Nah, we're too busy doing what everybody else does...moving out!
Ayup.
Hard to worry about the future of "the community" when you have to worry about your family. And there is the whole, "Why should I be responsible for the actions of those knuckleheads in addition to my own actions?" atomism so prevalent nowadays.
All very understandable why black men & women who have it together make like the sheep and get the flock out of there.
But that is the thing about communities: Good ones have a core of folks who not only have their own family squared away and wired tight, they also give of their own time/effort to make it better. It was Alexis de Toqueville who noted that Americans, at least the non-slave states, were super-involved in voluntary organizations. It is such civic and religious organizations that help make a community a decent place to live. Churches, scouts, PTA, Rotary Club, Lions Club, Junior League, and so on and so forth. Civic culture outside of gov't is what determines all this.
Some communities have such a slim proportion of such folks, the problem looks insurmountable. And probably is.
Which leads to the voluntary segregation we see these days. Given the choice, decent folk flee the chaos and ruin to some place more amenable to affordable family formation.
I don't think the people who are doing this would be at all fazed by Colin Powell, or Lebron James, or Dr. Dre telling them to straighten up. I don't think it would matter who, or what color he was.
On the other hand, it is commonly believed that Eric Holder calmed things just by showing up in Ferguson. I have my doubts about this, but it is the accepted myth.
The unreality is astounding to behold. Holder did his best to stir things up and stretch it all out. Despite every bit of evidence at every turn, he has inflicted the DOJ on that whole community to the point where property values have plummeted, leaving the majority black inhabitants poorer.
