A vicious cycle of looting in America’s cities | GOPLifer

A vicious cycle of looting in America’s cities | GOPLifer: 

by Chris Ladd

"How did Washington DC’s Anacostia neighborhood become a festering slum and why has it become trendy again? What can that cycle tell us about events in Ferguson, Missouri?

Almost sixty years after the murder of Emmitt Till we continue to murder young black men for reasons we barely understand and seem powerless to stop. 

We are in broad, national agreement on our desire to free ourselves from racism, yet racist ideology still distorts our best efforts at political and economic progress. Only by confronting this history and recognizing its continuing hold on our culture can we neutralize it and move on.

Blight-ridden stretches of our inner cities are being restored to their former splendor, but those burned out hulks have a crucial story to tell. 

Before the last crack house in Chicago’s West Town becomes a yoga studio we should stop to bear witness. The history of these troubled battleground neighborhoods holds clues that could help us understand our illness and its cure."

Resources:

The Saturday Evening Post, 1962, Confessions of a Block-Buster

Edward Orser, 1997, Blockbusting in Baltimore

The Atlantic, 2014, The Case for Reparations

New York Times, 2014, In Ferguson, Black Town, White Power

The Atlantic, 1972, The Story of the Contract Buyers’ League

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