The Inner City in France Is Called Paris

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon.

We call Black communities living in our cities the inner city.

We all knew and still know that when someone uses the phrase “inner city” they’re using it as a euphemism for race and poverty.

In the mid-20th century, the term was originally used to describe the central and older parts of a city.

But over time, politicians and media outlets began using it as shorthand for poor, largely Black and brown neighborhoods, often with higher crime rates.

Nixon in his law and order campaign invoked “inner city crime” as the nation’s biggest threat. Reagan’s speeches linked “inner city” with drugs, dependency and crime. Clinton used the phrase to get tough on crime, often referring to “criminals in the inner city.”

We all know they meant Black.

More recently, politicians like Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Donald Trump, Paul Ryan and many others used the phrase.

Time Magazine, Politico and other publications still employ the phrase to refer to Black communities.

Fox’s collection of talking heads from Candace Owens to Laura Ingraham employ the phrase as a matter of habit.

Even academic journals refer to the “inner city” as a substitute for Black people.

It’s just words, so what’s the problem you might ask.

Beginning in the 1960s, politicians used the phrase inner city as a way to talk about Black communities without saying Black. That allowed them to talk about a social problem while trying to sound neutral. This racial coding was nothing more than a thinly veiled dog whistle.

The phrase inner city became a symbol for crime, drugs and dysfunction.

The problem is it paints those Black communities with a broad brush. The people there must be broken. It erases the diversity, resilience, successes and culture within people who live there. The phrase subtly trains people to associate Blackness with poverty and violence.

What use of the phrase also does is it blames Black communities for all of their problems and absolves the systems that got them there. Saying things like “inner city problems” suggests that the neighborhoods are the issue, rather than systemic racism, rather than redlining and disinvestment, and discriminatory policies.

That in turn shifts responsibility away from our government and institutions that contributed to the concentration of inequitable results.

Worse, the phrase essentially flattens Black communities into a problem category rather than recognizing them as vibrant and complex places of history, culture and leadership.

“Inner City” is nothing more than a racialized euphemism that perpetuates stereotypes and masks the real causes of inequality.

Let’s retire the phrase inner city for good and instead value the vibrancy and diversity of our urban core, all while simultaneously taking responsibility for the inequality our nation’s systems, politicians and policies caused.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.