Editing Deindustrialization (section)

== Racial Dimensions ==

Deindustrialization hit African Americans particularly hard. The [[Great Migration to Philadelphia|Great Migration]] had brought Black workers north for industrial jobs that began disappearing almost as soon as they arrived. African Americans were concentrated in industries—manufacturing, transportation—that were especially affected by automation and relocation. Discrimination limited their ability to move into growing sectors; service industries often excluded or underemployed Black workers. Residential segregation trapped African Americans in neighborhoods where jobs were disappearing while limiting access to suburban areas where new jobs were being created. The combination of industrial decline and persistent discrimination created what sociologists called "spatial mismatch"—Black workers trapped in areas without jobs, unable to reach areas where jobs existed.<ref name="wilson">{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=William Julius |title=When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor |year=1996 |publisher=Knopf |location=New York}}</ref>

The racial impact of deindustrialization contributed to concentrated poverty in Black neighborhoods. As jobs disappeared, so did the income that had sustained communities. Family structures stressed by unemployment frayed; social problems associated with poverty intensified. The Black neighborhoods that had developed during the Great Migration became areas of concentrated disadvantage. White ethnic neighborhoods also suffered from deindustrialization, but white workers had more options—they could move to suburbs, they faced less discrimination in hiring, they had accumulated more wealth that cushioned economic shocks. The racial disparities created or worsened by deindustrialization would shape Philadelphia's social geography for generations.<ref name="sugrue"/>