We can only hope that African Americans really, really love Prince George’s County, Md., and other trendy suburbs of Washington D.C., that they fled to because, in just a few years, District of Columbia-area blacks will be forced to live there and financially barred from living in the nation’s capital, according to think tank experts.
That’s right. By 2014, less than three years away, blacks will no longer be the majority ethnicity in the “Chocolate City.” In fact, the city won’t even be “milk chocolate,” according to research analysts with the Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. This is terribly rich with irony because, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, 163,036 people in America have the surname “Washington” after President George Washington. A full 90 percent of them were African American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name.
And, now, the very people with the name Washington won’t be able to live in the city they are named after.
The region, long known as the wealthiest collection of African Americans in the world, is undergoing a major ethnic facelift. How can this be?
1. The reason for this shift, says Benjamin Orr of Brookings, has been the influx of affluent whites, the creation of new high-skilled, high-paying jobs, and the decimation of lower-skilled, lower-paying jobs. It’s simple capitalism 101: Technology in, blue collar out.
2. The Brookings Institution found that from 2000 to 2009, the District gained 39,000 households with incomes of $75,000 or higher. During that same period, the city lost 37,600 households with incomes of $50,000 or less.
3. The exportation of blue-collar jobs overseas to countries desperate for work and can perform the same duties for much less and minus benefits. A no-brainer decision, if you are a bottom-line corporate CEO. But that’s bad news if you are black, have a high school diploma and lack the skills to compete for the hi-tech jobs of the day.
And this is why Orr could confidently state to reporters: “I forecast that by 2014, African Americans would no longer be the majority in the District.”
What is the newly-elected mayor, Vincent Gray, and city hall going to do? According to the Washington Post, the
D.C. Council is considering a proposal to strengthen job training programs and a requirement for city contractors to hire residents. –terry shropshire
