Why are black people moving away from Americaâs Northern cities? Keneshia Grant on the causes and consequences of a new Great Migration. Brought to you by [Hardshore]( Recently at The Signal: Alice Han on [whatâs at stake in the massive global surge of Chinese high-tech exports](. ⦠Today: Why are black people moving away from Americaâs Northern cities? Keneshia Grant on the causes and consequences of a new Great Migration. (From Jan. 21, 2022.) ⦠Also: Ivan Krastev on how Polandâs liberal-democratic opposition beat the countryâs authoritarian-populist ruling party. Meanwhile: You belong to a readership here thatâs now at more than 100,000 globally. We have a very short, very anonymous survey to get to know you better. If you havenât had the chance to fill it out, it takes barely a couple of minutes. And thank youâyour responses will be invaluable in helping us plan whatâs next for The Signal. [Tell us about yourself]( Subscribe to The Signal? Share with a friend. ⦠Sent to you? Sign up [here](. Southbound Alex Knight Black Americans are leaving the biggest cities in the Northern United States. The numbers of black people living in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., have declined by more than 9 percent during the past 20 years, according to U.S. census data. Detroit has lost more than 35 percent of its black residents; Chicago, about 25 percent; Baltimore, almost 20 percent; and Washington, D.C., about 17 percent. During the same time, substantial numbers of blacks have moved to Southern cities like Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas, reversing the direction of the Great Migration, when 6 million moved from the South to the North from 1916 to 1970. Whatâs happening? Keneshia Grant is an associate professor of political science at Howard University and the author of [The Great Migration and the Democratic Party](. To Grant, this return migration is driven partly by simple economics: Northern cities are more expensive than Southern ones, housing space is at a premium, and many industrial jobs in urban centers have disappeared. Black people have also come to live with the knowledge that racism is just as pervasive in the North as in the South. Many are leaving for prosperous Southern cities, but some are also returning to the places where earlier generations of their families had livedâand some are just moving to the suburbs of Northern cities. As Grant sees it, this migration is changing politics and culture dramatically in places where blacks are leaving. But itâs also shifting power to black people in places where theyâre arrivingâin ways that could lead ultimately to major shifts in U.S. national politics. [Read on]( Advertisement From Keneshia Grant at The Signal: âThe South is being changed by all these people moving there, but it was already changing over the course of the 20th century. Thereâs less of the extreme violence that people would have been fleeing when they left the South. Thereâs also more clarity now that racism exists throughout the United States. Many who left the South during the Great Migration believed that the North would be a place where they could achieve equality and not have to deal with racial issues. But they found that wasnât the case. If someone believes that racism is everywhere, then they might as well be in a place thatâs cheaper or warmer.â âThe question isnât, How is the economy of the city doing? The question is, What does the economy of that city mean for black people? It could be that the economy of Washington, D.C., New York, or Chicago is thriving, more that the Bay Area is booming with the tech industry. But if black people in those places arenât part of the boom, then they have to figure out another way to live. In some places, we see concerted efforts to include black business owners, to have set-asides for black contracts, or to have affordable housing. But Iâd argue that some of these booming cities donât share the boom. Itâs difficult to tell the story of return migration apart from the story of gentrification and displacementâor to say precisely where the one ends and the other begins.â âDetroit is Motown, and people care a lot about black music in that place. But if many black people are either leaving Detroit or transplants from other places, then some of the culture thereâthat people have as part of their very beingâalso leaves. You donât just lose a black citizen of Detroit; you lose a black citizen of Detroit whoâs raised with all the things that people in Detroit care aboutâand who takes those things wherever they go. The culture changes when the people change.â [Members can access the full conversation here]( FROM THE FILES The End of Law and Justice Jacek Dylag The European Commission announced on May 6 that it would drop sanctions proceedings against the European Union member state Poland. The sanctions were to target what the Commission saw as ongoing violations of democratic principlesâincluding repeated efforts to control Polandâs independent judiciary. Until the national elections of October, Poland was governed for eight years by the populist-right Law and Justice party. The new government, however, has enacted rules to eliminate political meddling in the appointment of judges to the countryâs highest courtsâor leveling disciplinary action against sitting judges for following EU laws. Last November, shortly after Law and Justice was defeated, Ivan Krastev explored the causes of the partyâs downfallâand the Polish oppositionâs surprising victory. A key factor, Krastev says, is that Law and Justice, in power with the support of the countryâs conservative majority, had begun to take their partyâs views to extremes a broader majority of Polish voters rejectedâcreating a liberalizing political backlash and unprecedented support for the oppositionâs relatively progressive policy agenda. Itâs a curious case in Europe, cutting against the continentâs political trend to the right. [Read on]( Become a member to read full articles, access our complete archive, and support a new genre in current affairs: [Join The Signal]( Next Tuesday: Steven Cook on what the U.S. pause in sending large bombs to Israel means for the countriesâ relationship ⦠Subscribe to The Signal? Share with a friend. Sent to you? Sign up [here](. This email address is unmonitored. Please send questions or comments [here](mailto:concierge@thesgnl.com). To advertise with The Signal, inquire [here](mailto:advertise@thesgnl.com). 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