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African American cuisine had a lot of regional variation. In the Carolinas, where rice was abundant, there were dishes like Hoppin' John and Chicken Bog. In places where corn was more prevalent, there were more corn-based dishes (cornbread became a universal staple of "soul food" only in recent decades). There was never only one "African American" food and there still isn't today.
Too bad it all gets thrown together as just soul food. Nevermind that different areas of the US had different climates, different crops, different immigration patterns, and therefore different culinary influences.
So you don't think race played any part of it? There were many upper class African American households in DC for years and they never came to the neighborhood. I think there is a major elephant in the room here. Money only plays a certain part in this. Look how many restaurants exist in poor areas in other cities. The requirement typically has to do with the race of that poor area.
Also I am not sure that race is the driver - Philadelphia has 610K people that live in Black/AA dominated neighborhoods (meaning greater than 85% AA/Black) - Larger than the population of all of Atlanta and nearly 95% of the whole population of DC today.
I just don't buy your logic quite frankly - there is African and Soul food that are quite good IMHO
Don't see this as any crutch on why the food scene is or has been poor TBH - DC i and was hardly any more black/AA than is and has been Philly - actually far lower in the city proper in absolute and close on percentage
In fact in 1990
DC ~ 400K black/AA (~60%)
Philly ~ 765K black/AA (~50%)
Also I am not sure that race is the driver - Philadelphia has 610K people that live in Black/AA dominated neighborhoods (meaning greater than 85% AA/Black) - Larger than the population of all of Atlanta and nearly 95% of the whole population of DC today.
I just don't buy your logic quite frankly - there is African and Soul food that are quite good IMHO
Don't see this as any crutch on why the food scene is or has been poor TBH - DC i and was hardly any more black/AA than is and has been Philly - actually far lower in the city proper in absolute and close on percentage
In fact in 1990
DC ~ 400K black/AA (~60%)
Philly ~ 765K black/AA (~50%)
That's only the city limits though....Atlanta has like 1.8 million blacks in the metro...more than the population of Philly.
So what's the population in Philadelphia's metro? About half that?
According to my calculations, there's 1,319,991 people that are only Black/African American in the Delaware Valley MSA (Philadelphia). Add another 38,000 for the CSA. There are 1,707,913 in the Atlanta MSA. So basically 22% for Philadelphia MSA and 32% for Atlanta MSA.
Also I am not sure that race is the driver - Philadelphia has 610K people that live in Black/AA dominated neighborhoods (meaning greater than 85% AA/Black) - Larger than the population of all of Atlanta and nearly 95% of the whole population of DC today.
I just don't buy your logic quite frankly - there is African and Soul food that are quite good IMHO
Don't see this as any crutch on why the food scene is or has been poor TBH - DC i and was hardly any more black/AA than is and has been Philly - actually far lower in the city proper in absolute and close on percentage
In fact in 1990
DC ~ 400K black/AA (~60%)
Philly ~ 765K black/AA (~50%)
Don't know where you are getting your numbers from but Philly's black population has never been anywhere near 50% of the city proper (it was 39% black in 1990 which it is roughly around what is today) and Philly has always been significantly less of a AA city than DC although it does have a large black population. With that said, this does not give DC a pass for lacking a good amount of diverse affordable food options in the city proper but I somewhat understand the argument MD is trying to make. Cities like Philly, NYC and Chicago all have large black populations but they all have notable large numbers of others races and ethnicities and their diversity is concentrated in the city therefore they are not dominated one race while in contrast, DC proper is traditionally dominated by black/AAs with its diversity being concentrated in its suburbs.
Don't know where you are getting your numbers from but Philly's black population has never been anywhere near 50% of the city proper (it was 39% black in 1990 which it is roughly around what is today) and Philly has always been significantly less of a AA city than DC although it does have a large black population. With that said, this does not give DC a pass for lacking a good amount of diverse affordable food options in the city proper but I somewhat understand the argument MD is trying to make. Cities like Philly, NYC and Chicago all have large black populations but they all have notable large numbers of others races and ethnicities and their diversity is concentrated in the city therefore they are not dominated one race while in contrast, DC proper is traditionally dominated by black/AAs with its diversity being concentrated in its suburbs.
Maybe you stated it wrong, but at least for Chicago and NYC this is not necessarily true. There's a lot of diversity in suburbs. I'm not as familiar with Philadelphia's suburbs on that topic.
Maybe you stated it wrong, but at least for Chicago and NYC this is not necessarily true. There's a lot of diversity in suburbs. I'm not as familiar with Philadelphia's suburbs on that topic.
Did I say that Chicago and NYC does not have diversity in its suburbs? No, I did not. There is certainly diversity in the burbs for all three metros (Philly suburbs to a much lesser extent). However wouldn't you agree that most of the concentration of diversity of all three areas are located in the city propers of the 3 cities?
Did I say that Chicago and NYC does not have diversity in its suburbs? No, I did not. There is certainly diversity in the burbs for all three metros (Philly suburbs to a much lesser extent). However wouldn't you agree that most of the concentration of diversity of all three areas are located in the city propers of the 3 cities?
I implied it and partially read it wrong, sorry. Anyway, most of it? Hard to say. For example in Chicago, I did this in another thread, but there are suburbs adding up to about 1.2 million people that actually have more Asian people than the city of Chicago itself, even though the city has over 2X the population of those combined burbs. There are also many European immigrants who live in the burbs too, and you have suburbs like Cicero which is 85% Hispanic and Berwyn next to it which is 60% hispanic. Also many southern and western suburbs that are heavily Black/African American like Harvey or Maywood at 75% each.
I'd agree a lot is in the city, but in those cities there's actually a lot in the suburbs. More than you'd think if you aren't familiar with either.
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