Who impoverished Black America?

IN RESPONSE to "Dreams shattered in Black America": Among the most frustrating problems for a Black man of my age (I am 73) is the lack of knowledge even among Blacks about the disgraceful history of government-sanctioned housing segregation that has taken place in the U.S. My life is contemporaneous with this exclusion of Blacks.

The ghettoization of Black America is the direct result of the actions of government agencies, especially the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), that took place during a critical period after the Second World War. Its effects were manifest not only in inferior schools and higher unemployment, but also in lowered expectations of the Black community.

In fact, just about every social problem that can be attributed to the ghetto is the consequence of government-initiated racist policies. Yet no one seems to know about them, and when I bring the problems up, I am accused of everything from resurrecting insignificant incidents from the past to sedition. I have told doubters to look up FHA racial policies on Google, but so far, none of them has.

This enforced artificial separation of the races has created a fertile environment for development of negative Black stereotypes. While I was growing up in an integrated neighborhood in Portland, Ore., although one could not deny that there were some problems between the races, most were dealt with by face-to-face encounters, not reliant upon stereotypes.

That has all changed, and now, what are considered characteristics inherent to Blacks are based upon the myths that whites have created.

The Black male demon is the product of such stereotypes, as is the welfare mother, both created by white politicians who exploit white fears and prejudices. Television and movies have enhanced such images. The indolent inner city dweller who would rather live off the dole than to strive for improvement has become a part of our cultural representation for many whites who have never even talked to a Black person, except while on the job or during commercial transactions.

While I was growing up, one of the most significant impressions that affected me was that most Black men worked more than one job to support their families. They were stern, church-going, pious men who believed in the work ethic, and since many came from the South to work in the defense industry, they brought with them a determination to support their families and provide food, shelter and education for their kids beyond what they were capable of achieving for themselves.

During the past 40 years, all that has changed. It isn't, as is so often stated, because of welfare. It is because the jobs have disappeared from the inner city. The Interstate Highway System provided automobile access to cheap suburban land, and industry moved to the suburbs, as did the white workforce. This left virtually the entire Black community devoid of any opportunity for meaningful employment.

Along with abandonment by their white neighbors, they now experienced poverty, and the urban decay that followed stripped them also of decent schools. The result inevitably was greater criminal activity, for no one will passively starve.

Then in the sixties came "urban renewal." With federal government subsidies, developers completed the job. What was left of the Black community, that had previously survived without benefit of bank financing for home improvement loans, was further plundered when eminent domain forced them out of their homes with cash insufficient to replace them. Further crowding and bleaker conditions became the norm in the inner city.

So it can be seen that the deplorable conditions in many urban centers can be directly laid at the feet of the United States government! Whatever problems that exist in the ghetto can only be solved by acknowledging that they are a direct result of misdirected social engineering that has failed miserably.

Without consideration of this dreadful history and the effort to compensate for past inequities, improvement of such conditions will never occur.
Wilson Boozer, San Francisco