Apparently my family has been taking quite an interest in this blog. My Aunt, who also grew up on our block, suggested another reason for the white flight: blockbusting. As she described it, there was an article in one of the Detroit newspapers about our idyllic, "white lilly" neighborhood. And within 6 months of that article, the neighborhood was gone. She said that realtors used a technique called "blockbusting." They'd find a black family, sell them a house on an all-white block, then turn around and tell all the whites that thier property values were declining rapidly now that blacks were in the neighborhood. So all the whites wanted to move out, all at once. This created a lot of churning of the properties, and $$$$$ for the realtors. I looked this term up on the internet, and true enough, that's what blockbusting is. One variant of this term is that realtors hire a black woman to push around a baby carriage in a neighborhood, to scare the whites into thinking that blacks have already moved in the neighborhood. This would keep new whites from moving into the neighborhood, push the existing whites into moving out, and allow the realtors to sell thier houses for them.
But I wonder about this. Why didn't the whites just stick together, and refuse to sell out at once like they did? The influx of black families would have been slow enough that the neighborhood would not have changed much over the course of many years. But people wanted to be the first to get out. By beating thier neighbors out, thier property still had more value than if they had waited until thier neighbors moved out. I suppose that is the "american way," to look out for #1, regardless of the consequences to others. Isn't that a shame that we have such (lack of) values?
I'm sure that while all this was going on, "somebody" presented arguments to the rest of the neighbors, to just stay put. I wonder why that message fell on deaf ears, why that strategy wasn't chosen? You'd think that with Detroit, with a history of huge labor marches and demonstrations of solidarity, that this "solidarity strategy" would be familiar and welcome. But it wasn't. Why?
I think blockbusting is a major issue of the "whites" decline out of the city. As far as the info falling on deaf ears. Honestly? who they going to believe? Everyone and thier mother was leaving and ya had one town cryer every few blocks who didnt believe the "Hype" and tried to preach the word. People were more afraid of the gossip hype and rumors than actually do some research. after all, there was no internet back then lol. Love the writings Cuz, learned alot of Bieke history on here too.. Blog on Cuz, Blog on!
ReplyDelete-Scotty