The Food Desertization of Ferguson Well Underway: Big Lots Closing Up Shop in 67% Black City

In five years time, the small town of Ferguson will hardly be mentioned at all. 

Instead, scores of other once prosperous/now economically declining cities (once meaning "all white," with now meaning, "boasting aging white, growing black population") will have usurped the energy of those demanding "Justice for Mike Brown" or hilariously asserting #BlackLivesMatter.

Never mind the cheapness of black life in a city such as Milwaukee or New Orleans (the latter city launching the "NOLA For Life" campaign to convince black people to stop killing other black people). 

Or Birmingham, Nashville, Newark, Chicago, Camden, Baltimore, Rochester (New York), Philadelphia, or Minneapolis, where black life only matters when it is extinguished by a white cop or white property owner daring to defend their family or business. 

But in five years time, when the 2020 U.S Census is being compiled and the city of Ferguson (100 percent white in 1970; 86 percent white in 1980; 77 percent white in 1990) registers an 85 percent black population - complete with an all-black city council, black mayor, black police chief, and woefully underfunded majority black police force - the victory over the perceived white supremacy Officer Darren Wilson embodied will be complete. 

The consequences of this racial victory will be the creation of just another food desert, where liquor, title pawn and check cashing stores provide the bulk of the tax-producing economic activity in the city; but the political victory of establishing a city of the blacks, for the blacks, and by the blacks will be complete. 

One can even envision a statue erected to the memory of Michael Brown in a prominent location of the city, commemorating his death as the moment racial vengeance could be exacted and political control of Ferguson in black hands could be established. 

But for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Just as property values in Ferguson were declining as the black population increased, so to did a few keen observers note the long-term economic ramifications of the black insurrection on commerce. [Some fear rioting may seal Ferguson fate for decades, USA Today, 11-30-14]

At the time of Brown's death on August 9, 2014, Ferguson was 67 percent black; with demography being destiny, the city's fate was already sealed, but the lack of black political control had yet to catch up to the white abandonment of the city. 

And as the unrest grew in the hot summer of 2014, one business decided to pull up stakes. K-Mart, an embattled big box store (that might not even have one store opened in 2020 America), closed its Ferguson location: the long-term health of the store, built in a city to service a population that had long since abandoned Ferguson, wasn't looking to be in the financial black. 

The economic conditions individual white people collectively create form something outside investors realize is the perfect reason for building a store or restaurant in this community: social capital. 

Social capital can be defined simply as children and teenagers walking on the sidewalk instead of monopolizing the middle of the road and deliberately disobeying the law (Michael Brown would still be alive had he simply walked on the side of the road after stealing the Swisher Sweet cigars). 

But the latter scenario is what birthed the "Justice for Mike Brown" movement, a clear reminder the health and vitality of a city is completely reflected in its demographic makeup. 

And this demographic makeup of Ferguson (and the clear racial dominance blacks will assert in the city) is a reminder of why companies are leaving. [Big Lots announces closure of Ferguson store, says unrest not a factor, KMOV St. Louis, 12-17-14]:

A major chain is shutting down its store in Ferguson. 

Big Lots is the second national chain store that has closed since the death of Mike Brown. Neither Big Lots, nor KMART, who previously announced the closure of its Ferguson store, are linking the shut down to the area unrest but some small businesses are feeling the pinch. 

“Once my lease is open I think I will have to move,” said Binh Ho. 

Ho owns a nail shop near the Big Lots and said her business has been down 50 percent. 

Her neighbor, Salon Selective, also shut down. 

“I worked at Salon Selective and I lost my job. She closed up after the riots her clients did not want to come over here anymore because of all the things going on,” said Carolyn Tidwell. 

The Kmart at 270 and West Florissant announced in September it would close. “It’s really bad because we don’t have anywhere to go as is if these things shut down where are we going to go we have nowhere else to go,” said resident Sandy Rason.

In five years, white faces in Ferguson will be as rare as their counterparts in present-day East St. Louis (98 percent black); in this nearly all-black Ferguson, the triumphant black majority will complain to their empowered black city leaders to do something about the city being just another food desert. [In Ferguson, there are no malls left to boycott, QZ.com, 11-30-14]
After all, the Visible Black Hand of Economics will have driven away all major chains from the city, save those immigrant-owned grocery stores interested in working behind plexiglas and subsisting on an EBT/Food Stamp carrying clientele. 

Political control of Ferguson will be entirely in black hands, but never forget the concept of black power/empowerment is the ultimate EMP; Detroit is the roadmap for any neighborhood, community, city, municipality, or county that goes from being all-white to all-black. 

Ferguson's fate is sealed, with companies that must answer to stockholders already seeing the black writing on the wall; but the truly scary thing about modern America is the vast number of neighborhoods, communities, cities, municipalities, and counties undergoing similar demographic transitions.

The concentration of political power into black hands is, almost invariably, the unleashing of an economic EMP on the city foolish enough to vote their own ruin into office.

For the more we attempt to believe race is a social construct, the civilization whites constructed inevitably collapses when blacks try and maintain it.

Ferguson is not immune to the biological reality of race, reflected in both K-Mart and Big Lots decision to abandon a city where the food desertization process is well underway.