" in many communities of color all around us.

I asked my friends at church--the ones who are busy protesting and marching--to think about where it is they go when they go to shop, and why? In 1959 the Kalamazoo Mall opened as the nation's first pedestrian shopping mall. For the first decade of its life it was a success. It was the place to go--the only place to go because there was no competition from the suburbs--and it was a family-friendly place. I have many fond memories of Saturday shopping at the Kalamazoo Mall. Then, the suburban malls opened in the 1970's. People began deserting downtown.

Now, I'm sure that race did not openly factor in the decision of developers, store owners, and shoppers to abandon downtown in favor of the large suburban malls where everything was climate controlled and there was abundant free parking, but when I look at the pattern of development in my area over the last half-century, there is one large historically African-American neighborhood that has not benefited from the growth that has taken place in other areas. This area has long been a food and employment desert.

Is it simply coincidence that this move from downtown to suburban locations took place shortly after the riots of the 1960's? Recently there was a "die-in" protest on the Kalamazoo Mall that took place during one of the Mall's special events when it was guaranteed the street would be full of shoppers. The protestors must be feeling pretty proud of themselves. But--there are a lot of people who will not be coming back downtown as a result. Why should they when they know that there are places they can shop where parking is not a hassle, where they don't have to worry about their safety (what if a riot had broken out?), where the merchandise is more affordable? The suburban malls, including their vast parking lots, are private property. No protests allowed there. And they don't have many external windows, either, for objects to be thrown through. They are almost like fortresses.

Like it or not, most of the capital available for investment and development is in white hands. They are the ones making the decisions where to build and where not to build. Where to invest and where not to invest. It's illegal to say to someone that you can't live or work or shop somewhere because of race or other factors. But it is not illegal to not build in an area or open a factory or a store. The malls don't discriminate. Anyone can shop there--as long as they have access to transportation. If they don't, that's not the store's problem.

The town where I live is rapidly growing. I think it is very safe to say, looking at property values and what an average house costs, that most of the people who can afford to move there are white. Economics is a legal way of keeping out people of color. It's not really discrimination--as long as you can afford to live there.

There is no law that forces companies to move to certain locations. There is no law that forces people to move to certain locations. I'll admit it, when looking for a place to move, there are certain areas that don't even make my list. It's not a matter of "considered but rejected". It's more like "never even crossed my mind in the first place." I can have all kinds of reasons for my decision not to move to certain areas. It's my right not to. And I suspect that my "enlightened" friends on the anti-racism, anti-oppression committee also for the most part do not live in those same areas, although they could if they wanted to. We don't talk about that. But I will tell you, most white people are not really interested in reversing "white flight." On the contrary. Where we live, where we work, where we shop, where we make our economic choices, says a lot. It isn't just the One Percent. The students who chose not to return to the university near Ferguson made a perfectly legal decision, whatever else one might think of it. These are silent, almost unseen choices, that ripple through society. They're not big and flashy like protests, but they have much more lasting effects.

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Spinning Compass
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