4. Oakland, California — High poverty rates among African Americans and proximity to drug corridors put Oakland on the dangerous cities list.
3. St. Louis, Missouri — Partially because it’s less spread out than other cities, which incorporate safer suburbs and smaller communities, St. Louis has a high crime rate. It’s also a destination along drug-trafficking routes. Like Detroit, crime levels are falling, but not much.
2. Detroit, Michigan — Notice, how Illinois was in the top 10 last year, but a big city like the City of Chicago was not. The Motor City makes it on many lists of dangerous cities. The main reason? Gangs. And while violent crimes are on the decrease, they’re still higher than in many other cities.
And the number one worst city to raise Black children is…
1. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Similar to other areas in the Midwest, Black people traveled to Milwaukee in large numbers during the 1960s to take advantage of the burgeoning manufacturing industry, leading to the formation of Black communities. When the city’s industrial base collapsed, it served as a catalyst for racial disparities. This pattern of racial inequality continued as a result of the Great Migration when millions of Blacks relocated to the North and Midwest between 1916 and 1970.
Wisconsin Council on Children and Families director Ken Taylor pointed out a horrifying trend in Milwaukee, stating, “If we look at education, if we look at employment, if we look at involvement in the juvenile justice system and the child welfare system, if we look at adult incarceration – on every indicator, we see that African American children are doing worse, in some cases much worse than other children, particularly, white children in our state.”
In Milwaukee in particular, the median household income disparity between Black and white households in particularly discouraging, with white households earning $73,700 annually, one of the highest in the country, while Black households earn only a whopping $28,000 a year. Painting an even more contrasting picture is the fact that Milwaukee has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 3.9 percent, but the city’s Black residents face an unemployment rate of 12.8 percent.
Top 10 Worst Cities To Raise Black Children (2015) was originally published on blackdoctor.org
