In my new book, “Untenable: The True Story of White Ethnic Flight from America’s Cities,” I make the argument that those who could flee the growing disorder of post-1960s urban America, fled.
Only whites were shamed for fleeing, but blacks fled as well. In the book, I tell the stories of Whitney Houston’s mother, Cissy, Kanye West’s mother, Donna, and Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson.
All made the conscious decision to pull their children from harm’s way when their neighborhood and its schools broke down around them. “Call it black flight or whatever,” said West after her son was mugged, “I was ready to go.”
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