The last time I checked a map, Cincinnati was not a township in South Africa. So what's up with all the boycott claims of “economic apartheid”?

        “If there is no economic justice, no war waged on economic apartheid in our city, then there will be no peace,” says the Rev. J.W. Jones of the
Coalition for a Just Cincinnati on the “Boycott Cincinnati” Web site (www.cincyboycott.org).

        Apartheid? Where is the “policy of strict racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against nonwhites as practiced in South Africa”? (Webster's definition).

        It does not exist.

        A recent study by the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy measured segregation in 291 metropolitan areas and found that all but 19 cities are more integrated now than they were 10 years ago.

Better than ever

        “Overall, black/non-black segregation levels are currently at their lowest point since roughly 1920.”

        Cincinnati was not among the most integrated cities, such as Phoenix and Las Vegas. But it was not among the 19 cities that have failed to reduce segregation, such Ann Arbor, Mich.

        Cincinnati ranked in the middle, with small decreases in segregation. We were in the same neighborhood with Miami, St. Louis, Dayton and Fort Wayne.

        The study said the reason for the improvement is rising black income. “In a historic first,” the Wall Street Journal reported recently, “more blacks (51 percent) than whites (32 percent) reported that their economic situation had improved in the last year. And only 9 percent of blacks, against 17 percent of whites, said they were worse off.”

        There's still a gap, but black poverty is lower than ever in U.S. history, and median household income for black families is at a record high.

We're not Detroit

        The most segregated city was Detroit, followed by Milwaukee. And if Cincinnati does wind up like Detroit, we can thank the boycotters and everyone who has amplified their divisive crusade that is driving white families out of Cincinnati.

        It looks like “economic apartheid” is “a policy of blaming others to avoid taking personal responsibility, as practiced in Cincinnati.” (Bronson's definition).

        And here's another load of boycott baloney:

        The Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau has claimed that passage of Issue 3 in 1997 has cost the city nearly $64 million in lost conventions. On the boycott Web site, the gay-rights group Stonewall Cincinnati vows to “make certain that everyone in the country knows that the city of Cincinnati is the only city in the country that has written discrimination against gay, lesbian and bisexual citizens into its city charter.”

        Not exactly. Issue 3 simply prohibits “preferential treatment” for homosexuals. The boycott losses are exaggerated too.

        Research by former city Councilman Phil Heimlich, for Citizens for Community Values (www.ccv.org), found that the loss figures failed to take into account bookings that replaced groups that canceled. The convention “losses” were also inflated by counting cancellations by groups that had never committed to come to Cincinnati.

        The report said losses from a gay-rights boycott are “unsubstantiated and misleading.” Just like most of the boycott claims.
        E-mail: pbronson@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/bronson

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