re: #289 OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin

The only ones who come to mind are the Jacksons.

My parents are exactly that demographic that left a city very much like Gary. The options for Black professionals in the 60s were extremely limited whether they stayed in segregation or came west to the Promised Land 9_9.

They were under pressures that their peers weren’t, somehow expected to integrate hostile neighborhoods and workplaces, then also prop up the place they left on middle class salaries (when not in grad school.) Ideally, would have been nice. In reality, no.

The whole situation then and now sucks.

I saw one segment on C-SPAN years ago that blamed the lack of professionals in the “neighborhood” for it’s decline. During segregation—doctors, lawyers and other professionals in the black community had to stay in the neighborhood—giving the kids in the area real and good rolemodels. When the professionals could leave for better neighborhoods—they did and the only role models left were not good.

There are a whole lot of factors, but I had never been exposed to that one before. It makes a lot of sense.