[malicka]

> Then millions fled America's inner cities in the 1960s due to skyrocketing crime and racial violence.

Let’s make sure we keep the cause-and-effect straight here. White flight was what created the crime, not the other way around. Inner cities in the US became poor, losing their business and tax bases, because of the racially-motivated flight of white people to avoid coloured people. Policies that facilitated white flight were done with the explicit purpose of creating white suburbs and preventing coloured people from following suit. It was not people making rational decisions about crime statistics.

[walkabilitee]

>White flight was what created the crime

This is ahistorical libel against millions of families who fled their homes in rational fear for themselves and their children. You may read the last link in my above post for a near-complete refutation of such a view. Incidentally, many successful middle-class black families also fled to the suburbs around this time. Here's another primary source collection, there are many:

https://www.city-journal.org/article/white-ethnic-flight-fro...

[lotsoweiners]

When in doubt blame white people right?

[malicka]

You blame the people that architected it: Racist & oportunistic politicians, bankers, and real estate agents.

Who were predominately white, yes. Not sure why that makes you feel so defensive.

[walkabilitee]

It's true that some white elites took a hand in destroying ethnic white urban neighborhoods, particularly among Italian, German, Jewish and Eastern European communities. Most Americans affected by redlining were white. "Urban renewal" destroyed not only certain poor black neighborhoods, but many ethnic white enclaves. It was a big government money faucet that tempted even the leaders of such communities to raze perfectly good homes and blocks in exchange for federal redevelopment funds.

One example that tells the story in Burlington, VT. Practically zero black or brown people lived there in the 1960s. It was a homogenous white town of mostly Anglo-European heritage. Nevertheless city leaders razed entire blocks and long-established neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal. Parts of downtown have arguably still not recovered.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/before-burlington-town-cent...