Parma- is it safe... for minorities? (Cleveland, Lorain: 2014, school district, live in)
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it was about a comment that Parma being too white was a bit sad.
I never said it was "to white", I said it "wasn't very cosmopolitan for a city its size".
But y'know what? It IS to white. There I said it. Why? Because Parma has not always been welcoming to minorities. To think otherwise is to blatantly now know anything about the history of this region.
Things have changed, but it does NOT change the fact that Parma WAS a very white-centric suburb for a long time. Other races were NOT welcomed
with open arms. Not until very recently have things really begun to change in Parma.
I can't find a direct link to this article from the Plain Dealer in late-2000, so allow me to paste in just the first few paragraphs.
PARMA - Since moving to Parma a year ago, Michelle Williams has learned the cold reality of a black woman living in a predominantly white city. She felt she was a victim of racial profiling when three police cruisers followed her car home from a store one night, explaining it matched the description of a hit-and-run vehicle.
One neighbor called the police when she played her gospel music too loudly, and another neighbor appeared to scold her once about something, but the woman ranted in an Eastern European language Williams couldn’t understand. And Williams’ daughter says she doesn’t feel accepted at John Muir Elementary School and wishes she were back in Cleveland public schools.
From her brick bungalow on Grovewood Ave., Williams - mother of three and caregiver to two foster children and a niece - admits that most family members and friends tried to dissuade her from moving to Parma from Cleveland. After all, it took federal judges 27 years to open the gates of the city to blacks after the late Council President Kenneth Kuczma bluntly said, "I don’t want any Negroes in Parma."
The article can be found in its entirety on Montana's Fair Housing website under the heading "Racist Reputation Still Keeps Blacks Out Of Parma":
I was calm and rock-steady when I wrote that post...same as I am now...my reading comprehension skills are better-than-average too...and just because I had an opinion opposite yours (or the way I expressed said opinion) doesn't make me a 'nut job'...
My main beef with your point about 'white cities', as it were, is that this is a free country...'non-whites', as you call them, have the right to live wherever they choose, and their desire to migrate to and settle in certain areas should not always provoke either arguments against diversity, or a bunch of 'there goes the neighborhood!'-type groaning...
I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna sit here and label a majority-white city as bad or boring based solely on its' BEING majority white, same as I wouldn't label a predominately black area a crime-ridden ghetto cesspool---that's buying into some stereotypical okey-doke on both counts...I'm gonna do my research, ask questions, and then make a decision based on facts, not caving into 'don't move to Parma 'cause it's full of racist whites' or 'don't move to Glenville because it's full of dope-dealing ghetto black folk' --- it's wrong to make a decision based on assumption or stereotypes...
Well it seemed like a rant to me. Again you don't seem to understand what I said are bringing up things that are not relevant/was not said by me. The whole point to this is that race should be unimportant. Saying its a shame that Parma is too white for its size is just as bad as saying its a shame that Cleveland is too black for it's size. As I've said before, and as you just said in your last paragraph we we should not use race and the percentage of a certain group that lives in a city to say if its good or not, you look at the people that live there since there are excellent cities with minorities and bad cities with "whites" and vise versa. SO we agree on the same thing
I never said it was "to white", I said it "wasn't very cosmopolitan for a city its size".
But y'know what? It IS to white. There I said it. Why? Because Parma has not always been welcoming to minorities. To think otherwise is to blatantly now know anything about the history of this region.
Things have changed, but it does NOT change the fact that Parma WAS a very white-centric suburb for a long time. Other races were NOT welcomed
with open arms. Not until very recently have things really begun to change in Parma.
It really does not matter that the city was not "cosmopolitan for a city its size". Yes we know that there have been issues in the past. A massive minority movement(in Cleveland's case African-Americans) to Parma however was never going to happen at the time that Parma was becoming big, since being on the west side all the areas around Parma were pretty much white to begin with. So once "white flight" /"city flight-blacks did move out as well but east" happened it was natural for the city to stay white.
As for incidents of racial tension, I obviously don't support them, however you should seek to understand why they were worried about certain kinds of people moving in. It's really too easy and unfair to allude to residents of Parma being like the KKK, when in reality its different.
To pick Parma out is also unfair. There are plenty areas around the country where "whites" would not feel so welcome either, but you don't see me complaining about it. The fact is people will be people, and complaining about how someone thinks will do nothing. If you don't feel welcome, then don't move there. Simple as that. It's the type of world we live in.
Parma is WAAAAY more black than the 2000 census shows. Take a trip to Parmatown mall, or look at the school districts. It is probably only 65% white at the most now. A lot of interracial children who lie and say they are white are in this suburb as well.
Can you please stop talking out of your ass? Go to the Ohio Department of Education website and look at the statistics for Valley Forge, Parma, and Normandy high schools for the past school year, and then come back and tell me that Parma is "probably only 65% white."
The article I posted, which I bet you didn't even click on, was to point out how wrong this comment was:
Quote:
Frankly who really cares that its mostly white, its the way it ended up.
You make it sound like "hey.. just worked out that way. Pure coincidence!!!" Then follow it up with:
Quote:
Originally Posted by gtsurfer05
So once "white flight" /"city flight-blacks did move out as well but east" happened it was natural for the city to stay white.
Natural? A city councilman in the 70's said "no negroes"! Come on man...
Parma was intolerant in general for a long time. Anyone remember burning crosses in the late 90's? The OP wasn't THAT far off...
But yea... I guess it was natural... if I was black I would naturally avoid a city like that.
Parma did not become the whitest big-ish city in Ohio "naturally"....
I have no problem being a minority or have any problems living in an all white community. I picked parma because its safe, its cheap, and the people have been very pleasant to deal with. I've lived in all white communities- some are nice, some are not so nice.
Can you please stop talking out of your ass? Go to the Ohio Department of Education website and look at the statistics for Valley Forge, Parma, and Normandy high schools for the past school year, and then come back and tell me that Parma is "probably only 65% white."
How about actually GOING to the school or a football game and seeing the crowd. There are a lot of people who falsely claim race, or just do not report it, it is optional. The stats might show something, but in actuality it is something else. Hang out at the food court at Parmatown mall, then tell me Parma is what you say.
I have no problem being a minority or have any problems living in an all white community. I picked parma because its safe, its cheap, and the people have been very pleasant to deal with. I've lived in all white communities- some are nice, some are not so nice.
And this is the attitude that has since changed Parma. Not to scare off the original poster with my doom and gloom. So to reiterate: Parma is perfectly safe for minorities today. Don't hesitate to look for a place there.
I don't think that Parma is actually "unsafe" for minorities, but you have to consider what the quality of life would be like. I have black and Hispanic friends who have been called racial slurs in several westside suburbs, including Parma, multiple times.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YaFace
Parma is WAAAAY more black than the 2000 census shows. Take a trip to Parmatown mall, or look at the school districts. It is probably only 65% white at the most now. A lot of interracial children who lie and say they are white are in this suburb as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YaFace
How about actually GOING to the school or a football game and seeing the crowd. There are a lot of people who falsely claim race, or just do not report it, it is optional. The stats might show something, but in actuality it is something else. Hang out at the food court at Parmatown mall, then tell me Parma is what you say.
This is very far off other large districts in the area, but similar to many westside suburban districts. For example, Shaker Hts. district is around 36% white. Lorain city district is only 30% white. Elyria city district is 59% white. Euclid district is only 20% white. Cleveland district is only 14% white. However, Westlake, N Ridgeville, Strongsville, Avon, westside districts etc are all around 90% white, some higher.
Parmatown mall also attracts many people from outside of Parma. I know many people from Cleveland, Euclid, Lorain, etc that go there sometimes. I'm not doubting that it could be less white than that with some Multiracial and Arabs putting "white" as their race, but I don't believe it's that high of a number. I can say from personal experience in Parma that it's easily high-80s percentage white. There were a lot of Eastern European Immigrants, I heard many different languages, but not all that many minorities.
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