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Shorter version of the above: DC and NYC doesn't have a hood element it is known for that sometimes gets in the way of their great black residents and that's all there is to Atlanta.
You know very well that is not the case.
Lol, go to the D.C.forum and the NYC one for that matter on any post dealing with the black people there. All you hear about is negative stuff with a few good thrown in for the D.C. forum.
Last edited by muxBuppie; 12-01-2011 at 06:18 PM..
Definitely agree. Every time I visit Atlanta all I can say to myself is, "Seriously? That city is like a 24/7 rap video.
I'd be much more proud of Atlanta as a black "mecca" if it were known more for the Esparanza Spalding, Cornel West and Nikki Giovanni types, or haute black culture, so to speak. Instead it's known for Travis Porter.
For "high" black culture, I think New York and DC are a good ways ahead of Atlanta.
LOL...this cat said the "haute black culture" in DC and NYC.
Nikki Giovanni is from Knoxville. Cornel West is from Oklahoma.
And Isn't Esparanza Spalding from Portland or somewhere in the Pacific NW? Of course she will be an eccentric black female, look at where she is from, most people from there are eccentric. But my point is none of the people you mentioned are from DC or NYC, in fact none are from a urban area with a sizable black population. So what is your point bruh? And 24/7 rap video? The black areas in DC and NYC look more like 24/7 rap videos just based off the fact its more urban and there are always people outside. Even in the nicer areas, because just as in every city, the dudes with money from the hood will play in the nicer parts of town. Don't act like dudes selling crack in the hood in DC don't go to Georgetown and drop thousands at Solbiato and Majors then go back to trap and do it all over again.
Shorter version of the above: DC and NYC doesn't have a hood element it is known for that sometimes gets in the way of their great black residents and that's all there is to Atlanta.
You know very well that is not the case.
It is the case. Atlanta is known more for the "Stanky Leg," "Laffy Taffy," and "Shoulder Lean" than it is for black intellectualism. If you had the modern-day equivalent of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, or Arthur Schomburg all living in Atlanta and starting a movement that had some impact on black America beyond pop culture, then yeah, I'd be cheering for Atlanta all the way. But that's not what we're seeing. We see more tomfoolery going on down there than anything else.
This is not to say that Atlanta doesn't have writers, activists, etc. But Atlanta doesn't have comparatively more of that going on than DC, NYC or Chicago. If anything, it probably has considerably less. So I'm left trying to figure out what exactly we're celebrating Atlanta for? Because Tyler Perry makes movies that put black dysfunction on the front page dead and center? See Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Because "dirty south" music has taken over the rap game? Maybe I'll be wrong about this, but I doubt historians will revere Tyler Perry the way they do Richard Wright.
Compared to Washington, DC, the black population in Atlanta is far less ambitious, imo. Getting a job in Home Depot's Corporate Office and buying a nice car is not "success." If we do consider that success, then damn, I don't know what else to say.
LOL...this cat said the "haute black culture" in DC and NYC.
Nikki Giovanni is from Knoxville. Cornel West is from Oklahoma.
And Isn't Esparanza Spalding from Portland or somewhere in the Pacific NW? Of course she will be an eccentric black female, look at where she is from, most people from there are eccentric. But my point is none of the people you mentioned are from DC or NYC, in fact none are from a urban area with a sizable black population. So what is your point bruh? And 24/7 rap video? The black areas in DC and NYC look more like 24/7 rap videos just based off the fact its more urban and there are always people outside. Even in the nicer areas, because just as in every city, the dudes with money from the hood will play in the nicer parts of town. Don't act like dudes selling crack in the hood in DC don't go to Georgetown and drop thousands at Solbiato and Majors then go back to trap and do it all over again.
The point is that those individuals are producing work that will have a legacy lasting beyond a few spins on Hot97 or the January edition of Jet Magazine. What do you see coming out of Atlanta that historians will write favorably about (or even write about at all) fifty years from now? A hundred years from now?
I have not personally witnessed blacks from all over canonizing any one city as much as they do Atlanta. There's nothing "abstract" about that statement, whatsoever. It's dead on with what Nairobi has observed. It isn't a fact, and it isn't an opinion. It's an observation; my observation.
I have a high opinion of Atlanta, but there are people who have opinions of the city that I would perceive to be too high, to the point that you can't tell these folks nothing.
It's Abstract because I'm not you. People have different experiences. Keep in mind I said in my staement earlier Everything I say is not direct at you. I said some posters be really trying to argue opinion or there experiences as a fact.
But it depends on your view of how good Atlanta is, if it's low then someone else who love it, would appear as if they're hyping Atlanta to you.
"The reason why it bugs me because it has been used on these forums to bash Atlanta "blacks move to Atlanta because of hype." Also because it's abstract, Atlanta is now overrated base on not being perfect." Again not direct at you.
It is the case. Atlanta is known more for the "Stanky Leg," "Laffy Taffy," and "Shoulder Lean" than it is for black intellectualism. If you had the modern-day equivalent of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, or Arthur Schomburg all living in Atlanta and starting a movement that had some impact on black America beyond pop culture, then yeah, I'd be cheering for Atlanta all the way. But that's not what we're seeing. We see more tomfoolery going on down there than anything else.
This is not to say that Atlanta doesn't have writers, activists, etc. But Atlanta doesn't have comparatively more of that going on than DC, NYC or Chicago. If anything, it probably has considerably less. So I'm left trying to figure out what exactly we're celebrating Atlanta for? Because Tyler Perry makes movies that put black dysfunction on the front page dead and center? See Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Because "dirty south" music has taken over the rap game? Maybe I'll be wrong about this, but I doubt historians will revere Tyler Perry the way they do Richard Wright.
Compared to Washington, DC, the black population in Atlanta is far less ambitious, imo. Getting a job in Home Depot's Corporate Office and buying a nice car is not "success." If we do consider that success, then damn, I don't know what else to say.
Besides
1. The Stanky Leg came from Dallas and has nothing to do with Atlanta, "this statement tells everything"
2. Georgia has the highest percentage of black owed business of any state,
3. Metro Atlanta has the 3rd largest black college student population and
4. has the Atlanta University Center the largest contiguous consortium of African Americans in higher education in the United States.
5. The hometown of MLK, home base of SCLC and other civil rights groups
6. W. E. B. Du Bois taught at Atlanta University, were he came out with some of is earliest theories " The Talented Tenth" and etc.
7. Booker T wrote the Atlanta Compromise
8. Andrew Young was mayor of Atlanta.
9. Sweet auburn is one of the most important African American neighborhoods in the US by history.
9. Atlanta films and TV scene for African Americans is a lot broader then Tyler Perry.
10. Atlanta is reflecting the broader state of African American culture today,
11. Atlanta hiphop culture is everything from Outkast to Goodie mob. ATL urban scene is pretty diverse.
12. Atlanta is also a major center for R&B/soul as it's for hiphop.
Did you even read the OP article from the New York Times?
It's hard to compete with New York but Atlanta does well against Chicago, DC and etc.
They aren't that many Black Billionaires in the world. They are only 4 of them.
Only one of them is an American which is Oprah Winfrey. The Johnson's (Robert and his ex wife) haven't been billionaires for a few years now because of their divorce.
Well... there's more than that but as for Johnson, considering his hotel lodging REIT alone is worth nearly $2 Billion (and made a good profit last quarter) is not far fetched to say he is in billion dollar status.
It is the case. Atlanta is known more for the "Stanky Leg," "Laffy Taffy," and "Shoulder Lean" than it is for black intellectualism. If you had the modern-day equivalent of Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, or Arthur Schomburg all living in Atlanta and starting a movement that had some impact on black America beyond pop culture, then yeah, I'd be cheering for Atlanta all the way. But that's not what we're seeing. We see more tomfoolery going on down there than anything else.
This is not to say that Atlanta doesn't have writers, activists, etc. But Atlanta doesn't have comparatively more of that going on than DC, NYC or Chicago. If anything, it probably has considerably less. So I'm left trying to figure out what exactly we're celebrating Atlanta for? Because Tyler Perry makes movies that put black dysfunction on the front page dead and center? See Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Because "dirty south" music has taken over the rap game? Maybe I'll be wrong about this, but I doubt historians will revere Tyler Perry the way they do Richard Wright.
Compared to Washington, DC, the black population in Atlanta is far less ambitious, imo. Getting a job in Home Depot's Corporate Office and buying a nice car is not "success." If we do consider that success, then damn, I don't know what else to say.
I think you're taking an extremely short-sighted view towards Atlanta, as if it became a center of Black culture only in the past decade or so.
Hip hop, which originated in NYC, does more to put "Black dysfunction on the front page dead and center" (even the so-called "conscious" strain) than any Tyler Perry play or movie ever could. But I don't have as much of a problem with that because that's a necessary function of any art form and I think we as Black folks can take ourselves entirely too seriously at times.
If you wish to compare Atlanta's ambitiousness to DC and say that success isn't landing a job in Home Depot's Corporate Office and buying a nice car, then I'd also have to say that working for a federal government agency as a GS-12 in DC isn't "success" either, especially since one of the reasons that Blacks are suffering disproportionately in this economic downturn is due to our overrepresentation in public sector jobs in general.
In short, much of what you say applies to Black America in general and not Atlanta in particular.
I think you're taking an extremely short-sighted view towards Atlanta, as if it became a center of Black culture only in the past decade or so.
No. I understand that it's been a center of black culture for a long time. I just take issue with the branding of what's going on down there as a "Renaissance," particularly when the city's primary contributions to black culture in recent years have been snap dances and gospel plays gone to the Big Screen.
Hip hop, which originated in NYC, does more to put "Black dysfunction on the front page dead and center" (even the so-called "conscious" strain) than any Tyler Perry play or movie ever could. But I don't have as much of a problem with that because that's a necessary function of any art form and I think we as Black folks can take ourselves entirely too seriously at times.
There's a big difference between NWA rapping about black dysfunction and a flat out minstrel show. And the overwhelming majority of the music Atlanta has put out is minstrelsy. I don't think Atlanta is responsible for the direction hip hop has taken (as a lot of other rappers from different places are also minstrels), but people are celebrating the absolute low point in hip hop's overall history (fingers crossed) as Atlanta's hip hop "Golden Age." Are "snap" music and Madea movies really valuable contributions to black and American culture?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutiny77
If you wish to compare Atlanta's ambitiousness to DC and say that success isn't landing a job in Home Depot's Corporate Office and buying a nice car, then I'd also have to say that working for a federal government agency as a GS-12 in DC isn't "success" either, especially since one of the reasons that Blacks are suffering disproportionately in this economic downturn is due to our overrepresentation in public sector jobs in general.
DC and Atlanta are very different. The professional associations and networks are larger, more varied, and more active in DC. Blacks in DC have more education than they do in Atlanta. You meet people doing cutting edge work. You meet black people who work for the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, USAID, and the Inter-American Development Bank, which deals with all types of issues related to the Caribbean. It's not uncommon to meet a black person there who writes for Reuters, teaches microbiology at Howard Med, or graduated top of his class from a top-tier law school and now clerks for the very prestigious D.C. Circuit. You also meet a lot of people from Africa and the Caribbean whose families basically run the countries they came from. You're not finding that caliber of professional in Atlanta.
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