Reluctant Flight

Perhaps what was most striking about the four readings assigned for this week is that none of them were written about the 1960s from the distance of several decades, with all of the hindsight that that affords. Rather, they were all written within the 1960s, a time when the city seems to have been in crisis, from some perspectives. The young, white, middle class people were leaving in droves due to either the cost of living, the failing public schools, or a combination of both. This is a slightly different perspective on white flight than I have been exposed to, or thought about before. The Levines can hardly afford their suburban lifestyle, nor is it one they particularly wanted, but it seems that the city offered them few options. I had thought that these “white flighters” were eager to abandon New York City for the perceived safety and security of the nice –white- suburbs (although that is not to say that none of the reasons the Levines left seemed quite related to race).

It is interesting to consider that the flight of middle class white people like the Levines had an impact that would last for decades. Left in the city were those who were very wealthy or those who were very poor. Namely, the black population that was trapped in worsening living conditions due to measures in institutional racism like redlining. They did not have the freedom that the Levines did. Certainly, if the city was not willing to bend to the needs of its middle class, there were even fewer considerations afforded their poor, minority, populations. I imagine that the schools the Levines did not wish to send their children to were populated with such populations. Above all, they did not want their children to be bussed to schools that were in those areas populated by poor minorities. If a parent works hard to send their children to a good school, Sondra argues, why should their child be bussed against their will? The implication there seems to be that poor, black populations in the city simply do not work hard enough to get out of poverty, rather than any observation of institutional racism. Unlike other white people, they could not afford private school tuition, something that segregated white and black students even as Democrats in the north denigrated the racism of the South. The authors of Beyond the Melting Pot, note in their introduction that integration in schools would be extremely difficult. Part of this reason, and I have heard this argued elsewhere, must be that so many white students can escape integration by going to a private school, while black students are excluded either by cost or simply discrimination.

I imagine that “white flight,” worsened the economic problems that the city was already facing. Indeed, I wonder if the flight to the suburbs by one generation led to the return of the next (perhaps their children and grandchildren) as artists, and then upper class yuppies.

Just a thought: I would have liked to have had also had a point of view from minority populations unable to leave New York City at this time