Giving Credit Where Credit is Due in Inglewood, CA.

Harnessing Black economic and consumer power as an agent for social change.

Giving.credit.inglewood [PDF]. 
Inglewood’s a great city that has survived “white flight”- specifically the racial, ethnic category of “white alone, non-Hispanic/Latino” flight-[i] and life in the Los Angeles Basin area.

Inglewood residents obtained significant academic achievement. Inglewood is the childhood home of black alum at many schools. Students from Inglewood represent a significant percentage of the black student body at many of the most prestigious schools in the country and in the local area. They always have. This fact has always been known as well. Many students continued to excellent colleges and graduate schools. Contrary to popular culture and the census, numerous blacks with higher educational degrees reside in or grew up in Inglewood since the sixties after covenants promoting segregation were declared unconstitutional in the forties.

Inglewood always contained quiet and safe neighborhoods with low crime and well maintained homes. The new whites moving into the city are not responsible for the quiet safety. I grew up in Inglewood and now live here again.

It is very important the fact that blacks worked for decades to keep their areas livable and nice places to raise children is not lost during these changing times for both social and economic reasons. In order for blacks to begin to get equal return on their property and therefore break economic Jim Crow in this state, the reputation for the desirable factors, such as safety, education levels and home condition, must go to the black community. These factors increase desirability which then increases the price of a property. Credit must also be given to ensure that Inglewood does not become a symbol of modern Jim Crow where for the black population it is a ghetto or hood with depressed property values and economic reputation and where for the non-Hispanic white population a symbol of economic opportunity with homes unaffordable other places now available for a bargain hood price.[ii] A lot of future profits are expected.[iii] Unfortunately many do not seem to realize that the urban areas were not empty.

The black communities are being used as a source of cheap reserve housing for others including non-Hispanic whites- bottom line the other areas are too expensive.[iv]   Some zip codes, such as 90301, are arbitrarily being devalued despite containing a number of two-story homes in good condition with ocean breezes.[v] Most of these residents have higher education degrees and so do their children[vi]. Our property values are not reflecting these positive factors of an educated workforce, climate and home condition affecting desirability and prices.[vii] In fact, the area is seeing more non-hispanic whites hoping to buy great homes at bargain hood prices.[viii]

It turns out nothing was wrong with Inglewood and probably the other black communities. My own building went from being mostly black to being the new home of whites in a matter of months. Now Inglewood is ready to integrate?—Ha![ix] Inglewood has been called disparaging names, including “Inglehood” etc. Sadly some members of the black communities and others have very determinedly put forth this negative image of a hood Inglewood via rhetoric, media and jokes. I’m not talking about rappers or entertainers-we all know the Hollywood/TV machine. I’m talking about blacks who consider themselves educated and sometimes community leaders. These jokes only reinforce public perception of an economically depressed area ripe for economic exploitation. All factors need to be addressed If black communities are to see a real share of these future economic profits.