Moving from NYC to San Antonio as a 23 yr old black woman

[EntropyGuardian]

San Antonio is a good place to live compared to NYC if you don't want to die in a terrorist attack.

[jwebtx]

Originally Posted by Pancho-Villa

Anyway, I'm getting the feeling that this was a hit-n-run post and this person wont be back.

Nailed it!

[beaste]

I will say dating will be hard for you because people's preferences lean towards white or Hispanic here. Also culturally coming from a city like NYC you may not fit in with the majority of the ideals of what people look for in someone here vs a city like NYC where it is much more cosmopolitan and you will run into people with differing ideas.

San Antonio is much more homogenous culturally. I have lived here for years and don't feel it's a fit for me. YMMV though I'm not saying it to discourage you just my experience as another black person from a metro city. I will say there are a lot of people moving here due to cost of living and career opportunities so that affects the landscape here and will make it less homogenous.

[L210]

Originally Posted by cutesammy01

Hi i'm considering moving to San Antonio and I have a few questions.

1. Is there a lot of Racism in San Antonio? And what areas are the most racist?

2. Are there any upper class black neighborhoods with good schools?

3. Would I feel comfortable living in a wealthy white neighborhood?

4. What is the night life like in San Antonio?

5. What options do I have in terms of fun? Anything comparable to NYC?

6. Is San Antonio a good place to raise children?

7. How is the nursing field here? Are there a lot of jobs available for RN'S?

This looks like a hit and run post, but I'll answer it as a black woman who lived in San Antonio for almost 30 years up until a year ago. I still live less than an hour away and drive to San Antonio to visit family.

1. In general, there is not more racism than average in San Antonio, but I would advise anyone in a small minority group to live in more diverse areas. (Keep in mind that, on average in the U.S., black people are discriminated against when it comes to the job market despite people's misunderstanding of how affirmative action works.) You are more likely to experience racism in areas that are mostly of just one ethnic group. I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood and went to a predominantly Hispanic school where I was called the n-word, but that was only at that one school. In more recent years, I had a former coworker whose half black/half Hispanic daughter was harassed and called the n-word daily, but she was the only black kid in her school of mostly Hispanics. Actually, the area around the school was poor.

To say that the vast majority of San Antonians are black, white, and Hispanic is misleading. The majority of San Antonians are Hispanic; the vast majority are Hispanic and non-Hispanic white. The percentage of black people in San Antonio is substantially lower than the percentage in Texas and the U.S. as a whole.

2. There are many middle class black people on the far west side, east side, and northeast side. The east side is where you will find the highest concentration of black people, but it is not the only place you will find a large number of black people. While the east side does have a lot of poverty, there are areas with middle class residents. However, even the east side is majority Hispanic.

3. I think it varies by neighborhood. I had white friends who lived in affluent, mostly white neighborhoods and felt comfortable. On the other hand, as someone who worked for a law enforcement agency, there were certain affluent, white neighborhoods where many people would call the police on someone just for being black. It was actually white and Hispanic coworkers who warned me of this when I first started the job.

4. It depends on what you're looking for.

5. As others have said, nothing is comparable to places like NYC or LA, but this also depends on what you're looking for.

6. I don't have any kids, but I would say yes.

7. The medical field here is huge, but as someone who does not work in nursing, I can't give you specifics on job opportunities for RNs vs. BSNs.

I would even say that Austin is better than San Antonio for black people even though the percentage of black people there is not much higher. Austin has been losing black residents due to rising housing costs, but most of the black people are just moving to other parts of the Austin Metro Area. Austin has an R&B station, which is something that San Antonio has not been able to support. San Antonio just has rhythmic stations that play a mix of R&B, hip hop, and rhythmic pop. I was shocked at how different the Travis County Sheriff's Department (Austin) and Bexar County Sheriff's Department (San Antonio) are. At BCSO, you'll find black people working in the jail, but there are hardly any black deputies on patrol. One deputy told me that he didn't even know if there was a black female on patrol, but this was two years ago. Travis County, on the other hand, has a lot of black deputies on patrol.