Racial Diversity? (Tucson, Oro Valley: apartment complexes, houses, neighborhood)

[wonderkid]

My husband and I are considering a move to Tucson for a variety of reasons, however we are wondering about this....We have 2 biological children (caucasian) and we are adopting an infant boy from Ethiopia. We are wanting to settle somewhere that is more affordable than our current situation(California) but want diversity due to the impending adoption. We noticed that African-Americans only comprise 4.3% of your population. We currently live in a very non-diverse area and want our son to be part of the black community. What are your thoughts on people open to multi-racial families and whether there are a lot of them or whether our son would have connections other than his adoptive family. Thanks so much! This website and forum is super!

[sierraAZ]

Originally Posted by wonderkid

My husband and I are considering a move to Tucson for a variety of reasons, however we are wondering about this....We have 2 biological children (caucasian) and we are adopting an infant boy from Ethiopia. We are wanting to settle somewhere that is more affordable than our current situation(California) but want diversity due to the impending adoption. We noticed that African-Americans only comprise 4.3% of your population. We currently live in a very non-diverse area and want our son to be part of the black community. What are your thoughts on people open to multi-racial families and whether there are a lot of them or whether our son would have connections other than his adoptive family. Thanks so much! This website and forum is super!

Well, this requirement will put you in a bind if you want to live in such a neighborhood... As you've read, there aren't many Blacks here. On the other hand, there are many Mexicans... pretty much everywhere, but generally they're heavily concentrated in some parts of town. I don't believe Tucson has a problem with racial tension, but many times you're oblivious to problems you're not having personally. People here are annoyed with illegal immigration mostly.

I'm sure there are some concentrations of Blacks, but they may not be in areas you'd necessarily like to live in. I personally have noticed only 2 such areas. One is around Grant & Alvernon, which coincidentally is an area you don't wanna be any near to. The other one is somewhere in the square between Park & Euclid and Speedway & Grant. Once I was on a picnic in a park there (I believe it was around Lester... or whichever street there had a hospital on it; just West of Park; West of the hospital) and noticed many Blacks. It's an OK neighborhood. The only problem is many of the houses are rented by college students, meaning you'll have parties going on around.

Let me think of other recourses... I believe I've read in the paper about Ethiopian refugees here. You might wanna try to get in touch with such organizations. Quite a few Blacks moved here from New Orleans after Katrina, but my impression is they're mostly spread out in various apartment complexes. I see Blacks in the malls, though, so they have to live somewhere! I don't find it outrageous to just stop a few people and ask them when you come on a trip to explore the city. There may be some on this board, too. They always seem to have hard time finding hair stylists who know how to work with their hair.

Good luck!

[Dieter]

Why push him into the black community? I'm sure if you're raising him as one of your own, he'd identify more with your family's culture. Every public school has a black clique, so if he wants to be a part of the black community he can make the decision on his own.

[powerconverters]

Originally Posted by Dieter

Why push him into the black community? I'm sure if you're raising him as one of your own, he'd identify more with your family's culture. Every public school has a black clique, so if he wants to be a part of the black community he can make the decision on his own.

making sure your kid has people around who look like him is different from "pushing him into the black community." trust me, being raised by white people in a white community does not make you white. but it can make you wonder if everyone around you continues to see you as an "outsider" while you try your damnedest not to be.

wonderkid, you're right to ask.

[Dieter]

Originally Posted by powerconverters

making sure your kid has people around who look like him is different from "pushing him into the black community." trust me, being raised by white people in a white community does not make you white. but it can make you wonder if everyone around you continues to see you as an "outsider" while you try your damnedest not to be.

wonderkid, you're right to ask.

Like I said, there are plenty of black kids in the schools here in Tucson. If he isn't going to be accepted into their family as one of their own as you imply, maybe they should rethink this adoption.

[wonderkid]

Where do you get "pushing him into the black community" from? Nothing like that was even mentioned. We are hoping to provide an environment where our son would actually maybe have a black doctor or a black teacher and ohhhhh think of the possibilities....some black classmates. We have chosen to adopt because we love children and that son of ours will be loved as dearly as our biological children. There are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia right now waiting for homes. If a caucasian chooses to be a small answer to this plight they darn well better ask questions like I posed here. Trying to find a community (and actually moving there) where our child doesn't feel like an alien makes us especially qualified for a trans-racial adoption...rather than re-thinking it as you suggest.

[SD to AZ]

I visit this city A LOT and I noticed maybe I see one black person per 3 day trip I'm there

[anomoly]

Originally Posted by wonderkid

Where do you get "pushing him into the black community" from? Nothing like that was even mentioned. We are hoping to provide an environment where our son would actually maybe have a black doctor or a black teacher and ohhhhh think of the possibilities....some black classmates. We have chosen to adopt because we love children and that son of ours will be loved as dearly as our biological children. There are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia right now waiting for homes. If a caucasian chooses to be a small answer to this plight they darn well better ask questions like I posed here. Trying to find a community (and actually moving there) where our child doesn't feel like an alien makes us especially qualified for a trans-racial adoption...rather than re-thinking it as you suggest.

I lived in Tucson from 99-05, born & raised in So. Cal, (also lived in OR, well travelled), and I remember a sudden realization in Tucson:
Not only did I see very few blacks, I saw the way they were stereotypically characterized-- too many people seemed to view all black people as 'crack heads' and pimps.
I was so confused , but realized Tucson doesn't have many black people, and so many there are crack heads and pimps! To this day ,
I'm saddened that this was the only perception so many people in Tucson had about African Americans, but for many, these were the only examples they knew of.

I had a very different view of black people growing up in CA, where they were as diverse as any other group of people.

But then, I noticed alot of backward thinking in Tucson, compared to CA.
Just being honest.

[frogandtoad]

Wonderkid,
quite funny--we have 2 biological children (white) and an adopted son from Ethiopia! He's almost 4 now and we adopted him when he was 8 months old. I don't live in Tucson anymore, but we did when we adopted him. We lived in Oro Valley, and there is certainly not much diversity there! White, white, white for the most part. Very safe and we loved it there but definitely not diverse!

We live in a very diverse area now and I must say there is quite a difference. For those telling you "not to worry about it" they clearly have no idea what it would mean to be the only black for miles around. Anyway, we never had any sort of negative response or comment or anything, but people asked a lot of uninformed questions (like we were asked a number of times why we had chosen to foster. A friend who had adopted from China was never asked that--people were just assuming black=foster child). One time we had someone ask (this was nuts!) if we had adopted from Ethiopia because we hadn't qualified for a "better" country, like China! When I told them Ethiopia was our first and only choice, they looked totally baffled but apologized. I really believe no one was trying to be mean, but I do think it would tough to be black there. Particularly in a white family.

Where we live now there is a lot of racial diversity (and other types of diversity as well) and we've never had a silly question. People are much more familiar here with trans-racial adoption, with all sorts of family makeups (inter-racial couples, same-sex couples, some adopted and some bio in same family, etc etc) He is growing up with lots of other black children around--not only adoptee black children, but black families and I think there's an important distinction there as well. We don't seek out black people for him (I know many who do) but I just like that he sees other people who look like him all the time. He will have black teachers and black classmates. Everywhere we go, he sees other black people. He can choose to hang out with them or not, but at least he sees people who look like him.

Feel free to PM me if you want.

I LOVE Tucson. Absolutely love it. If it weren't for my husband's job, we would still be there, no doubt. But in reality, the diversity we have where we live now is, I believe, a better situation for him (and the rest of the family likes it a lot too).

[wonderkid]

Thank you so much!!!! I really appreciate your comments. I am new to this kind of computer forum thing, so how do I PM you? I would love to know where you have settled. We are in a quandry as to what city to move to and if you have found a good spot, I would love to know. Thanks!!!