The Black Underclass Time Bomb

As our national economic “recovery” persists, the Black underclass, especially in the South and North East, appears to be teetering on the edge of mass unrest, even rioting. Public services are overwhelmed, and recent scenes have laid bare the very real potential for violent mayhem were, say, welfare funds to dry up or the currency to hyperinflate.

The national media generally like to turn their gaze away from such matters; the local media really can’t avoid reporting on it.

Here’s a story from Atlanta today of tens of thousands of homeless African-Americans seeking public housing applications:

Thirty thousand people showed up to receive Section 8 housing applications in East Point Wednesday, suffering through hours in the hot sun, angry flare-ups in the crowd and lots of frustration and confusion for a chance to receive a government-subsidized apartment.

The massive event sometimes descended into a chaotic mob scene filled with anger and impatience. Some 62 people needed medical attention and 20 of them were transported to a hospital, authorities said. A baby went into a seizure in the heat and was stabilized at a hospital. People were removed on stretchers and when a throng of people who had been waiting hours in a line were told to move to another line, people started pushing, shoving and cursing, witnesses said.

Still, officials of East Point declared the day a success. Nobody was arrested and nobody was seriously injured, they said. It was an assessment roundly challenged by many of the people who had to go through it.

Kim Lemish, executive director of the East Point Housing Authority, said the event marked the first time the city has offered Section 8 housing applications since 2002. The waiting list that lasted eight years had depleted, she said, and the agency was beginning a new one. So people braved all the physical difficulties just to get on a waiting list that could keep them waiting for years.

This comes a little over a year after a false rumor was spread among Atlanta Blacks via text messages about new Section 8 vouchers being on offer; much like today, thousands showed up at public facilities and various welfare offices around the city. (Just in case you’re wondering, yes, the homeless have cell phones.) Such an incident speaks not only to Black desperation but also the degree to which communications technology and social networking can facilitate spontaneous, paroxysmal “flash mobs.” (The piece I wrote last April about “Race Riots 2.0” is worth revisiting in this regard.)