Black people in Birmingham (Hoover, Jacksonville: home, neighborhoods, theatres)

[bhammaster]

The biggest thing that I notice about Bham is how it has a higher percentage of blacks than most cities, even Atlanta, but you hardly see blacks outside certain areas.

In Atlanta you see black people everywhere in just about all public places, restaurants of all prices, low-high-end stores, nice neighborhoods and suburbs, hip bars, breweries, everywhere.

In Bham you might see a token here or there but the black people seem to be tossed in the corner of their own neighborhoods not really participating in the everything the city has to offer like they do in Atlanta.

Why is that? It seems like Bham is being "revitalized" but only for whites.

[Tourian]

They put the Crossplex in Five Points West.

They took the Barons away from the suburb of Hoover and put them downtown in a new stadium.

They built RR park downtown and the "experts" said no sane person would take their family and go because of crime. They were wrong about that and the Barons. The Barons set attendance records and both parks have spawned major developments around them.

They are working to revitalize the Avondale and Woodlawn neighborhoods.

They = the majority black government that runs Birmingham. Five Points West, Avondale and Woodlawn are quite black. However it is quite okay for white people and any other color of people to come enjoy thosr facilities and live in those neighborhoods too.

[mcalumni01]

what type of post is this....what does it matter where people (blacks) hang out at? people regardless of race do things that benefit them. you go where you can enjoy the most and afford. to answer your question you must not get out much because I see blacks everywhere around this metro...yea you ain't gone find many in high end place unless they reside or have the means to be there, but come on. you go places that you feel comfortable and who says that all those area you name are safe and comfortable to people (blacks). the revitalization is being contribute by every race on their own little part. what type of post is this

[aturner339]

I think Tourian about covers it but to explain a bit further:

It is true that Birmingham doesn't have the same sort of "black middle class" neighborhoods that can be found in Atlanta. That's pretty rare in most of the south. Like most cities nationwide racial segregation (de facto) is pretty sharp as well so at first glance it my seem that all of the action is in largely white downtown and the black neighborhoods are being left behind.

I think that concern is largely unfounded. The city government has shown an interest in making development work for the city as a whole. The examples Tourian referenced are pretty instructive in that regard.

Naturally the challenges in developing areas home to people whose forebears were artificially impoverished by policy and custom for centuries are considerable but I would say that we are seeing significant progress.

[bhammaster]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

what type of post is this....what does it matter where people (blacks) hang out at? people regardless of race do things that benefit them. you go where you can enjoy the most and afford. to answer your question you must not get out much because I see blacks everywhere around this metro...yea you ain't gone find many in high end place unless they reside or have the means to be there, but come on. you go places that you feel comfortable and who says that all those area you name are safe and comfortable to people (blacks). the revitalization is being contribute by every race on their own little part. what type of post is this

I don't see many of them them at hip places like the Plaza and Urban Standard. That is my point.

[harry chickpea]

I'll relate something I experienced a number of years ago. Absolute flat out truth. "The Color Purple" opened in Hoover at the theatre I happened to be managing. It was the ONLY theatre playing it in the Birmingham area, if not Alabama. The first three weeks or so, 97% of the audience was white. At about the fourth week, a church group from a black church attended, found that there was absolutely no problem and the movie was worth seeing, and then the audience became mixed for a week, then primarily black. For a film with a theme about black oppression, I found this startling.

Midfield five used to be the primary theatres for blacks in the early 1980s. The older generations in B'ham had much of their identity closely tied to church, churches were segregated, and that identity lasted long after 1963. There is a whole sociological study that could be done on the way the area handled desegregation compared to other areas. I have some ideas on why this was so and other events I witnessed, but ultimately there were two distinct cultures that distrusted each other and preferred staying culture-centric.

[aturner339]

Ehh small nerd quibble.

Southern blacks and whites have the same culture. The seperation is one of "caste" not culture.

It's not a word we use in America often but it fits here.

[huberman]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

what type of post is this....what does it matter where people (blacks) hang out at? people regardless of race do things that benefit them. you go where you can enjoy the most and afford. to answer your question you must not get out much because I see blacks everywhere around this metro...yea you ain't gone find many in high end place unless they reside or have the means to be there, but come on. you go places that you feel comfortable and who says that all those area you name are safe and comfortable to people (blacks). the revitalization is being contribute by every race on their own little part. what type of post is this

He probably wants to know which neighborhoods to avoid.

[The Hham-stah]

Moderator cut: snip

Neither does "chickpea" ...who is easily "startled" I suppose about black's movie-going habits.


"aTurner" and "Bhammaster" do offer up some cogent and very correct observations-that describing culture, class and separation.


For years after desegregation, Blacks in Bham tended to "self-segregate" and maintain a mentality of self-segregation to this day which pleases and plays into the hands of pseudo-progressives who tend to say "see, the blacks like to stick with themselves, so us whites do the same thing and it works for everyone" - while the whites know damn well black self-segregation is just fine and dandy to the closet racist, many of whom are on this board on the internet, but they don't want to be caught being perceived as "unfair" in the Nuevo Nuevo Birmingham, don't you see ? Their racism is cleverly cloaked in "progressive language" and wrapping. It means nothing. Posters like this are easily made transparent and are betrayed by their own, eager mouths and hands.


Bham Blacks are aptly described by Bhammaster - where they go, how they do it, and when in Bham. It's factual.


Bham Blacks are truly primitive in their own choices of social behavior, when compared to other black communities in places such as Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Tampa, Dallas, Houston, and Los Angeles. So is it different with WHITE folks in Bham.


Bham in toto is primitive by comparison. Go live somewhere else for years and you will witness for yourselves.


Bham has not matured- not by a longshot. Bham's churches are still mostly segregated by race. Now that's pretty stupid in my book...but it too plays into the hands of racists of all stripes. That's just another reason by Bham is not going anywhere in a hurry - maybe in the next 50 years.

[aturner339]

Look I've used this thread as a way to discuss serious issues that are of interest to me and might (I hope) be of some interest to others but I'm not oblivious to the fact that this thread was intended to be an act of trolling (deftly defused by some of our regulars)

So to continue the de-trolling I will sum up the most recent post by saying that the idea that Birmingham's de facto racial segregation is due to the "self-segregation" of its black population is quite possibly the silliest thing I have ever heard.

If you are going to race troll at least make the racist arguments feasible ones.