Social Apartheid in Tri-Cities Bristol Virginia-Tennessee 2012

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Social Apartheid in Tri-Cities Bristol Virginia-Tennessee 2012

by Lewis Loflin

Welcome from the great community of Bristol, Virginia-Tennessee. This is now my 15th year on the web and it's time to start a new year. No doubt our community will suffer another year of political corruption, crony capitalism, and third-world poverty. Just in December 2011 alone we lost another 500 manufacturing jobs within our community of about 50,000. Oh, we did celebrate the opening of another restaurant. For more on that see Social Apartheid in Bristol Virginia-Tennessee 2011. Bristol Virginia-Tennessee is at the junction of the two most corrupt regions in the two most corrupt states in the union. (Kingsport Times-News May 22nd, 2010)

New Years day started off with a literal bang in neighboring Kingsport when a violent black felon emptied a handgun into a complete stranger at the local Waffle House. Two days later a local deputy was run over and nearly killed by a violent black gang fleeing an armed robbery. The jails are bursting with white people arrested on drug charges. (The average age I found was around 38 and cluster heavily from 31-42.) Two more feral black males, part of a gang of ten people that executed to men at a Kingsport store, go on trial for murder.

Added January 2012

The Tri-Cities as we are often called is becoming an inner city war zone. We had none of this 15-20 years ago, so what has gone wrong? In the same 20 years Southwest Virginia alone has spent around $1 billion on economic development. An audit of the Virginia Tobacco Commission (TICR) in June 13, 2011 revealed the efforts to 'revitalize' (economically) the region "remain elusive." It also noted in regards to the $756 million in 1,356 grants since 2000:

TICR Has Made Grants With Limited Potential for Revitalization;
Well-Defined Revitalization Strategy Needed;
More Effective Governance Model Should Be Considered;
Most Awards Not Paired With Relevant Metrics;
Four (of 24) localities allotted two-thirds of funding under formula;
Awards not consistent with indicators of economic need;
Generic and Ambiguous Outcome Metrics for 89 percent of Awards.

The last in particular is shocking in that they have nothing to show for 89 percent of those awards that anyone can measure. Again to quote, "Meaningful outcomes data not collected by TICR for 89 percent of awards."

The grants really acted as a political slush fund and ended up as corporate welfare or funding private non-profits in violation of Virginia Law. To quote, "TICR Lacks Effective Process to Evaluate Project Proposals...Some Awards Based on Factors Other Than Merit..." To further quote,

Recent Opinion of Attorney General Could Affect TICR Awards

January 2011 opinion indicated that appropriations to charitable institutions not owned or controlled by the Commonwealth conflicts with Constitution of Virginia.

TICR has provided funding to numerous nonprofit organizations.

And they still continue to do so. TICR along with local government is giving away $50 million of our tax dollars to a non-profit private Christian college to build their medical school. The $12 million they gave to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University for their medical was simply peanuts.

The whole process is simply a joke with political considerations over ruling economic common sense. To read the entire report click here. The TICR is dominated and has been for years by Republicans that while screaming to cut social programs, seek expansion of corporate welfare at every turn.

Also see Housing Prices Come Crashing Down in Bristol VA/TN

A Look at the Last Ten Years

Dysfunctional Culture

The problems with the TICR is the tip of the iceberg of just how messed up and disconnected society has become. The affluent here regardless of their positions on petty culture war and ideological issues (gays, abortion, flags, size of government, etc.) are socially, culturally, and economically segregated from the lower-class mostly white population.

The local economy like that nationally favors the affluent and those controlling the government money flow. Virginia is among the top ten states that receives more Federal loot than taxes paid and government is a substantial part of the Southwest Virginia economy.

The millions spent on government efforts to 'end poverty' and 'revitalize' the economy simply enrich the elite and bypass the poor. This happens because Republican are obsessed with the myth that showering the 'private sector' with government funds will 'lift all boats.' There's no proof of that anywhere.

While we can argue political corruption (I believe it's more ignorance on the part of community leaders rather than malice), the poor here also bear their share of responsibility. Family breakdown, unwed mothers, drug/alcohol abuse, dropping out of school, and lack of a work ethic are chronic problems.

The results of those children growing up in that culture over the last 20-30 years are now being felt. The elite here will have their pet ideological arguments to explain why those problems only grow worse.

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Posted December 10, 2011

The liberal View

The liberal elite see poverty and lack of economic opportunity as responsible for the vast array of social ills that beset this community. This can be solved by bigger and better government intervention, social programs, and more funding for education. Society bears responsibility for their plight and they are not responsible.

That makes no sense at all be it whites, blacks, or anyone else. The white community here suffered far greater poverty at one time than they do today and few families committed the staggering levels of self-destructive social behavior they do today. The same was true of black Americans before 1960. Even with the ravages of racism they never had anywhere near the crime and self-destructive social behavior rampant in the newspapers. Lower-class whites are rapidly going in the same direction.

Poverty today is nothing like it once was due to a vast array of social services available. Back before these services existed the poor, regardless of race, relied on family, church, and community and not clueless government social engineers, mainly affluent white people. They base these silly programs on half-baked academic studies from other affluent white people that like the local elites are socially and economically isolated from those they claim to speak for.

This liberal/leftist elite is frankly hostile to the very cultural values (family, church, self-reliance, etc.) that once empowered and gave the poor the tools to survive a bad situation and have gone a long ways in their efforts to destroy those values. The welfare state (and the lucrative jobs and political power it entails) have replaced all of that and we see the results. Where the community and people themselves once policed much of the destructive social behavior we see today (they were far from perfect), liberals turned then into victims.

Holding people directly responsible for their actions and punishing irresponsible behavior would force them to stop doing stupid things and will break them of the need of running to the welfare office and the 'entitlement mentality' it breeds. That will also begin to break the political power of the liberal/left elite.

Yes there is a lot poverty here and the economy is grossly unfair in particular to those without advanced degrees and political access. But that is no excuse for acting like animals. There are jobs in this community to be had and they are mostly low-paying, but that's still no excuse to sit in front of the television all day and vegetate.

Many able-bodied white people here are on Social Security disability that has become such a racket lawyers openly advertise for clients. Drive along I-81 between Bristol and Abingdon and one can see a big billboard from the Gene Cochran law firm. (www.genecochranlaw.com) To quote, "Injury law, Social Security Disability and Worker's Compensation is all we do..." They must be very good with the number of people here on disability.

We can argue all week that poverty causes destructive social behavior as liberals want to believe, or sloth and family break down causes poverty. The answer is both and I believe it's 50-50.

As a final note liberals here have become part of the system of corruption and indifference. Many of their organizations benefit from the government grant gravy train (a process I call grant farming) and have turned towards environmentalism and 'saving the planet' as their main concern. To quote one local environmentalist, "the earth comes first."

In reality people in particular the poor are secondary (if any concern at all) to the newest culture war issue. By throttling economic development in the name of Gaia they made an already appalling job situation even worst. Through efforts to stop construction of new housing 'to protect the environment' the deplorable housing situation grows worse because housing shortages drive up inflation. Environmentalism is literal economic murder on the working poor.

The Conservative View

Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients May Become Law in Virginia

Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Republicans are passing bills to require drug tests for welfare recipients and is one step closer to becoming law. It require's initial screening of people seeking benefits under Virginia's Temporary Aid for Needy Families Program. Those testing positive positive face a mandatory blood test.

Those failing would forfeit their benefits for at least a year. Democrats claim bill as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. We may know by week's end. Tennessee Republicans are trying similar measures. January 25, 2012.

See Tennessee considering drug testing welfare recipients.

The above is just one example of Republican loathing of anything to do with private welfare. They want drug testing for someone applying for $20 worth of food stamps, but have blocked efforts at the TICR for over a decade to enforce compliance and accountability standards against their wealthy patrons they handed out almost $800 million to.

On the housing end for example Republicans fight hard to block any form of affordable housing while using public funds to subsidize high income development. While they give lip-service to 'private sector' hype they fight to have many private development costs shoved off on the entire community. It's not 'private sector' when government acts in partnerships with private business to ensure their profits while socializing their costs.

As liberals and conservatives here fight their petty culture wars they together have created and sustain this mess and unless we address why, there will be no solution. They blind each other from the fact the social problems here have two sources: self-destructive behavior from the underclass liberals refuse to address, and an exploitive and corrupt economic system where there's no real dividing line between business and local government Republicans fight to protect.

Republicans simply refuse to accept the fact of limited economic opportunity (spare me the cult of the 'entrepreneur') and need to realize many low-end jobs are economically non-viable without massive government subsidies. If one can't live on a job, they can't take the job. Working here to assure business has a cheap labor force to the point one can't earn a living in the end is no help to business because nobody will work for them anyway.

Explaining child poverty by the numbers

2008 ranked the region with inner-city slums on issues such as health, income, education. That was in 2008, it was true in 1998 and in 1988. In 2012 it's more of the same with no end in sight.

Let's continue our journey with a new study released by Voices for Virginia's Children (www.vakids.org) revealing the ten most impoverished Virginia communities in regards to children, which no surprise again includes Bristol:

Danville city - 41.7% - 43,055 people, White 46.7%, Black 48.3%.

Petersburg city - 41.4% - 33,740 people, 79.00% Black, 18.5% White.

Martinsville city - 36.1% - 15,416 people, 55.38% White, 42.55% Black.

Galax city - 35.9% - 6,837 people, 86.11% White, 6.26% Black.

Richmond city - 35.0% - 197,790 people, 38.30% White, 57.19% Black.

Buchanan County - 34.9% - 26,978 people. 96.75% White, 2.62% Black.

Roanoke city - 33.9% - 94,911 people. 69.38% White, 26.74% Black.

Bristol city - 33.9% - 17,367 people, 92.54% White, 5.57% Black.

Franklin city - 33.2% - 8,582 people, 39.4% White, 56.9% Black.

Lee County - 33.1% - 25,001 people, 96.3% White, 2.9% black.

Virginia pop. 8,001,024 - 64.8% Non-Hispanic White, 19.4% African-American, 7.9% Hispanic, 5.5% Asian, so by the numbers; white: 5.18 million; black: 1.55 million; Hispanic: 632,000: Asian: 440,000.

So according to vakids.org going by race 28 percent of black kids, 18 percent of Hispanics, and 10 percent of white kids, and 9 percent of Asian kids live in poverty defined by the unrealistic number of $22,000 for a family of four. (I believe it's much higher than that.) That's 518,000 poor white kids, 434,000 poor black kids, and 113,760 poor Hispanic kids, and 39,600 Asian kids.

None of these ten communities listed above had a substantial Asian or Hispanic populations. There are two factors that determine child poverty in my view and that's unwed motherhood and income. It's clear in those communities with large black population, they will have high child poverty rates because of the collapse of the black family. www.bvblackspin.com claims 72 percent of black kids live in single parent homes.

Besides the economic problems, social breakdown makes the situation worse. Poor people can't afford these problems because they llack the resources to deal with them. According to www.bvblackspin.com, homes without fathers ultimately affect children in numerous tragic ways:

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes
85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes
80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes
75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes
85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes.

To further quote,

Compared to the 72 percent in our communities, 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.

The full article is here.

For blacks this is compounded in many areas by the large influx of Hispanics displacing disproportionate numbers of blacks from low-end jobs. With no private sector job growth since 1999 (New York Times), and the deluge of legal/illegal immigration, somebody has to lose. The meat packing industry in the Shenandoah Valley for example once employed large numbers of blacks at good wages, today employ illegal aliens at low pay.

The number of blacks in a community directly determines the rate of child poverty. But what explains nearly identical rates of child poverty in nearly all-white communities such as Bristol, Galax, Lee and Buchanan Counties and Southwest Virginia overall? Richmond at almost 60 percent has nearly the same child poverty rate as Bristol with less than 6 percent. Is it single parent homes or poverty pay scales and lack of real jobs and economic opportunity? Read more...

under construction

Coming up:

Bristol Herald Courier attacks unemployed and poor workers;
The Sykes Call Center Fiasco and how stupid the TICR really is.

Exide Dumps Bristol Workers after Receiving $34 million in Stimulus Funds

In 2009 Exide announced the firing 567 workers at Bristol battery plant or 70 percent of its workforce. Opened in 1994, Exide's Bristol plant is a manufacturing and distribution center of lead-acid batteries used in the automotive, marine and specialty industries. They had 817 employees at the time. They did some rehires that were proclaimed "new jobs." Read more...

Sprint Dumps Bristol Virginia for Bristol Tennessee

Here is another example of one low-wage community trying to outbid the neighboring low-wage community at taxpayer expense for low-paying jobs. Sprint has turned down a lucrative corporate welfare package from Bristol, Virginia and will jump the State line to Sullivan County. Read more...

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