BCT Editorial – 7/2/07

This page was last updated on July 3, 2007.

Pittsburgh, Alabama?; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 2, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The University of Pittsburgh uncovered a nasty little secret last week that will be hard to accept for many of us who believe that this region is one of the best in the nation to visit, work and live.

“While that may be true for white residents, the same cannot be said for our black neighbors, according to the Pitt report.

“Nothing in the report was good.

“The university found that Pittsburgh’s black population is one of the poorest in the nation and that there are ‘vast disparities in wealth, income and quality of life between blacks and whites in the city and its suburbs,’ according to The Associated Press.

“Pittsburgh, the report went on to say, suffers from a lack of diversity and highly segregated neighborhoods, and those things are contributing factors in the chronic unemployment and population drain that the region has experienced since the steel industry disappeared.

“The report found that the median income for whites exceeded that of blacks by more than $10,000, even though blacks make up nearly 30 percent of Pittsburgh’s population.

“It also discovered some other unpleasant things about the area.

“Only about one-quarter of black women in the region are married, and that about 70 percent of black children are growing up in single-family homes.

“Black women are more than twice as likely to be unemployed compared to their white counterparts.

“Seventeen percent of black men in the region are unemployed compared to 8 percent of white men. Nationwide, the unemployment numbers are 12 percent for black men and 4 percent for white.

“The national marriage rate for black people (40 percent) is nearly double that of those living in this region.”

[RWC] I didn’t check all the data cited in this editorial, but at a minimum the national marriage rate figure is suspect. According to the Census Bureau, for 2004 the national rate for blacks was 31.9% (not 40%) vs. 56.1% for whites, and 51.9% overall.

“The total black income in Pittsburgh is $2.5 billion annually, compared to $46 billion for whites.

“Statistics detailed in the report also offer a good synopsis for what is occurring in former industrial towns with large black populations such as Aliquippa, Ambridge and Beaver Falls.

“The steel industry once offered good economic opportunities for all races in these river towns.

“Since the industry declined in the early 1980s, however, poverty and crime have taken root.”

[RWC] The editorial board must have short memories and/or are very young. I can’t speak for Ambridge or Beaver Falls, but Aliquippa’s black population had problems long before the local steel industry crashed. During the 1960s, I had friends attacked in race riots at the junior or senior high school and black drug dealers shot a black family friend who lived in Plan 11.

“It’s why gun violence pervades these communities, why young blacks are turning more and more toward drugs and other criminal activity, and why gang culture prevails.”

[RWC] Shouldn’t the same be happening to young whites in these communities? If not, why not?

“But the most disheartening aspect of the study is the fact that there are no clear solutions.

“James Maher, Pitt’s provost, said the issues are so complicated that ‘we don’t have solutions.’

“The situation - truly economic apartheid - will not change with more social engineering, increased law enforcement and additional handouts.”

[RWC] Gee, could it be previous social engineering and handouts played a role? Of course not. Liberal programs always achieve their stated goals, don’t they? After all, we won the War on Poverty, didn’t we? <g>

“The only real answer is jobs, those that would pay the kind of wages and benefits necessary to change the black and white disparity.”

[RWC] Above the editorial says Pitt’s provost “said the issues are so complicated that ‘we don’t have solutions,’” yet the editorial claims to have a simple solution.

“A united effort is necessary for change to occur, and for that we must stop thinking about ‘them’ and focus more on ‘us.’”

[RWC] Did you note what was missing from the editorial? Statistics are nice, but they don’t say how we got here.

Finally, what’s with the editorial’s title, “Pittsburgh, Alabama?” Since the editorial made no effort to compare Pittsburgh with anyplace in Alabama, I can only assume the title is an attempt to smear Alabama with innuendo.

By the way. Which state snagged Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes auto assembly plants and a Toyota engine plant? Hint: It wasn’t Pennsylvania.