A popular narrative heard in the inner city is the desire to leave the inner city. From a young age, most children including myself, were told that staying in the hood would have an increased risk of getting into trouble or winding up as another statistic. In fact, we were told that all the better opportunities to advance and grow are outside the hood, and were encouraged to seek opportunities elsewhere. With this mentality, many successful and smart black people take this advice and seek to educate themselves and find homes and jobs outside of their hometown. However, this creates a phenomenon called the “black brain drain” which is a huge part of the problem that the black community faces in America and requires an honest discussion and change of strategy.
What Is The Black Brain Drain?
A brain drain usually relates to skilled or professional workers leaving one area for another. The black brain drain applies this definition to the many talented black individuals who are raised in the inner city and acquire some type of education but leave their hometown. The reasons for their departure are largely rooted in the quest for higher salaries, job prospects, and safety. Typically, these opportunities are lacking in inner cities and drive away college graduates. But another layer to this flight would be the sense of achievement for leaving where they came from and ending up in a new city with a new lifestyle. I believe this mentality is the underlying driving force that propels black professionals to actively find other communities to begin their adult careers.
Why does it matter?
Many future black leaders, business owners, technicians, scholars, and innovators lose their community pride due to the years of constant rhetoric geared towards leaving the hood to find better opportunities. While this is rooted in truth, because many opportunities for high paying jobs are not located in the black community, this approach continually stifles growth for the black community. If the most talented and intellectually driven individuals consistently leave their community and join others across the United States, how will their hometown improve? Who else has the technical knowledge of building businesses, finances, and value to the hood if all the individuals who received that knowledge never return to reinvest? In some circumstances, it can be as simple as moving to a different part of town, like from the south side of Chicago to the north side. Despite being in the same city, one side benefits immensely from increased property value, tax generation, and business growth while the other side has little to no economic growth. This trend is replicated in other large cities, such as Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City.
We are trained to not see the value in our communities, but the rise in gentrification proves that it exists. That value, however, is just not being explored and generated by the black community. Gentrification usually involves white or other foreign developers coming into predominantly black and minority neighborhoods and buying out foreclosed or rundown property to renovate and build new homes or complexes. These new buildings drive up property values and bring new people to the community, which also invites small and large business to invest in the community as well. However, this influx of new individuals usually displaces the current tenants, who can be driven out by an increase in housing prices or the atmosphere of the changing community. Many black and minority residents are left out of the economic revival of their city, which is currently happening in Detroit now. Many residents believe that the city’s renaissance is not benefitting the current black residents and developers because they are not a part of the rebuilding process.
The black brain drain is weakening our communities by not only sending away our brightest talents but also eliminating their duty to help their community by directing them to abandon their city. This opens the door to gentrification and outside developers to invest economically into minority cities and displace the minority population. Many wealthy, black individuals never reinvest in their community because are taught to be ashamed of it. If we continue to treat and see our cities as trash, we will never reap the treasure that lies within it.
