Is Iowa still promoting the State to Minorities? (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids: living in, safe)

[Chicago60614]

^ Actually Chatham had 801 reports of "violent crime" last year. That places it in the top #10 most violent neighborhoods in the city out of a total of 77 areas. Iowa saw 10X the number of violent crimes last year, but has 80X the number of people as Chatham.

There's a diff. between Chatham, Illinois the city and Chatham the Chicago community area.

One is 98% white, the other 98% black.

The community area of Chicago registered 15 homicides last year for 37,000 people. That's one of the most violent rates anywhere in the country.

Lincoln Square/Lakeview/Lincoln Park on the north side of Chicago had 5 homicides for around 200,000 people.

[Steve_W]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

^ Actually Chatham had 200 reports of "violent crime" last year. That places it in the top #10 most violent neighborhoods in the city out of a total of 77 areas.

ohhh, ok. my bad.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

96.8% of Chatham,IL is white.

Not that Chatham near Springfield, the neighborhood in Chicago.

[Chicago60614]

Here's an article from the Iowa City newspaper. They try and dance around the whole "minorities are increasing greatly, and so is the crime". It's far too taboo to put them together in public.

I read that the number of black students in the school district increased by over 300 during the middle of the 2006 school year. Every year it is increasing faster and faster, something the city is having to deal with (more races living together). To put this in context - the entire city had around 2,500 black people living in it in 2000.

In the past few years it has been increasing by roughly 1,000 per year. That's a pretty quick and dramatic change.

The number of violent, physical fights at City High has increased dramatically since last year, concerning parents and students and causing school officials to scramble for reasons why.

I grew up in Iowa City, and there is a LOT of talk around town, growing talk, about the huge inrush of new people the past 3-4 years. People are tolerant, but there has been a huge increase in violence in the city compared to say 2000. Many people in town don't know how to react to this, and there are sections of western Iowa City, southern Iowa City and Coralville that are suddently becoming little "ghettos". For whatever reason, many of the black people moving from the larger cities are settling together in these areas, and there are numerous reports now of shootings, drugs and other crime that just wasn't heard of in the past.

A team from LA shot a documentery in Iowa City earlier this year to track and talk about all the changes that have happened in such a short amount of time in the city. People in the city are starting to worry that the "old Iowa City" might be a thing of the past.

For years though, there have been many hispanics and a lot of asians in Iowa City - and no one ever said anything. There was no increase in crime, the schools were still great, people got along fine. People also appreciated the fact they could live in a more diverse city in such an undiverse state. It's really hard with the increase in black population bringing in increase in poverty and crime. People in Iowa City are born and bred to NOT be hateful or intolerant, and they haven't had any reason to in the past. I think that's why this is such an issue, cause now people are starting to question what exactly is going on in these areas of town, the schools, etc.

[Chicago60614]

^ I know people are going to scream that I'm being racist, and I see how it does come off as that towards blacks, but it is not my intent.

I think it's just that the people moving to Iowa now grew up in very different conditions than the groups before them. Many of the Asians are well off people who came for school. Many of the hispanics are immigrant groups who are just looking to better life for their famlies.

The new groups are from the inner cities, places where they were forgotten about and have gotten horrid educations for decades. It's not their fault they were born or grew up there, far from it. It doesn't instill the social and family values/respect that many people in Iowa take for granted, though. It's just a huge clash of cultures that's creating new tension where there wasn't tension before. Many inner city children grew up in a culture of violence and crime, yelling and being forced to stand up for yourself. This just doesn't jive in Iowa, and it's creating a lot of problems. People see the newcomers as trouble makers and bad people. The new people coming in are just going about their lives the same way they have since birth. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but people in Iowa aren't inherantly BAD or RACIST close minded people. Just trying to deal with new situations....people on both sides are.

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Here's an article from the Iowa City newspaper. They try and dance around the whole "minorities are increasing greatly, and so is the crime". It's far too taboo to put them together in public.

I read that the number of black students in the school district increased by over 300 during the middle of the 2006 school year. Every year it is increasing faster and faster, something the city is having to deal with (more races living together). To put this in context - the entire city had around 2,500 black people living in it in 2000.

In the past few years it has been increasing by roughly 1,000 per year. That's a pretty quick and dramatic change.



I grew up in Iowa City, and there is a LOT of talk around town, growing talk, about the huge inrush of new people the past 3-4 years. People are tolerant, but there has been a huge increase in violence in the city compared to say 2000. Many people in town don't know how to react to this, and there are sections of western Iowa City, southern Iowa City and Coralville that are suddently becoming little "ghettos". For whatever reason, many of the black people moving from the larger cities are settling together in these areas, and there are numerous reports now of shootings, drugs and other crime that just wasn't heard of in the past.

A team from LA shot a documentery in Iowa City earlier this year to track and talk about all the changes that have happened in such a short amount of time in the city. People in the city are starting to worry that the "old Iowa City" might be a thing of the past.

For years though, there have been many hispanics and a lot of asians in Iowa City - and no one ever said anything. There was no increase in crime, the schools were still great, people got along fine. People also appreciated the fact they could live in a more diverse city in such an undiverse state. It's really hard with the increase in black population bringing in increase in poverty and crime. People in Iowa City are born and bred to NOT be hateful or intolerant, and they haven't had any reason to in the past. I think that's why this is such an issue, cause now people are starting to question what exactly is going on in these areas of town, the schools, etc.

I feel I have to add this: What is going on is when people don't go to a place for work and more because it is relatively cheaper, that can cause a problem. Iowa has rarely had to deal with such problems(with the exception of the Waterloo riot in the 1960's). Now in the proverbial blink of an eye, Iowa is dealing with problems thatmost major cities are dealing with. The first migration of blacks who have moved to Iowa(1920s-1960s) were moving there because of industrial jobs(especially in Waterloo). Alot of blacks that were upwardly mobile and professionals flocked to areas such as Atlanta(where I am now), Houston, Charlotte, Dallas, and other locations. Iowa just didn't look that attractive. Many of the professional blacks moving to the Sun Belt cities came from Chicago, New York, Detroit, and other parts of the rust belt. What I see is that many blacks didn't want to feel out of place, so ATL, and other locations gained more attraction than Iowa. With that said, there has been a migration of blacks to Iowa. Some of them came from the inner cities of larger cities. I am not saying there aren't any blacks that move to Iowa for professional jobs, because chances are there are some that do, but not near as many as Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, or Dallas.
Iowa's story is a state that relatively few blacks relocate to(in comparison to other states) and many of the blacks moving to Iowa are coming from different upbringings in the inner city where it isn't about hard work to make society better. It's about survival and what one can do for a buck in those places. Alot of places in the inner cities have deteriorated and become hell-holes. Many leave and find work in other places(such as Minneapolis MN). Many others go to other states to take advantage of welfare and often don't find jobs. I believe if it was more the professional class moving to Iowa, then any problems in Iowa City wouldn't be nearly as intense as they are now. What worries me is while racists don't represent the whole of Iowa, someone who just happens to be black could be mistaken for someone from the inner city and be lumped together(and that could happen). I would like to see Iowa get better than this. With that said, I know of worse places, much worse places that Iowa. Iowa's situation is more a socioeconomical situation and race just happens to be in the mix. (example, the suburb of Norcross,GA. Norcross has attracted a large Hispanic population, mainly for work. I happen to shop in the international foods aisle alot and some of the Mexican food products are made in Norcross,GA. Many come there for work and do work hard. Sadly, there are gangs that have followed, which has given Norcross a bad reputation in comparison with the rest of Gwinnett County. According to a friend who went to Norcross High School, some of the students were being accosted by gangs in the area.).

[El Rhino]

Originally Posted by Not Iowa

Look, maybe only having lived in a virtually all white state you are bound to be a racist? Why not make an effort to get to know somebody of another race - the comments about children earlier will become important to you when you have them. You will not want to teach hatred as you have been taught.

Best of luck...

Believe it or not, I have "gotten to know" people of other races to varying degrees of success. I was raised on the South Side of Des Moines and continue to live there today. There's no shortage of blacks, Hispanics or Asians there. I'm usually polite and civil with people unless I am given a reason to act otherwise. Somehow I don't think some massive influx of minorities is going to change my mind about anything.

As far as children go, if I had children I would rather they be safe than experience schools full of gangs, drugs, low expectations, disruptions and hopelessness for the sake of their "cultural education".

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by Not Iowa

Look, maybe only having lived in a virtually all white state you are bound to be a racist? Why not make an effort to get to know somebody of another race - the comments about children earlier will become important to you when you have them. You will not want to teach hatred as you have been taught.

Best of luck...

Ok, lets all just relax a bit, yes? Just because Iowa is mostly white, does NOT mean that its citizens are bringing their children up in a culture of HATRED.

I've found Iowans to be fairly open minded and progressive people. Sure not everyone is, but I don't think you're going to find that anywhere. I've run into many more true racists in Indiana and Illinois than I ever did in Iowa.

Just cause there aren't many minorities doesn't mean that Iowans HATE them, or are trying to keep them out. There just aren't many reasons why thousands of minorities are running to move to Iowa. Just cause they aren't there doesn't mean they CAN'T be there - they just chose not too.

I'm pretty sure most Iowans have dealt with many minorities as well, it's not like they're living inside a glass bubble with no way out.

There are around 75,000 blacks, 120,000 hispanics and 45,000 asians in Iowa. You make it sound like the average Iowan is going to run screaming in fear if he/she sees someone that isn't lilly white.

[RonnieJonez]

Iowa is not really too racist in the sense that you see it down south, but a lot of people are racially ignorant. Of course, point that out, and they'll get mad.

[Not Iowa]

Originally Posted by Steve_W

96.8% of Chatham,IL is white.

[SIZE=3][/SIZE]

A) That statistic doesn't mean anything. You asked for a neighborhood. I'm putting my money that Chatham fits the bill. It was ranked by Money Magazine as a contender for the top 100 places to live in 2007.

Also, Chatham has a 1 in 1000 FBI reported personal crime incident in 2007, and a 17 in 1000 FBI reported property crime incident in 2007.

I'm betting the .8% blacks in Chatham live in one neighborhood. Here is your prodominently black midwestern neighborhood that is virtually crime free.


B) Cedar Rapids: 91% White
4% Black
2% Hispanic

In real numbers, that is 113,219 white people to 4,976 black.

Now if the majority of the white population feel the way you do about blacks and Hispanics, say 51% (to low ball it for you), than that is 57,741 people against 4,976 people. That is 11.6 times the manpower of the entire black community in Cedar Rapids.

How is 4% of the total population, where a minimum of 11x this population is against their existence, going to compete in the local economy? What are the odds that the interviewer across the desk isn’t one of the 57,741 minimum number of people opposed to employing blacks or Hispanics? What are the odds that the teachers aren’t one of the 57,741 minimum people opposed to educating black or Hispanic children?