Minorities in Knoxville?

[hiknapster]

I'm buying it, if it is for the city of Knoxville.

Where I work, it is probably much more than that, and I think that's a good thing!

[jabogitlu]

Yeah, I agree, Knoxville city that stat is probably right. County-wise, maybe not.

[JMT]

I believe those stats. Less than 10% of the county is black, and I believe it. In the part of town where I am it's probably closer to 40%, and in other parts of town it's probably 80-90%. In a county with 400,000 people, I can believe that there are 35,000 African Americans in the county which is what 8.7% of 400,000 is.

[RangerDuke08]

Originally Posted by TNLove

Has diversity come to mean "Anything non-White?"

I would much rather live in an area that had people of different CULTURES say immigrants from Spain, France, Italy, Russia, etc then people who grew up in the same neighborhood but are a different skin color.

True diversity is NOT the color of someone's skin but their culture, background and beliefs.

It's interesting to note the only countries I see practicing diversity are predominately White ones.

Well said, however I would rather live somewhere if we're talking about the United States ... that people still celebrate American tradition and cultures, not forgetting to welcome recent immigrants alike to be part of this tradition.

[RangerDuke08]

Originally Posted by Rage

As an old southerner from an old southern family (Dating back to revolutionary war and before)...........and my great great grand dad fought with the Tennessee 17th volunteer division in the civil war, I think there is still that "phantom" rift between the north and the south. I had lived in Chicago for more than a year and heard much more about the south (from people that had never been here) than I have ever heard about the north here. It's shame that people base their opinions on television shows and other's impressions instead of actually taking the time to formulate an original thought. Oh well...........yes the south has become much more tolerant of a lot of things and acceptant of social reform. Diversity has become the norm here. That not withstanding there are still many aspects of the south that are steeped in tradition, there is still a huge population of people that live outside of the urban areas and prefer it that way. I think for the most part southerners have become much more encompassing in their thought process and are open to new experiences.........those at home and those which are brought, so as a son of the "old" south I say welcome to ya'll and bring with you the same sense of openness and hospitality we want to give to you.

A Wisconsin man once said "Sir I have never been to the South but I am a Southern man at heart" and he was right ... the South is a philosophy, a way of life, it's not about geography. Some places north of the Mason-Dixon line proclaim themselves Southerners and some places in the South have more Northerners than Southerners.

[Tennesseestorm]

I often wondered why that was. Here in the Tri-Cities, its only about 3% black in Bristol TN, 6% in Bristol VA, 5% in Kingsport and about 6% in Johnson City, but other "mountainous" areas around here have higher %'ages. Asheville has a fairly high %'age (18%) and then even areas into the mountains of Virginia. Case in point, Wytheville is a small SW Virginia town, but is over 7%, Marion 6%,... then you get up into southern West Virginia (again, mountains) its even higher. Beckley is over 22%, which is even more than Knoxville and just south of there in Bluefield (on the WV/VA state line @ 2600 ft), its @ 22% black population.

So to me, the mystery still remains why east central and northeast TN has a lower overall black population than the rest of the south. There are some areas though in SW VA that has less than 1%. In some of those "coal mine" counties, its 0%.... thats just a few counties toward the VA/KY border, but there are a couple of counties near there with a higher %'age.

Originally Posted by mhogan10010

One reason that Knoxville isn't as racially diverse as some other Southern Cities is true of most of the Appalachian mountain range. Historically they didn't have many slaves in the Mountains. Therefore, after reconstruction there were less who felt like that was home. That I think is more a matter of geography than anything.