moving to colorado. HELP! (Denver, Colorado Springs: job market, neighborhoods, high school)

[kitkat70]

I am new to the colorado forum and I have a few serious questions pertaining to the diversity in Co. I am considering relocating within the next year and I would like to know if anyone can tell me how the job market is in the field or Human Resource. I am an African American female and would really like more information on how the area is. I am also wondering how the job market is towards blacks in colorado. The reason I would like to know is because I currently live in Iowa and the job market for blacks isnt very good, alot of racism here. Alot of blacks have trouble finding jobs here because of there race. I would like to avoid the same mistake twice. Is Colorado the place for me? Any response would be greatly appreciated.

thx

kitkat

[vegaspilgrim]

Where in "Colorado" are you eyeing for relocation? Denver? urban, rural, suburban?

[Mike from back east]

Denver is best bet.

Colorado Springs is second choice due to high number of military types which brings plenty of diversity here.

Use the search tool with keyword racism to find at least one very good thread on the topic in both the Denver and COLO SPGS forum.

[kitkat70]

Vegaspilgrim

I am looking into the Denver area, but would like to be rural or near the mountains. I have only been to colorado one time and absolutely loved the mountain areas. I currently live in the country and LOVE IT but hate all the racist peope. I am hoping to stay rural or in a mountain areas where we can have space and enjoy the views but be close to Denver for jobs. I am okay with any large city as long as I can find a job in Human Resource.
thanks in advance

kitkat

[kitkat70]

Miles from back East

Thanks for the info. I will search the forums and see what I come up with, hopefully this will put me on the right trail.

kitkat70

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by kitkat70

Vegaspilgrim

I am looking into the Denver area, but would like to be rural or near the mountains. I have only been to colorado one time and absolutely loved the mountain areas. I currently live in the country and LOVE IT but hate all the racist peope. I am hoping to stay rural or in a mountain areas where we can have space and enjoy the views but be close to Denver for jobs. I am okay with any large city as long as I can find a job in Human Resource.
thanks in advance

kitkat

Just west of Colorado Springs is Manitou Springs, rather diverse, free spirited. Up the top of the hill is Woodland Park, rural and mountain living. Not sure the racism levels in either. Both are commutable to COLO SPGS (10-40 minutes).

[jazzlover]

Outside of the metro areas in Colorado, blacks make up a very, very small percentage of Colorado residents. Even the metro areas have a relatively small percentage of black residents. The "foothill suburbs" around the metro areas tend to be pretty much lily white. In the resort towns--politically tolerant or "liberal" as they profess themselves to be--there are few minorities of any type, save a cadre of low-wage service job holders. Most of those "worker bees" are a multi-national, multi-ethnicity, multi-racial group of poor and transient immigrants, legal or otherwise.

In the non-resort rural areas of Colorado, blacks make up a minuscule part of the population. Most of those towns, with the exception of some communities in southwest Colorado near the Ute Indian Reservations where there is a population of Native Americans, tend to be two major racial/ethnic groups--"Anglos," which includes just about anyone "white" that is not Hispanic, and Hispanics.

Does that mean that those places are racist against blacks? No. In the community I live in, there are a handful of black residents--you could count the number on your hands in a community of 8,000-10,000. They seem quite happy here, and most have lived here for a number of years. The only complaint that I have heard from them (my ex-wife worked with a couple of the black families and knew them pretty well), so far as discrimination and racism was concerned, came when their children went to college out of state. (Most of the kids of these particular families graduated from high school with honors--they were smart kids.) In college, some of the other black students hazed these peoples' children--calling them "Oreos"--"black on the outside, but white on the inside" because they weren't perceived as being quite the same as the kids who grew up in all-black neighborhoods.

As an Anglo, I can't tell you how you might feel about Colorado. I don't consider it a racist state like some of the Southern states, but you would need to be comfortable being in a very small minority, unless you are living within one of the metro areas. As far as employers go, I think most in Colorado think the way I do (I've been supervising and employing people for over 30 years now)--I really don't care what race, ethnicity, gender, or religion anybody who works for me may be, so long as they get the job done.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by kitkat70

Vegaspilgrim

I am looking into the Denver area, but would like to be rural or near the mountains. I have only been to colorado one time and absolutely loved the mountain areas. I currently live in the country and LOVE IT but hate all the racist peope. I am hoping to stay rural or in a mountain areas where we can have space and enjoy the views but be close to Denver for jobs. I am okay with any large city as long as I can find a job in Human Resource.
thanks in advance

kitkat

And just one other comment, about wanting to "live in the country" but "work in the city," it doesn't really work like that. Thousands of other people all have the same exact idea. There's nowhere truly "country" in the mountains that is in commuting range to Denver, you're really looking at mountain/foothill suburbia (Evergreen, Conifer, etc), not a true rural area as you would recognize it in Iowa. People who live in Evergreen, etc, like to think of themselves as rural, but they're not. Personally I think if you're going to work in Denver, just join the club and live in Denver. You can always explore the mountains on the weekend when it's on your own time, when you don't HAVE to commute in/out for work.

[isellnoco]

I am going to agree with Vegaspilgrim and I think Denver is the place...or in a surrounding city. I grew up in Southeast Aurora and think there is significantly more diversity than in Fort Collins. I don't think that there is racism like you'll see in Iowa in Colorado, but I can't be sure as a married white female. Fort Collins is not that diverse but I don't see the racism. I'll ask some of my friends and see what they say... Colorado is a great place, I think!