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Old 02-20-2008, 04:36 AM
 
168 posts, read 558,426 times
Reputation: 119

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Here's the newsflash:

Those of us that truly "get it" don't want to live in neighborhoods that are all our own race, or all some other race. The former is boring and depressing, the latter is just plain wierd (i.e., be very suspicious of anyone who prefers to live in an area because none, zilch, zero of their own race lives there). That doesn't mean that people that "get it" don't live in unintegrated areas, it just means they don't necessarily want to or try to.

Some insight: The reason a lot of all [fill in the blank] areas stay that way is because they are all [fill in the blank]. Why would a black family looking for an integrated, mixed, diverse area move to an all white neighborhood? It's hard enough these days just to keep up, no one has time to be some kind of trailblazer. This is not the 60s. In terms of neighborhoods and jobs, most open-minded minorities that want diversity just look around to see if their group is already represented, and unless there's a really good reason why not, they keep moving, even if the homogeneous group would welcome them. Why deal with the uncertainty of not knowing why no one else looks like you when you can just go someplace else where several, but not all, people do?

In other words, people are tired of fighting battles (neighbors that don't speak, "funny vibes", or worse) and also tired of the possibility that they (or their kids) might have to fight battles. There's a difference between merely tolerating someone and welcoming them, and it's pretty easy to tell which areas truly welcome diversity.
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Old 02-20-2008, 10:11 AM
 
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 25,974,941 times
Reputation: 3990
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackrabbit View Post
I also cannot understand how you can seriously say neighbourhoods OTP are more "true". In reality most (not all) OTP are disney type creations with vanilla people looking for a vanilla life style in vanilla sub divisions who have to drive in their SUVs tens of miles down featureless 4 lane highways to even get to a grocery store. In some suburbs you cannot tell where you are because every street corner, strip mall and subdivision is the same. I see way more young children playing in parks and on sidewalks etc ITP. In the suburbs they would be run down. Is there even a park for kids that people can walk to OTP?
I live OTP, and I love the location in which my wife and I live, but I can't say that I can effectively generalize the almost 8,000 square miles of area OTP in a single paragraph because most of the areas that I'm familiar with are not like the area we happened to choose to live in. That's why we chose that particular place.

Many areas OTP are as you describe, of course, for better or worse, and our area approximates it in some ways, but keep in mind that many areas OTP were towns in their own right with main streets, businesses, parks, and a certain level of walkability which is inherent in the actual history of the location.

Such locations were not "created" to emulate some ITP environment.

I tend to believe that most ITP versus OTP discussions are pointless, since many of the people who willingly live in each area are there because they like their particular lifestyle and (often) dislike the lifestyle chosen by their counterparts on the other side of the perimeter. Thank you for validating my opinion.
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Old 02-20-2008, 10:12 AM
 
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 25,974,941 times
Reputation: 3990
Quote:
Originally Posted by Windu View Post
Here's the newsflash:

Those of us that truly "get it" don't want to live in neighborhoods that are all our own race, or all some other race.
Uh... For many people who "get it", race isn't even part of the equation.

This "race" topic is so old-school Atlanta. You folks really need to get the **** over it.
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Old 02-20-2008, 10:47 AM
 
72 posts, read 262,755 times
Reputation: 19
but it just seems to keep going and going and going...thats one of the problems with Atlanta!
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Old 02-20-2008, 11:19 AM
Noc
 
1,435 posts, read 2,060,983 times
Reputation: 614
Quote:
Originally Posted by rcsteiner View Post
Uh... For many people who "get it", race isn't even part of the equation.

This "race" topic is so old-school Atlanta. You folks really need to get the **** over it.
I wish more people thought like this and I'm talking behind closed doors and or drunk when their true feelings come out. This is 2008 and people are still talking about race like this is the 1800's.
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Old 02-20-2008, 11:56 AM
 
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 25,974,941 times
Reputation: 3990
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noc View Post
I wish more people thought like this and I'm talking behind closed doors and or drunk when their true feelings come out. This is 2008 and people are still talking about race like this is the 1800's.
Most of the people I've met down here are cool, but I've run into a very small handful who have said things that really made me think I was on a movie set somewhere.

I admit I knew others "back where I come from" who also had attitudes towards others based on race which I didn't understand, but up there I tended to write it off as either (1) a social hangup from a much older and more isolated generation, or (2) the result of small town lets-go-out-and-drive-our-pickups-drunk idiocy, since the folks I can think of who have such attitudes up there are other over 70 or living in redneck city.

It's a lot harder to find an reasonable explanation for it when it's folks my own age in a modern suburban metro area, especially when those folks seemingly grew up in a middle class environment similar to mine.

Not completely similar, apparently.
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Old 02-22-2008, 11:37 AM
 
162 posts, read 681,409 times
Reputation: 38
I moved to West Cobb back in 1991 and we were the only african american family in our subdivision. We never encountered problems with neighbors or anyone out there for that matter. Cobb is a lot more diverse now. For me, some things have changed for the good and some things have changed for the worse, but that is expected to happen when the population increases. Now that we have children it is important that they learn to get along with all people, not just those who look like them.
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Old 01-01-2009, 06:09 PM
 
2 posts, read 6,727 times
Reputation: 10
I think the black comunity has choosen not to buy here. The taxes are high, the houses are expensive. Now, I don't know about the African Americans, I have only met a few families that did have imidiate family from Africa. But there is a black family on my street, I think they are Detroit Americans.

Segregation in the 50's may have been based on white population being higher than at the time minority black. But CHANGE has come and in Atlanta, we white folk are the minority. I guess if there are not many blacks living in my neighborhood, paying over $12,500.00 a year in property tax, that segrigation is their choice.

There will be a black (Not African American) family living in the White House, so get over the black lack, I am so frickin tiered of it!
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Old 02-22-2009, 06:20 PM
 
5 posts, read 11,231 times
Reputation: 10
Default Modern day segregation

Quote:
Originally Posted by backfist View Post
The simplest answer is affordability. Most Whites can't afford to buy in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs. But if modern-day segregation is to be successful, then affordability will have to play a major part. Factor that in, and it's not so simple anymore.

I'm one of those African Americans who rents in Sandy Springs. When we're ready to buy, I hope to be able to buy here also. I won't be scared away. At the same time, I plan to do what you're doing and actually say what's going on instead of pretending like I don't see it. The process of fighting against any kind of segregation today is tough. The local news begins and ends with Black faces and Black crime in the same old neighborhoods. So as long as this continues, folks will feel justified in their presumptions that Blacks=crime--no matter where they live. And they'll feel justified in their self segregation. On the other side, the Black folks who are law abiding and taxpaying, church-going, hard-working citizens have been way too silent about this living arrangement. They don't feel welcome as potential homeowners in the areas you mentioned. While this is self-imposed, it's definitely part of the plan.

I agree with you 100%, jewel: it's ridiculous. The first place me and my family visited was the Dr. King historic site. How ironic it is that so many civil rights victories came out of Atlanta--yet it's still one of the most segregated cities in the country. It's shameful if you ask me.
Well let me juat say this. I am from Camden NJ,and for years we had a small section of the city that was all white. Blacks and puertoricans couldnt wait to move in this section. For the most part you would hear gripes like what I'm reading now about sandysprings. As the years passed the owners died off and left their homes to their children. Children that had no desire to live in Camden. Subsequently the homes were either sold or rented out. Now this well kept and desireble section looks just like the hood and the homes have lost their value. If I was white and I payed rediculous amounts of money for my home, I would have issues with blacks moving in to me my neighborhood. If for nothing else, just the fact that money could be literally taking out of pocket by way of a decrease in property value. I've seen this all over south Jersey. Communities that started out white, became segregated, turned slowly all black and then inevitablely took a nose dive and now looks like the hood in the suburbs.
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Old 02-22-2009, 06:25 PM
 
5 posts, read 11,231 times
Reputation: 10
Default self segregation

Well let me juat say this. I am from Camden NJ,and for years we had a small section of the city that was all white. Blacks and puertoricans couldnt wait to move in this section. For the most part you would hear gripes like what I'm reading now about sandysprings. As the years passed the owners died off and left their homes to their children. Children that had no desire to live in Camden. Subsequently the homes were either sold or rented out. Now this well kept and desireble section looks just like the hood and the homes have lost their value. If I was white and I payed rediculous amounts of money for my home, I would have issues with blacks moving in to me my neighborhood. If for nothing else, just the fact that money could be literally taking out of pocket by way of a decrease in property value. I've seen this all over south Jersey. Communities that started out white, became segregated, turned slowly all black and then inevitablely took a nose dive and now looks like the hood in the suburbs. 01-01-2009 08:09 PM
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