Duneier divides his book into four parts;
Harlem and Chicago, 1940’s and present day. He devoted chapters to Horace
Clayton, who fought to end racially restrictive rules that kept Blacks out of
White areas. While there was no legal segregation in Chicago, it was still unsafe
for Black Chicagoans to buy houses outside of the old neighborhood. The case of
Virginia Dobbins is one example; she purchased a house, then found White
neighbors openly vandalizing it, then White mobs surrounded the house, and the police
harassed her constantly. The South Side of Chicago was crowded and dirty, but
even with all the crime it was safer than a white area. Another problem with Chicago
was the practice of Redlining, where the banks refused to lend money in area
deemed “poor” by the Feds. Then came the Contract Buyer scam, which didn’t end
until activists of both races fought to end it. Unfortunately, the change came
too late.
Duneier attributes Ghetto’s entrance into
Black vernacular to Black soldiers coming back from WWII. Sociologists like Du
Boise and Clayton saw the Ghetto as the origin of segregation, and as mentioned
earlier, Du Boise had seen them up close. However, neither seemed to realize
that for a Jew in Europe, living outside the walls might not have been
practical. Those neighborhoods were the only place they knew, and might be the
only place where they wouldn’t be attacked in the street. Even if the Ghettos
were freed, did the residents have the money to live elsewhere? The same way
that Virginia Dobbins found herself in unfamiliar territory in Chicago, a Jew
living outside of the Ghetto, whether in Berlin Frankfurt, or Prague, faced too
much risk.
The Harlem section of this book is split
between Kenneth Clark (1940’s) and Geoffrey Canada (2000’s). Clark, a
Columbia-educated academic, found that White organizations were getting all the
Federal money, while Black schools and non-profits were treated more like
charity recipients. One of Clark’s more disturbing studies found a troubling
problem among Black men; those that couldn’t find work or support their
families were likely to lose their standing in the household, and be more
likely to desert their families. This isn’t unique to Black families in the
USA: I’ve heard that Ethiopian Jews in Israel and Bukharian Jews in Queens have
had the same problem.
Another issue behind the success or failure
that the author doesn’t go into is private charity. Since the earliest days of
immigration, the different ethnic groups (Chinese, Jewish, Irish, or Italian) had
their own benevolent lodges, and they relied on their own when help was needed.
I can cite a personal example; my family recently found the grave of a relative
who died at age two in 1923, and the beautifully-carved headstone could not
have been afforded on her father’s garment worker salary. There must have been
a benevolent lodge that paid for it.
Geoffrey Canada figures heavily in the
contemporary section of this book, because in contrast to Kenneth Clark’s fight
against the dehumanization of the Black family, Canada struggled against crack,
crime, and teenage pregnancy. Ironically, Dr. Canada started his teaching career
at a South Boston school full of violent Irish-American kids (made famous in
the book All Souls: A Family Story From
Southie.) No guns were involved here, just fists, and the boys only fought
when there was an adult around to break it up. However, one thing that the
author doesn’t explore is the issue of the job prospect discrepancy. An Irish
boy in Boston has a greater chance of getting blue-collar job, most likely
through a relative or the friend of the family. A Black boy, however, has no
chance. The construction, trucking, and maintenance businesses are almost all
White, and the Irish or Slavic businessmen are more likely to hire their own.
Duneier cites Julius Wilson’s research in Chicago to support this; Wilson
called it a “segmented labor market,” where skilled-work positions are closed
and civil-service jobs become the only option. Dunier also mentions how the
Civil Rights movement deluded young men; they’re taught to expect a pot of
gold, so they reject manual labor, and they can’t start from the bottom and
work their way up.
A constant theme in this book is the comfort
zone versus the need for safety. In the Dobbins case, the homeowner sought
healthier lodgings, but wasn’t safe in the new White neighborhood. In the case
of the Great Migration, Blacks from the Deep South sacrificed the communities
they’d grown up with in order not to get killed by the KKK. On one hand, they’d
be safe in the North from white mobs, but on the other hand they would only be
safe in a Black neighborhood. While they would be safer in the North, they’d be
leaving behind their church, their extended family, and their familiar support
network.
Chicago’s housing projects became a de
facto Ghetto for Black residents, long after Black Americans were moving out.
Unlike the Ghettos that Du Boise explored in the 1900’s, the Chicago
neighborhoods had none of the restrictions. The Ghettos of Italy and Germany
had walls around them, with gates that were locked at night. In contrast, Chicago’s
“Ghettos” had none, those who wanted to were free to leave or enter. It was
commonplace for Black Americans in Chicago or Harlem to leave the neighborhood
to work, same as it is now. The difference though is that there were few Black
people in the Chicago housing projects who had full-time jobs. If the parent was
on welfare for 20 years, there would be no reason for her to travel out of the
neighborhood, and the Cabrini-Green or Robert Taylor projects would be the only
place that those single mothers knew. The children would then become fixed to
the place, and get stuck.
Geoffrey Canada’s approach is more practical
and realistic. Back in South Boston, where the Irish boys would only fight when
the authorities were present, he made the boys an offer; fight alone in the empty
lot, or return to class. Most of them chose the latter, obviously, but it made
an impression. He knew that you couldn’t persuade people to leave the
neighborhoods they knew, but you could modify their habits. While working in Harlem
in the 1980’s, he demanded to start a martial arts program which kept Black children
out of trouble (for some reason, Asian combat sports do more to keep kids out
of trouble than basketball and boxing.) His Harlem Children’s Zone, a network
of schools and health services, is designed to improve things within the
community, so it will be a safe and healthy place to be, not something that
people are desperate to escape from.
I’m going to sum this up with a personal
experience. For a time, I worked in a construction company, with Ukrainian
carpenters and an Irish supervisor. The Ukrainians, a tough and unsmiling bunch,
were all teachers back in Ukraine. When I asked why they gave it up they said
they couldn’t survive on a teacher’s pay back home. The desire for better pay I
can understand, but what about the sudden change? How can anyone just pick up
and leave behind all they’ve ever known? When I asked one of them how they
handled the transition, he said “what transition, I had nothing to leave
behind!” Unlike a Black family in the Great Migration, however, these
Ukrainians had two major assets; first, they’d all learned vocational skills
back in their old country that they could use in New York, and secondly, their
entire extended family made the trip as well. Not only would they be more
likely to get a high-paid job, but their elder relatives could watch the
children while the parents worked.
In the end, the only people who will make
such a change are either desperate, or brave enough to make the jump.
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