Ferguson Resulted From Republican Talking Points That Ignore ...

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Ferguson Resulted From Republican Talking Points That Ignore the Economic Segregation of Blacks in America



The primary causes of inner-city poverty don't make for good television, nor do they translate to concise political talking points. For this reason, conservative pundits and politicians focus on simple explanations to a riddle that most sociologists have spent their entire lives trying to solve. Sparked by the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man, the current unrest in Ferguson is primarily the result of nationwide economic neglect and disinterest toward overwhelmingly African-American areas of the country.

In an attempt to narrow down volumes of research into one emotional charged sound bite, Bill O'Reilly once declared, "If you really want poor black children to have a better shot in life, why not send a three-word text to Jay-Z: 'Knock it off!'" Like O'Reilly, Rep. Paul Ryan showed his concern for the urban poor by claiming, "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working." Echoing the conservative mindset of promoting easy solutions to this complex dilemma, the Heritage Foundation recently confirmed, "Marriage remains America's strongest anti-poverty weapon, yet it continues to decline." However, if these statements of sociological awareness are indeed correct, then imagine for a moment that all the single mothers in the country get married tomorrow. Will manufacturing jobs return to the inner cities and would unemployment decrease? While simplifying the plight of urban citizens to the sexual habits of teenage mothers or Beyoncé's latest album appeases the conscience of Republican voters, a closer and more thoughtful examination exposes the real causes of inner-city poverty.

People like Rep. Ryan would benefit from reading the research of the University of Wisconsin's Center for Economic Development. While he's quick to bemoan a "tailspin of culture," the Wisconsin congressman fails to address the economic tailspin of inner-city residents within his home state. According to Marc V. Levine, director for the Center for Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin, certain social structures and employment trends affecting black citizens are the primary reason for inner city joblessness:

For black Milwaukee, even before the Great Recession of 2007, there had already been over two decades of a "stealth depression"... Perhaps no statistic better epitomizes the severity of Milwaukee's black male employment crisis: by 2010, barely more than half of African American males in their prime working years were employed, compared to 85 percent almost forty years ago... Thus, as manufacturing employment in Milwaukee declined, or shifted to suburbs that were generally inaccessible to Milwaukee's blacks in a highly segregated metropolis, or as black males were displaced to some extent by other ethnic groups in manufacturing employment, the overall black male employment rate in metro Milwaukee plunged.

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