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Here on City-Data, the topic of, "What Cities Are the BEST for Black Professionals" gets beat like a dead horse, and the answer is pretty much always going to be Atlanta and DC with a possible argument for NYC. So let's discuss the reverse:
What cities have sizeable Black populations but very small/hardly visable/practically non-existent Black Professional communities?
A doctor friend of mine from DC who did her residency in St. Louis always talked about how she didn't DISLIKE St. Louis as a city, but couldn't wait to get out of there because there were hardly any Black professionals there so she felt like she didn't fit in, which I found perplexing for a city like St. Louis that pretty much has a 50% (!) Black population. But I recently came back from St. Louis and as I observed and mingled with the local Black folks, I understood exactly what she was talking about.
That's NOT a knock on St. Louis, or on St. Louis Blacks. I grew up 4 hours down the Mississippi in Memphis, which has an even larger Black population than St. Louis (probably about 70% these days) but has a very similar problem where if you live there and you are Black, professional, and educated, you will most likely find it lacking in many important ways, such as the dating scene, the entertainment scene, the job market, etc. So, before all the STL posters take this thread the wrong way and turn it into a, "Well, what part of St. Louis did you go to?!?" type of thing, I am simply using my friend's experience as an example and saying I have been in her shoes before.
So what do you all think? What cities or regions with large or highly visible Black populations have you found surprisingly lacking and disappointing for Black professionals? Discuss!
What circles was she in? St. Louis has a large presence of black professionals and educated types. I mean you can't miss them. The black population is just too big to miss them. My mother work at BJC for 25 years as a nurse and got very high up, my dad owned a small construction business, aunt is a superintendent of a school district, my uncle is a entrepreneurial architect, I have several cousins who are engineers, medical professionals, corporate types, etc. The hood is not hard to find in St. Louis, but you shouldn't have not problem finding your black niche in St. Louis, just too many black people.
Just curious, but what parts of the metro would you say has more of that scene? Parts of South St. Louis City? The northern suburbs?
University City, Clayton, Central West End, Downtown, gentrified parts of South City, Northern suburbs like Bel-Nor, Florissant, Hazelwood, yes even parts of Ferguson are all chuck full of middle class black people. St. Louis has a rather large black professional class and historically has. Also has an HBCU. Seems like people look at North St. Louis City, a few struggling inner ring suburbs, and East St. Louis, then conclude that is the black community of St. Louis as a whole. My wife is from Pittsburgh, now we live in Tampa. We were just in St. Louis for a funeral last week and my wife always comments how she is amazed at how big the ghetto is, but also how many stable majority BLACK neighborhoods there are in the metro area, especially compared to Tampa where the black community is largely dispersed and visibly distressed (outside of transplants). Went to a Red Lobster in Northern suburbs were 75% of the patrons were middle class black and my wife was shocked. You never see that in Tampa, it's just a very large black urban population in St. Louis. One thing about St. Louis too is that the black population is almost proudly separatist in compared to other metropolitan areas, maybe due to the general stagnation of the metro area, so black people there are REALLY black, not saying we don't have people that put on the phony accents and front, but in general you could be talking to a lawyer or engineer and they may be perceived as being "ghetto" or "country" to a person from a more cosmopolitan local. Although, you will find the Housewives of North St. Louis County types too.
If they do, they tend to live in Woodlawn, the Union Street area and the GE Realty Plot. For instance, here is an article about Woodlawn from several years back: https://dailygazette.com/article/201.../0704_woodlawn
What circles was she in? St. Louis has a large presence of black professionals and educated types. I mean you can't miss them. The black population is just too big to miss them. My mother work at BJC for 25 years as a nurse and got very high up, my dad owned a small construction business, aunt is a superintendent of a school district, my uncle is a entrepreneurial architect, I have several cousins who are engineers, medical professionals, corporate types, etc. The hood is not hard to find in St. Louis, but you shouldn't have not problem finding your black niche in St. Louis, just too many black people.
St. Louis doesn't really attract many young Black professionals from elsewhere though. It can be harder for transplants to find their niche and break into social circles in more insular cities where a big percentage of the local population was born and raised there. With only a few exceptions, this is an issue in the Midwest in general and less so in the urban South along the Eastern seaboard. Compare St. Louis to Baltimore, which is a close peer to St. Louis in several respects, in this regard and the differences are pretty clear.
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are all chuck full of middle class black people. St. Louis has a rather large black professional class and historically has. Also has an HBCU. Seems like people look at North St. Louis City, a few struggling inner ring suburbs, and East St. Louis, then conclude that is the black community of St. Louis as a whole. My wife is from Pittsburgh, now we live in Tampa. We were just in St. Louis for a funeral last week and my wife always comments how she is amazed at how big the ghetto is, but also how many stable majority BLACK neighborhoods there are in the metro area, especially compared to Tampa where the black community is largely dispersed and visibly distressed (outside of transplants). Went to a Red Lobster in Northern suburbs were 75% of the patrons were middle class black and my wife was shocked. You never see that in Tampa, it's just a very large black urban population in St. Louis. One thing about St. Louis too is that the black population is almost proudly separatist in compared to other metropolitan areas, maybe due to the general stagnation of the metro area, so black people there are REALLY black, not saying we don't have people that put on the phony accents and front, but in general you could be talking to a lawyer or engineer and they may be perceived as being "ghetto" or "country" to a person from a more cosmopolitan local. Although, you will find the Housewives of North St. Louis County types too.
