African American thinks there are not enough of his people in Western Fairfax

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by ncborn1

I thought I was the only one that felt that! Being from NC..Everyone speaks to everyone! It doesn't matter if you are Mr and Mrs. so and so!

The lack of polite greeting or acknowledgment isn't unique to NOVA/DC. It stretches up I-95 to at least Boston as Northeasterners tend to be more reserved in that regard.

Bringing this back closer to the subject, I've noticed here in Alexandria that some African-Americans that appear to be strangers will greet one another in passing. I've observed this particularly in the Parker-Gray neighborhood and due south in Old Town. I would predict that since there are, anecdotally speaking, fewer African-Americans in western Fairfax that the few that do come across one another exchange a friendly hello to each other.

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by Tone509

The lack of polite greeting or acknowledgment isn't unique to NOVA/DC. It stretches up I-95 to at least Boston as Northeasterners tend to be more reserved in that regard.

It's definitely weird. Even at work, if I see someone I don't know on the stairwell or in the lobby, my inclination is to smile and say a quick hi--but after getting "deer in the headlights" over and over, now I just ignore everyone I don't know.

Originally Posted by Tone509

Bringing this back closer to the subject, I've noticed here in Alexandria that some African-Americans that appear to be strangers will greet one another in passing. I've observed this particularly in the Parker-Gray neighborhood and due south in Old Town. I would predict that since there are, anecdotally speaking, fewer African-Americans in western Fairfax that the few that do come across one another exchange a friendly hello to each other.

From my observation, this seems to be a custom throughout the South and into the Mid-Atlantic, at least in workplaces and on college campuses.

[slim04]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

It's definitely weird. Even at work, if I see someone I don't know on the stairwell or in the lobby, my inclination is to smile and say a quick hi--but after getting "deer in the headlights" over and over, now I just ignore everyone I don't know.

Ha! When someone I don't know says hi to me at work, my first instinct is to look over my shoulder to see if they are talking to someone behind me. If I have a blank look on my face and don't return a greeting it is because I don't think you are talking to me. I'm not trying to be rude, but I am just not that observant, especially when in a rush, and just don't think I am important enough for a person to say hi to me that doesn't know me. By the time it registers in my brain the greeting was meant for me, I am 4 steps away and it would be even more awkward for me to turn around and yell out a return greeting to a stranger.

[tcave360]

Originally Posted by Do a Barrel Roll

I've been following this thread since the beginning, and I, as a black man living in NoVA, find reasons behind both sides of the argument. On one end, I will say that the area has historically been a racially segregated area. And minus the outer beltway suburbs, little of that has changed. People who have moved here in the past decade or so may not grasp that, so my suggestion to those individuals is to take heed of word from those who have lived in the DC area longer than yourselves.

But with that being said, I tend to find that minus McLean, Great Falls, and Clifton, the NW neighborhoods and inner beltway suburbs tend to be have less blacks (and yes, more leery of blacks) than the outer-beltway suburbs, including Western Fairfax. Truth be told, the most unwelcoming (albeit covertly) attitude I've been given from non-blacks has been from transplant and yuppie whites in DC itself who live very close to predominately black neighborhoods targeted for gentrification. The next least welcoming group, although not as unwelcoming as those in the District, have been the non-blacks in Arlington, Alexandria, and Bethesda. Ironically, I feel the racial tension lessening when I go outside of the beltway northward and westward. From my experience, the least racist places in this area tend to be in Prince William, Loudoun, Stafford (yes, Stafford), and peculiar parts of Fairfax like Reston, Lorton, Herndon, Fair Lakes, and Springfield, in addition to outside beltway parts of Montgomery County like Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Aspen Hill, and Olney. But take note on a similarity between all of those towns: all of the following places have a sizable black population. Now places that are diverse yet have little blacks in comparison like Centreville, Chantilly, and Manassas can be wild cards, but I still tend to find those places less racially unwelcoming than the preppy and yuppie dominated parts of NW DC.

But take note that I'm not a black person who really is comfortable with the "black culture" that you usually see in DC and PG County. In fact, I detest the culture that dominates that place. And as a former resident of that place, I see myself in the same position in NoVA as a Cuban refugee sees himself in Florida, and Marion Barry as no different than a Cuban refugee sees Fidel Castro. But I will say that blacks who live between Alexandria and Stafford are definitely much better as people and representatives of African Americans than those of DC and PG County.

Awesome generalization 👍

[tcave360]

Originally Posted by Do a Barrel Roll

In other words, blacks in DC and neighboring PG County, most of whom are liberal BTW, tend to have a "I got mines, F you" mentality. And to which, I say....I completely agree! The saddest thing about my case is that I was born and raised around these same blacks, and that mentality even applies to my relatives, if not even more. When it come to DC and PG, unless you're one of those bourgie or hood blacks, forget about experiences any benefit or hook-up from being in a Black "Mecca" city.

The only saving grace is that these same blacks are so militantly black and Democrat that they still think that Northern VA is still part of the Old South. So if you live in parts of Northern VA outside the beltway, you won't run into the arrogant, crude, and provincial DC/PG kind of blacks, but more of the humble kind that you are used to back home.

That's cute.