Twin cities has the largest black- white unemployment gap (Minneapolis: homes, quality of life)
Minneapolis - St. PaulTwin Cities
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Quality of living is top notch. I've lived in 5 different major cities and I can tell you without hesitation that the quality of life in the Twin Cities is a notch above any of the other cities I've lived in. In fact, I'm not sure why MORE people don't want to live in MN (except I suspect it's the weather, even though I don't think it's worse than many/most places).
I know of many black, former U of M & Pro athletes (not that all blacks are simply athletes), from the South who came North to attend college & liked it so much here they stayed & had kids (who in turn went on/go on to college & successful futures here), started businesses, got jobs with local companies after graduation & worked their ways up the corporate ladder. Often times they say there's much less of a racial trip to deal with here. i.e. If you're a young college grad working your way up the ladder for an established local company, no one's calling you the "N" word, caring if you date a white person or denying you employment because of your skin color.
Also, for years black professionals from the rest of the country have graduated college, got married or whatever & taken career jobs here never to leave again. These people have nice careers, start businesses, have kids & so on. This is one often overlooked & very important class of blacks, the upper-middle class black families that live/work in Eden Prarie, Minnetonka, Woodbury, etc. The bottom line is this is a great place to live regardless of color or culture.
Then there's the part we don't like to talk about, the part you had the courage to post about. A lot of the poor blacks moved here in the 1980's as the Rust Belt's steel & auto industries crumbled. Many sought jobs (as much as unskilled High School grads with only factory experience could realistically think they'd get well paying jobs here) but many people did move here from Detroit, Gary Ind., Chicago & E St Louis Mo. during the "Moneysota" era to capitalize of welfare/food stamp benefits. We paid a lot more than other states. It's not racist to tell the truth. Those people brought gang culture & turf wars with them & moved here during the crack boom of the 1980's which was particularly hard on poor black communities. Fast forward 25-30 years & it's no surprise their kids have a hard time competing for jobs with the white people who've been here for 150 years.
What we really seem to lack here in the Twin Cities is a black Middle Class imo & the black "Working Class" is crumbling.
The immigrants & I disagree with you on their disillusionment are gobbling up these "working class" type of jobs. I think for a Mexican, Somali or Hmong (for example) immigrant, their life here is fantastic. They're able to own a nice car, buy a simple home, gain employment where they like, vote, speak freely, send their kids to school with the possibility of them going to college, etc. (It's their children who suffer the disillusionment). In general the immigrant philosophy is live together (5-12 in a household) to make ends meet, work a lot of hours & be opportunistic (spot/share available good jobs). This group really hurts the poor blacks imo. The taxi drivers, bellmen, carpenters, bus drivers, movers, corner store clerks, carpet layers, limo drivers, housekeepers, mechanics, maintenance people type jobs where a High School degree is all you need must now compete with applicants from all these immigrant groups. Same amount of jobs, far more applicants, many of whom, are very ambitious & are capable of much higher employment if their English was better.
I think Minnesota is AWESOME if you're a black professional. Easy to get a job (lack of competition), often times higher pay than a white peer due to lack of applicants, the company will WANT you to succeed so they can have black upper-management & be more diverse, etc. Conversely it's tough sledding for the poor blacks competing for the same jobs as the poor whites, Latinos, East Africans & Asians & leads to dependence on our generous welfare system.
Quote:
Originally Posted by queenswake
Why else would blacks move to Minnesota? True, many blacks today may move to follow their family members and friends who moved within the last couple decades, but why did these first groups move to MN? Especially now at a time when many blacks are returning to the south, where their roots are. You can't tell me that blacks are super excited about moving to Minnesota just out of the blue. Why would you other than for the AWESOME generosity offered by governments of all levels, non-profits, and individuals? Hell, you have a hard time convincing most people of any race to move to MN. lol. Maybe at one time they did move for jobs as jobs in Ohio, Indiana, etc dried up. But that can't be the reason they move here now.
I volunteer with many organizations in the Twin Cities. The recipients of many of these are minorities. I am simply amazed at how many non-profits there are for a metro of its size. Look at how much charitable giving and volunteering is done here. It's astounding for the size of the city. No wonder people come here! There is so much assistance and people care here. Non-Minnesotans would be AMAZED at what goes on in MN in terms of the open arms towards immigrants and people of all walks of life.
But as great as that is, there are several problems. One, not enough unskilled jobs to go around. Talking about the immigrants specifically here. Here you have groups of people who have fantasized about America and have had an inflated perception of what things are like here. They watch American movies and hear stories of great wealth and prosperity. And then you plop them in MN with few jobs, a shortage of affordable housing, and a comparatively difficult state for starting new businesses. I feel for them. While it's certainly better from the refugee situations they came from, it's still a hard life.
Two, bringing African-Americans back into this, the number of charities and help is so great that it can create a disincentive to ever break out of it, especially in a place where it can be so hard to find a job anyway. Why do the work to break out of it? My mom hands out food to parents of kids through the Minneapolis school system as a volunteer. They are given so much food that they struggle carrying it back home and much of it undoubtedly spoils.
My posts are not meant to offend. I know I'm generalizing a lot and the issues are a lot more complex than anyone can really describe well. It's an interesting topic.
Well, the question is why the gap is any bigger here than anywhere else. Bigger than Madison WI? Bigger than San Francisco? Than Burlington VT? Kinda peculiar. If you could name some place that is a center of racism, then a big gap would make sense. But I really don't think we're anywhere near a leader for racism. Unemployment NORMALLY means someone actually trying to get a job, not someone who'd rather get charity. So is it that our white workers just have such LOW unemployment that it creates a gap? Minnesota for decades was more employed than other major centers. So that could be some fraction of the answer. But then the question would be whether black workers are really trying to get some work but employers don't hire them. How much of this gap is that?
Mason3000, do you have actual proof - not anecdotal evidence - that many black people moved to Minnesota, in the '80s, to take advantage of what you term a generous welfare system? If so, please present it.
I know of many black, former U of M & Pro athletes (not that all blacks are simply athletes), from the South who came North to attend college & liked it so much here they stayed & had kids (who in turn went on/go on to college & successful futures here), started businesses, got jobs with local companies after graduation & worked their ways up the corporate ladder. Often times they say there's much less of a racial trip to deal with here. i.e. If you're a young college grad working your way up the ladder for an established local company, no one's calling you the "N" word, caring if you date a white person or denying you employment because of your skin color.
Also, for years black professionals from the rest of the country have graduated college, got married or whatever & taken career jobs here never to leave again. These people have nice careers, start businesses, have kids & so on. This is one often overlooked & very important class of blacks, the upper-middle class black families that live/work in Eden Prarie, Minnetonka, Woodbury, etc. The bottom line is this is a great place to live regardless of color or culture.
Then there's the part we don't like to talk about, the part you had the courage to post about. A lot of the poor blacks moved here in the 1980's as the Rust Belt's steel & auto industries crumbled. Many sought jobs (as much as unskilled High School grads with only factory experience could realistically think they'd get well paying jobs here) but many people did move here from Detroit, Gary Ind., Chicago & E St Louis Mo. during the "Moneysota" era to capitalize of welfare/food stamp benefits. We paid a lot more than other states. It's not racist to tell the truth. Those people brought gang culture & turf wars with them & moved here during the crack boom of the 1980's which was particularly hard on poor black communities. Fast forward 25-30 years & it's no surprise their kids have a hard time competing for jobs with the white people who've been here for 150 years.
What we really seem to lack here in the Twin Cities is a black Middle Class imo & the black "Working Class" is crumbling.
The immigrants & I disagree with you on their disillusionment are gobbling up these "working class" type of jobs. I think for a Mexican, Somali or Hmong (for example) immigrant, their life here is fantastic. They're able to own a nice car, buy a simple home, gain employment where they like, vote, speak freely, send their kids to school with the possibility of them going to college, etc. (It's their children who suffer the disillusionment). In general the immigrant philosophy is live together (5-12 in a household) to make ends meet, work a lot of hours & be opportunistic (spot/share available good jobs). This group really hurts the poor blacks imo. The taxi drivers, bellmen, carpenters, bus drivers, movers, corner store clerks, carpet layers, limo drivers, housekeepers, mechanics, maintenance people type jobs where a High School degree is all you need must now compete with applicants from all these immigrant groups. Same amount of jobs, far more applicants, many of whom, are very ambitious & are capable of much higher employment if their English was better.
I think Minnesota is AWESOME if you're a black professional. Easy to get a job (lack of competition), often times higher pay than a white peer due to lack of applicants, the company will WANT you to succeed so they can have black upper-management & be more diverse, etc. Conversely it's tough sledding for the poor blacks competing for the same jobs as the poor whites, Latinos, East Africans & Asians & leads to dependence on our generous welfare system.
It is not so much about courage to talk about the bad, but from what I gather, none of the good was mentioned. Your post is actually more balanced and told more of the truth. It talked about the good and the bad. Your post confirms what MPR was talking about. It is easy for find success stories about Black people doing well in Minnesota. However, the stories about crime, and welfare get more attention. What made me upset was the fact that the post you responded to was very one-sided and didn't seem to tell the whole truth.
People from Gary, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Milwaukee, etc. STILL come to the Twin Cities in droves......it's one of the few places in the Midwest that is thriving AND relatively close to family/friends. Not everybody wants to move to far away places in the South, and those that prefer Northern living but don't like where they live move to places like Minneapolis, Kansas City, Indy, and Columbus.
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