How Big of An Adjustment is KC for a Black Guy From LA? (Kansas City: fit in)

[Exxtol]

Just as the title says how much of a culture shock would KC be coming from LA as an educated black guy? For a little background, grew up in a very diverse neighborhood in LA, went to a predominantly working-class, Latino high school then went to the South (Atlanta) to an HBCU for undergrad there. That was very much a culture shock to me as I wasn't used to the segregation, but in Atlanta there is a large well-educated and affluent black class, something that seems to be lacking in KC.

Also, the only black people I know from KC are biracial or white. One told me I wouldn't fit in with the blacks there and that it's too small for me to like, and the other lived in a predominantly white suburb where he said he was treated great. One white guy I know from St. Louis said it would be different and smaller, but I might like it for the experience. The other said there was no reason to go.

I don't mean for this post to be offensive I'm really just looking for the bare bone facts on the ground that I need to make a somewhat informed decision about how comfortable I would be here. I've found that a lot of these posts devolve into telling minorities, "Don't worry about it", "It's not a big deal" etc., but that hasn't been my reality and I'm just looking for honesty, rather than folks telling me I'm crazy for asking these very real, and upfront questions.

Thank you in advance.

I guess my specific questions are:

1) Where are the diverse areas of KC to live? Even seeing two other minorities (any race) in the neighborhood would be encouraging/helpful. In other words, I'm not interested in pioneering integration in all white neighborhoods. I've done it before. It's not fun.

2)Where can I live where I won't be stopped for driving a nice car or regularly have the cops called on me by a neighbor that doesn't recognize me walking around, or profiled in a store. Note: the latter has happened to me everywhere in the states, so the occasional, inevitable profile is unfortunately standard as a black guy, so I can handle that). And yes, this is a real question. Just looking for frankness here. Please don't tell me it doesn't happen.

3) Are there any educated blacks that I could find in the city?

4) I understand the city is segregated, but is it segregated and unwelcoming to diversity or is that just certain parts of the city? There's a difference between being racially segregated due to history (even Los Angeles is segregated), but most whites in LA are also used to seeing blacks from all walks of life.

5) What's the Latino community like as I went to a predominantly Latino, working-class high school, and both me and my mom speak Spanish fluently?

6) Do people date interracially here/interracial couples? In LA mixed children/couples of all persuasions wouldn't bat an eye or turn a head here.


All that said I understand nothing is going to be remotely close to LA and I'm cool with that. Just trying to figure out the places/neighborhoods where I might get a little......resistance so as to avoid them or check them off a list.

Lastly, race has never been an issue for me. It's other people that have had a problem with the way that I look in my lifetime, and so these questions come from those experiences and problems people have had with me. Of course before they got to know me.

Thank you in advance.

[Okey Dokie]

Did you actually mean to ask #3?

[Exxtol]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

Did you actually mean to ask #3?

I meant like a community of an educated black class. One of my friends who is biracial made it seem as if that community doesn’t really exist.

[James Bond 007]

I live in KC several miles southeast of the stadiums. This is a very diverse area (at least in terms of black and white). The area I live in is maybe 1/3 black and 2/3 white, with a sprinkling of others mixed in. And it seems pretty stable, too. There are plenty of educated blacks here, too. Elsewhere in the city there is a pretty sizeable Latino population (concentrated in neighborhoods east of downtown, though there are some almost everywhere).

[Exxtol]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

I live in KC several miles southeast of the stadiums. This is a very diverse area (at least in terms of black and white). The area I live in is maybe 1/3 black and 2/3 white, with a sprinkling of others mixed in. And it seems pretty stable, too. There are plenty of educated blacks here, too. Elsewhere in the city there is a pretty sizeable Latino population (concentrated in neighborhoods east of downtown, though there are some almost everywhere).

What is the name of that area? This is very helpful thank you.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by Exxtol

What is the name of that area? This is very helpful thank you.

It doesn't have a particular name. It's the area around Raytown, far east KC and Independence.

[Exxtol]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

It doesn't have a particular name. It's the area around Raytown, far east KC and Independence.

Okay thanks. What neighborhood is UMKC in? Is that called the plaza area?

[springfieldcollegealum]

UMKC is just south of the Plaza area.

[SkyLark2019]

You'll be fine. If you can handle LA, you can handle KC......................

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by SkyLark2019

You'll be fine. If you can handle LA, you can handle KC......................

It was my estimation growing up that half of Southern California had relatives in the Kansas City area, judging from the sudden surge in the number of cars with California license plates I saw on the streets each summer. (I had relatives who lived in South LA County (Willowbrook) and Altadena myself.)

This was in the late 1960s and 1970s. I'm sure that with all the migration into the LA Basin, that percentage has fallen dramatically, but I think you may find stronger KC-LA ties (and maybe even parallels) than your friends have let on to.

Certainly no Southern Californians would make the common East Coast mistake of assuming we're all Kansans.

—MSE, native and forever Kansas Citian, adopted Philadelphian. For that reason, I can't tell you what the sweet-spot neighborhoods are in KC now; however, I hear that some bricks have been removed from the Troost Wall and that some of the neighborhoods being revived to the southeast of downtown KC might show promise. (Like most Black Kansas Citians in the 1960s and 1970s [and even now], I lived East of Troost growing up; unlike them, I went to school West of it, for the first six years at a now-shuttered grade school right next to the UMKC campus. UMKC owns the school, which was named for Kansas City Star founder William Rockhill Nelson, today.)