Black migration in the contemporary US

[Jimmie Higgins]

I wasn't sure if I should post this in learning or not - feel free to move it, if appropriate.

At any rate, I've been wondering about black migration/demographics today and I was hoping people had some ideas about this or could point me to some sources which talk about this.

In the Bay Area (or at least S.F. and Oakland) there has been a drop in the black population and I frankly don't know much about it and I'm curious about the ramifications on worker and anti-racist struggle.

Oakland has lost 25% of its black population in the last decade and in San Francisco there black people (and the poor and even moderately well-off workers) are just being priced out. There is one historically black neighborhood left in S.F. now and that was hit hard by forclosures and is in the process of being gentrified.

http://newsone.com/1090595/oakland-black-population-declines/

After a generation of declining job opporitunities it seems like lots of black folks are simply moving to the South in a kind of neoliberal reverse-migration because that's where the jobs went.

What are the effects of this? It's interesting in part because the "black community" which used to basically mean segregated urban areas became a focal point for urban black struggle and a kind of class solidarity (though expressed through racial terms and also often in cross-class formations headed by middle class people).

What does this mean for anti-racist struggle in a time when the ruling class is leaning even more on repression and racism? Is there any evidence of more fight-back in suburban areas or in the South where people have moved? What are problems or new possibilities for anti-racist struggle under these changing circumstances?

[Sasha]

Intresting indeed, I think its an pretty specific US "problem", here in Europe the non-white population needs to stay near the big city's but are being pushed out by the gentrification, this leads to ghettosation which bring lots of potential for social agitation.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Intresting indeed, I think its an pretty specific US "problem", here in Europe the non-white population needs to stay near the big city's but are being pushed out by the gentrification, this leads to ghettosation which bring lots of potential for social agitation.

Oops, yeah I meant migration in the US specifically - I have at best a very very broad understanding of migration or demographic shifts within Europe or Latin America or China (rural migration to urban areas). But I would love to hear insights about other regions too.

[Popular Front of Judea]

I think that America is returning to the historic urban norm -- wealthier residents residing near the city center, the less well off in the outskirts. Here in Seattle African-Americans have been leaving what is called the 'Central District', the historically black neighborhood for the south end of the city and out into the county.

http://crosscut.com/2011/12/08/hard-times/21653/A-new-world-in-South-King-County/

If only our rhetoric would catch up with the changing reality...

[Free South Califas]

I live in a central city US neighborhood with a lot of black people, but they are almost all refugees from (or direct descendants of refugees from) African conflict zones. I just moved from an adjacent neighborhood that used to have a lot of who are instead called African-Americans, but lots of them have been driven out by gentrification and only one church seems to remain that is specifically for their community.

[tachosomoza]

A lot of black people are returning to the South, that's historically the region that has been the nucleus of African American population. As a matter of fact, during the slavery time blacks outnumbered whites by huge margins in several counties. In cities such as Birmingham, Memphis, New Orleans and Atlanta, blacks form majorities of the citizens, and Jackson, Mississippi has elected a promising black mayor named Chokwe Lumumba.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/07/mayor_chokwe_lumumba_wants_to_build_a_solidarity_e conomy_in_jackson_miss.html


Change — yes, maybe even the radical kind — may be on its way to Jackson, Miss. The predominately black town elected activist Chokwe Lumumba to be its new mayor, and he’s got an ambitious plan for economic revival.

From the Belfast Telegram:

Lumumba’s election is stunning, because he is openly and avowedly radical on social and economic issues in a way seldom seen in American politics.

During the 1970s and early-1980s, he joined others in espousing the creation of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA), an independent and predominantly black country in the southeastern US.

The RNA movement also called for the US government to pay several billions of dollars in reparations for slavery.

In his campaign literature and in news media interviews, Mayor Lumumba stressed that his economic program will incorporate principles of the “solidarity economy”. Solidarity economy is a umbrella term used to describe a wide variety of alternative economic activities, including worker-owned co-operatives, co-operative banks, peer lending, community land trusts, participatory budgeting and fair trade.

Lumumba was officially sworn in as mayor on Monday.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

This is interesting.

I read somewhere that a lot of African American migrants actually went to countries like South korea to teach English. It was an article about racism though, so it didn't delve too far into the reason for the influx of African American immigrants.

[tachosomoza]

A lot of black people are in the military and wind up stationed overseas as well, in countries like Japan and SK that are very xenophobic.