The new face of mainstream racism in Atlanta (Alpharetta, Forest Park: credit, neighborhoods)

[fermie125]

Clayton County is at the bottom of the barrel in Metro Atlanta in terms of median household income, poverty, and per capita income. It places dead last in all of those categories. With low income comes poor school performance, high crime, and other societal ills. I wouldn't want to raise my family there and I don't think a lot of middle-income black folks would want to either. Its just not a desirable place to live regardless of race. The people have voted with their wallets.

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by ncoflin

I am new to Atlanta area and recently moved into the Bellmont Crossing Apartments in southern Riverdale off GA-138 near the border with Jonesboro. I also am white in my mid 20s and far from a "social justice warrior". However I am astonished by all the racially based prejudice and judgement Clayton County seems to get. It certainly isn't an upscale area but in general it seems to be a nice place for affordability and easy commute into central Atlanta. I feel like property values going down when "blacks" move in is due largely to a self-fulfilling prophecy of whites all listing their houses in turn flooding the market. Then thereby dooming this black area to be stigmatized as where all the whites got out because it got bad. I truly think some people will never acknowledge that a black majority area is a decent place to live. The stuff I hear is eyeroll worthy; "Better carry a gun with plenty of ammo" or "If you're white and live in Clayton you need your head examined, I won't even drive through the area".

Sure in a city as big as Atlanta there will be some legitimately bad areas. Many right by the airport for this city specifically (yes parts of Clayton). And yes those areas due to various reasons are majority black. However I truly think if the area was full of white biker gangs selling meth the word "ghetto" would not be thrown around so haphazardly. Maybe this all stems from my upbringing in a similar lower middle class racially mixed area in Virginia but I think living with a diverse demographic of people is the best way to rid yourself of misplaced prejudices. When you live and work with all kinds of people from various cultural backgrounds it erases this "them vs. us" mentality that seems way too prevalent. Particularly here in Atlanta.

I am not saying most white people who disparage Clayton County do not have some legitimate criticisms of the area, nor am I saying they are hood wearing white supremacists. However in 2015 I think subconscious prejudgments and prejudices are the new face of mainstream racism.

Welcome to the Atlanta Metro...its just like this in many other cities though. Its all by design. Poor people are forced to live in certain areas of any city. The middle class either has to struggle to live in a nice area or save money and live in fear in the rough areas. The Upper middle class will make comments saying "if you want a good life go to school, make good decisions, yadda yadda yadda" While the upper class folks wont say anything. The biggest problems is patience and reputation. Mexicans can dominate an area of town and no one is afraid to walk though or visit, even though most Mexican areas are poor and run down just like the black areas of town. The hispanics don't have a rep for random crime like black areas do. Then you have the middle class black people who think they made it. So they leave the black areas and hide in white (safer) areas of town. Its a system that has been put in place in all major cities. Its racism definitely, but its politically correct not to speak on it.

[fermie125]

Originally Posted by 0nyxStation

Welcome to the Atlanta Metro...its just like this in many other cities though. Its all by design... Its a system that has been put in place in all major cities.

Who pray tell put this "system" into place? Sounds intriguing... almost like some kind of conspiracy!

[Zanarkand A East]

Originally Posted by DreamerD

Very few people realize this but glad you brought it up. And it has a ripple effect. When wealth moves so quickly and dramatically from housing complexes, the local businesses are heavily affected. The schools are also affected since the majority of their funding comes from property taxes. I also don't like the language used with regards to white people moving into an area (usually said when talking about gentrification) and how now the area is 'getting better.' Now it's a 'nice area.' It's also weird to me that whenever more white people move into an area, the city where they are moving to somehow finds money to upgrade the city when an area may have been majority black and stable/prosperous, got no funding from the city for upgrades.

Good post

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by fermie125

Who pray tell put this "system" into place? Sounds intriguing... almost like some kind of conspiracy!

chess or checkers?

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by fermie125

Clayton County is at the bottom of the barrel in Metro Atlanta in terms of median household income, poverty, and per capita income. It places dead last in all of those categories. With low income comes poor school performance, high crime, and other societal ills. I wouldn't want to raise my family there and I don't think a lot of middle-income black folks would want to either. Its just not a desirable place to live regardless of race. The people have voted with their wallets.

So basically you're saying low income people simply can't live in a good area. That's complete bull**** Clayton can offer anyone a good quality of life, just because the people make less money than you doesn't mean they're any less important. Where else can immigrants and blue collar workers live in huge houses with big yards and HOA's and quality schools and low taxes. You might not be able to see it but Clayton is doing fine and we don't need high property taxes to tell us this.

[matilda79]

I'll jump in and say that while race may play some role, class I believe is the overall biggest determining factor. Recall the white "hillbilly" stereotype. Some of these poorer communities in Appalachia are plagued with some of the highest school dropout rates in the country, high unemployment, teen pregnancy, addiction, and all sorts of crime. No one wants to live in those communities, either. You'd need a 20 foot brick wall around your house to keep the meth heads/pill addicts from stealing you blind. I think you can argue that people don't just leave or avoid black communities--they leave certain white communities, too.

I've got no problem with Clayton overall, but they do have a few wackos in their government. The crime seems to be relatively concentrated in a few areas, but the whole county gets stereotyped, unfortunately.

Would I enroll my child in the schools? Nope. Just being honest, here. Can I give a solid argument as to why? Nope. But I would gamble that my kid would fare better in Cobb or Fayette. Take a poll and that's what you'll get, unfair as it may seem. What might help Clayton in the short term, though, is to look into magnet schools that attract students looking for a less "mainstream" educational program, while they work on making the overall school system better.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by matilda79

I'll jump in and say that while race may play some role, class I believe is the overall biggest determining factor. Recall the white "hillbilly" stereotype. Some of these poorer communities in Appalachia are plagued with some of the highest school dropout rates in the country, high unemployment, teen pregnancy, addiction, and all sorts of crime. No one wants to live in those communities, either. You'd need a 20 foot brick wall around your house to keep the meth heads/pill addicts from stealing you blind. I think you can argue that people don't just leave or avoid black communities--they leave certain white communities, too.

I've got no problem with Clayton overall, but they do have a few wackos in their government. The crime seems to be relatively concentrated in a few areas, but the whole county gets stereotyped, unfortunately.

Would I enroll my child in the schools? Nope. Just being honest, here. Can I give a solid argument as to why? Nope. But I would gamble that my kid would fare better in Cobb or Fayette. Take a poll and that's what you'll get, unfair as it may seem. What might help Clayton in the short term, though, is to look into magnet schools that attract students looking for a less "mainstream" educational program, while they work on making the overall school system better.

Clayton already has Elite Scholars and Stilwell School of the arts. There's also Rex Mill and MD Roberts which are magnet middle schools. Lovejoy is a IB school.

[matilda79]

If they don't have this already, Clayton, given its more industrial roots, I think, would benefit from a science and technology magnet school like this one, in Conyers, or the second one, with more technical focus.

School Information

ROCKDALECAREERACADEMY.ORG

One day robots will rule the world....someone has to build/fix them. : )

[roadtrip75]

Originally Posted by 0nyxStation

Its a system that has been put in place in all major cities. Its racism definitely, but its politically correct not to speak on it.

The only system that has been put in place is the federal government violently denying white people the right to live among each other. Everything else has sprung up organically.