Thread by @neonflag

So, in past riots, one has watched and wondered why rioters don't go to wealthy neighborhoods and attack things, instead of burning down the local corner store. Folks on the street in Atlanta got that memo.

Buckhead. Lenox Mall. Gucci and Prada stores. Yes, yes. Property damage bad. Riot bad. Bad rioter. I can't lie: I'm chuckling a little at the logic of it, though.

Buckhead is luxury apartments paid for by mommy and daddy's money: a solid 10 percent of white people in their 20's here have significant inherited wealth. Buckhead is these same trust fund kids committing crimes and then blaming black people. fox5atlanta.com/news/police-at…

Buckhead is Tex McIver shooting his wife and blaming black people for scaring him into doing it.

atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/te…

Buckhead is white women who marry well like Danielle Rollins, demanding and receiving extraordinary police protection for her mansion. Buckhead is Dr. Nnenna Aguocha, trained at Stanford, being denied entry to her gated home because she doesn't look like she belongs there.

Buckhead is finance and tech jobs that don't hire black people, in a city that's 50 percent black.

americanprogress.org/issues/economy…

Buckhead is Antica Mare, a $50 a plate restaurant that black people can work in but can't afford to eat in, hosting white supremacist book clubs in the meeting rooms. wsbtv.com/news/local/atl…

Buckhead is Phipps Plaza, the last luxury mall left standing amid the death of retail, filled with disaffected black kids who can't actually afford to shop at any of the stores. bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2…

I'm looking at photos of white kids leading the charge, smashing windows Friday night. Cathartic, right? Assholes. I am angry that they placed black bodies at risk last night, robbing other people of their consent to that risk.

But it's clear that the smashing was multiracial. And I think this context is important.

Atlanta is an unequal city. It is the most unequal city.

The average income of a white household in Atlanta in 2016 was over $80,000 a year. The average income of a black household in Atlanta is under $30,000 a year. That has gotten worse. This is the largest racial gap, proportionately, in America.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Buckhead is what that looks like.

It's also what the street looks like. I've been working on homelessness in Atlanta for years now. Atlanta has the most racially-skewed homeless figures in America, too.

Half the city is black, but 88 percent of people experiencing homelessness here are black. Black people are more likely to be homeless, generally, but not this much more likely.

newrepublic.com/article/154618…

If everyone around you is hanging on by their fingernails, you can't just crash on someone's couch if you lose your place. Black people find themselves pushing away friends and family just to keep their own noses above water in a city that is trying to drown them.

None of this is particularly mysterious to black Atlantans. Most of this is invisible to white Atlantans. It's an academic exercise. It's an abstraction represented in a Bloomberg report on poverty or a classroom discussion, or maybe a news story. forbes.com/sites/andrewde…

... maybe: the news doesn't spend a lot of time talking about poverty here.

The media does, however, spend a lot of time talking about crime, with as many black faces to that crime broadcast as possible, because white people love to read crime news.

The least surprising thing I've heard about is news trucks getting their windows smashed.

Atlanta's black political class has been making noises about inequality for a while. And they've taken some tenuous steps to address it for very poor people. Bail reform. Pre-arrest diversion programs. A $50 million homelessness program.

co.fulton.ga.us/bhdd-services/…

But Fulton County jail is still filled to overflowing, mostly with black people. One in six Atlanta households faced an eviction within the last 18 months. And none of these measures get at the heart of the problem.

wabe.org/fulton-countys…

Atlanta is supposed to be a mecca for the black middle class. Black men in business suits. A place to get your rap game on. A relatively affordable city for black refugees from New York and Los Angeles.

Only, there's no up, here. Atlanta has the lowest income mobility in America, too. Born in the bottom quintile of income (under about $16,000 a year, today) the odds of making it into the top quintile in Atlanta (above about $120,000) ... are four percent.
newyorkfed.org/research/epr/2…

Fewer than two percent of black households in Atlanta make more than $100,000 a year. Fewer than four percent make more than $75,000 a year. One in three are living, somehow, on $22,000 a year or less. $340 a week take home, maybe.

People move here in droves. About 75,000 people move to metro Atlanta every year. The average rent on a two-bedroom apartment has risen from about $850 to about $1300 in seven years. You need three times the rent to qualify. That's about $48,000 a year.

atlanta.curbed.com/2019/1/22/1819…

People move here, expecting to be able to make it, and they fail. No one wants to buy your rap CD. Your college degree is worth a $36,000 a year job if you're black. Without college you're hustling on the side, driving for Lyft, and trying to figure out what you did wrong.

Only, you're not doing anything wrong. You just don't know enough white people to get a decent job.

They all live in midtown and Buckhead. And you can't afford to live there.

There is no black mecca in America. It doesn't exist. Atlanta, I love you, but you've been lying to people about what you are.

/x