Blame poverty, not race, say Ferguson’s white minority

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/23/blame-poverty-not-race-say-fergusons-white-minority/



Blame poverty, not race, say Ferguson’s white minority
By Chris McGreal, The Guardian
Saturday, August 23, 2014 9:14 EDT

Ferguson’s white Republican mayor, James Knowles, is clear: he will tell anyone who listens that there is no racial divide in the town, which has been hit by a fortnight of protest over the killing of a young African American, Michael Brown, by a white policeman.

Knowles’s predecessor, Brian Fletcher, has a different take. “Sure we’re segregated. Most cities are. People want to be with people that look like them, think like them, talk like them. It’s human nature. It doesn’t mean it’s bad,” he said. “A lot of communities in the United States are segregated by colour, by economic power, by education. You know the term ‘the other side of the tracks’? It’s the truth. It’s been that way, it is that way and will be that way.”

Scott Bonner, manager of the local library, put it another way. “St Louis is a very Balkanised town and I wish it was better,” he said.

Ferguson’s white minority is feeling besieged. The protests have thrown a spotlight on an overwhelmingly white police force in a town of 21,000 people – two-thirds of them black – with a power structure firmly in white hands.

[Kalidurga]

1. Funny race is an economic issue.

Everything from where you are educated to whether you are hired impacts how much money you have. And this country has a big problem with educational equality and job discrimination.