Here’s another way to think about it. Around the same time that blacks begin to accrue enough political power to take over major cities, the cities themselves undergo a shift that makes them less important nationally and globally. So they take over the cities only to realize that their victory was pyrrhic

So, I agree that African-Americans will migrate towards more affluence suburbs with a majority of African-Americans when their own suburb becomes unstable and begins to deteriorate, rather than moving back to the city.

And while I think that we do have to understand motivation for suburban movement. What I am suggesting is that the things pushing black people to move into the suburbs in the first place–a desire for better services–is coming up against a reality that these suburbs are actually getting worse rather than better.

Here’s another way to think about it. Around the same time that blacks begin to accrue enough political power to take over major cities, the cities themselves undergo a shift that makes them less important nationally and globally. So they take over the cities only to realize that their victory was pyrrhic.

THe same thing is happening with blacks in suburbs. And while blacks in places like Southfield may not move back for safety concerns (because their numbers are already large enough to insulate them), blacks in other places may at the very least move to blacker suburbs.

I also suspect that there’s a weird economic thing going on here. Rare blacks in an overwhelmingly white suburb probably see more blacks moving in as a win–the value of living in the neighborhood goes up, because they’re less isolated, their kid won’t be the only black kid in the class, etc. Whites either see this as neutral or negative, depending largely on prejudice. (Both may also expect housing prices to be affected by racial mix, but those evaluations should be the same for blacks and whites.)

Just hearing folks around here speak, if things get bad enough they are just going to leave the city. I think that will happen to those raced whites living in the suburbs of Detroit. Because of their privilege, it is easier for them to move back into the city.

Just hearing folks around here speak, if things get back enough they are just going to leave the city. I think that will happen to those raced whites leaving in the suburbs of Detroit. Because of their privilege, it is easier for them to move back into the city.

Who is going to buy the home of the African-American family?Rather than take a loss, the African-American will hang around until they lose the house through foreclosure or take the loss and move into an apartment complex still in the suburb. But they won’t move back. They left..they don’t want to have to go back. This is what I’m thinking

The suburban question is an interesting one for sure. What makes it more interesting is when you start to examine the issue suburb by suburb. For example, no way are blacks in Southfield isolated because Southfield has become almost as black as Detroit. Harper Woods is also more than 60 percent black. Holding true to the old patterns, whites keep fleeing farther and farther out when ‘too many of them’ show up as neighbors. So the real isolation, I believe, is happening among I guess what you’d call the pioneers. Like black folks in Bloomfield Hills, etc. I don’t have facts on this about their sense of isolation, just guessing. But it wouldn’t be at all surprising.

But are they going to come back to the city in droves…? I kind of doubt it. My guess would be that those who just can’t take it in the suburbs anymore, at least in the short term, will probably leave the state. IN the long term, once – and if – Detroit turns itself around, then yeah. Maybe then they will consider returning.