Perspectives on Black Economic Development
In recent years there has been increasing interest in the ghetto as an economic unit as well as in the economic welfare of non-whites as individuals. Attention has shifted from a strategy of increasing the opportunities of individuals to leave the ghetto to programs for the development of the ghetto economy. This shift of emphasis is prompted by the failure of residential segregation to diminish' and by evidence of a tendency toward the economic polarization of the black population.2 It appears that since 1960 while non-white incomes are rising both absolutely and even relatively to those of whites,3 within hard-core ghetto neighborhoods conditions may be getting worse.4 While the majority of the poor are white (in 1967, 71 percent of all poor families and 83 percent of all poor unrelated individuals were white),' most poor whites are not members of identifiable ethnic groups and tend to be geographically isolated. Because the non-white poor have a sense of group identity based on color and are concentrated in urban ghettos they have been able to engage in collective action, unplanned and uncoordinated as it may be, which has resulted in special federal and local programs that would improve conditions in the ghettos. While physical restoration of the inner city and provision of adequate public services are important, they are also expensive, requiring long-term planning and a reallocation of national