Elizabeth Kneebone — Ferguson, Mo. Emblematic of Growing Suburban Poverty

The story behind the story.

Brookings — The Avenue
Ferguson, Mo. Emblematic of Growing Suburban Poverty
Elizabeth Kneebone | fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings and co-author of Confronting Suburban Poverty in America (Brookings Press, 2013).

(h/t Tyler Cowan at Marginal Revolution)

See also Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, The Coming Race War Won’t Be About Race, at Time.

Ferguson is not just about systemic racism — it's about class warfare and how America's poor are held back, says Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem:

This fist-shaking of everyone’s racial agenda distracts America from the larger issue that the targets of police overreaction are based less on skin color and more on an even worse Ebola-level affliction: being poor. Of course, to many in America, being a person of color is synonymous with being poor, and being poor is synonymous with being a criminal. Ironically, this misperception is true even among the poor. 

And that’s how the status quo wants it.