The Atlanta Metro Area = Black Bougie Mecca? (Hampton, Clayton: house, school)

[Devin85]

Originally Posted by afdinatl

From the outside looking in it will seem that way. I will agree with him generally speaking but he needs to learn about the different crowds here so he can choose which groups he want to be around. The women walking around holding expensive purses, etc. Little does he know that half those purses came from the flea market off Old National or Greenbriar. Walking around with expensive purses but their bank account is in the negative. Yes we have those people just like most other large cities. I would say Atlanta and DC would rank at the top in this category. On the flip side we have plenty of regular people and events for regular people who aren't about that lifestyle. That's the good thing about Atlanta. You can hang with the bougie crowd, the non bougie crowd, 21-25 year old crowd, the 30+ crowd, the neo soul drinking tea with no hair weave listening to Jill Scott crowd, etc. With the Atlanta scene if you are new here you will only know about that and the ratchet scene initially. Unless someone hips you to the other scenes in Atlanta the average person will not know about them until they have been here at least 2 years if they are lucky. If you are fortunate enough to have someone that knows the scene will put you on to it then that will help but generally speaking the average person only sees that side of Atlanta until someone gives them the events to go to to see the other side of the city

I know Bmore generally speaking just have the ghetto crowd and most of the professionals have to go to DC if they don't want to be around the ratchets lol. in DC you only have the professional crowd and the ghetto Go Go crowd so most of the professionals are forced to continue to hang around the same crowd even if they do not want to. Generally speaking.

As far as DC when I was there the DC culture is about work, work and work. Go to happy hour after work and it still feels like you are at work lol. Since DC has the most important jobs in the country it attracts those type of people. People in DC (professional crowd not the Go Go crowd) are too cool to have fun. You go out at 1am and nobody is dancing or having fun. Everyone just standing around with their Easter suit on trying to look important. That's DC for ya. Generally speaking.

The Go-Go crowds you talking about are the college students from the DC area. Most likely Morgan State or Coppin State students or alumni. Most people in Baltimore doesn't like Go-Go music. it's all about the B-more Club/House music. Those Go Go bands from DC or Prince George's County be trying to find a spot to perform in the Baltimore area. Most of the time they perform at college events. I can't get into that Go Go atmosphere.

[OneTrickNet]

Originally Posted by AtlJan

Oh, I gotcha. So it is not the Black hoochie mamas at Benihana's--but the Black people that think they are superior to them. I had it wrong. So my question is can White people be bougie? If not we DEFINITELY need a word for that. Cuz we got that bad, too. Plastic surgery all over the place, big white Land Rover, giant bag, strolling around Whole Foods, talking on the phone, no time to speak to the check-out person. It don't matter what color you are, Buckhead is TACKY.

White people can definitely be bougie. It just doesn't seem to be that in-your-face, though. And - I'm going to say it - less tacky. White people bougie is more subtle, backstabbing one-upping.

[Devin85]

Originally Posted by Zanarkand A East

What a narrow view of an entire race in a relatively large city. As usual, people inform themselves with reality TV. Whenever someone from another city asks about this, I just look them in the face until they figure it out and walk away.

Same here

During the riots in Baltimore a few months back, the media portrayed black people negatively. Love & Hip Hop Atlanta & Real Housewives Of Atlanta, the media follow the stars personal life around the area and the viewers from outside those area assume that's what most people act from Balttimore and Atlanta.

[Devin85]

Originally Posted by bhammaster

If you only hang around Buckhead and/or go to "Grown and Sexy" events of-course that is all you are going to see.

Yeah that what I think.

[afdinatl]

Originally Posted by Devin85

The Go-Go crowds you talking about are the college students from the DC area. Most likely Morgan State or Coppin State students or alumni. Most people in Baltimore doesn't like Go-Go music. it's all about the B-more Club/House music. Those Go Go bands from DC or Prince George's County be trying to find a spot to perform in the Baltimore area. Most of the time they perform at college events. I can't get into that Go Go atmosphere.

What's crazy Is I thought Go Go was garbage in DC because I only heard it on the radio. Never went to see a real Go Go performance. A few years ago here the Chuck Brown band performed here after he passed (RIP) and I went to it. It was so live in there and I was like damn I missed all of this when I lived there lol smh. It's not bad if you like live music

[afdinatl]

Originally Posted by OneTrickNet

White people can definitely be bougie. It just doesn't seem to be that in-your-face, though. And - I'm going to say it - less tacky. White people bougie is more subtle, backstabbing one-upping.

They are. I see carloads of white women at those flea markets on the southside buying them fake purses.

[Devin85]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

Honestly, I kind of agree with the OP friend's assessment. But not because most of the black people one meets in Atlanta are "bougie" but because they like to act like they are.

IMO many of them are putting on a show. Most of the black people who do have money don't go around flaunting it or talking about it or talking down on other people. Those who really don't have anything but want to act like they do. They also always like to try to distant themselves from regular black people or "ghetto" black people. Many of them are in extreme debt due to wanting to impress people. But wanted to mention that I think that this is common amongst a lot of people, no matter their skin color everywhere, but I can see how the OP's friend might get that impression from Atlanta based on my own experience with the supposed black bourgoisie there myself.

Even though I grew up poor my extended family were not and due to my grandma being "rich" (I thought she was rich lol even though she really wasn't) I had a lot of stuff and we mostly lived in houses that she owned and rented to my mom for free. And my grandma always told me that people shouldn't brag about what they have or try to act like they are better than anyone else based on material things even though she was a shop-a-holic. But due to her and my extended families' similar views, I never placed much value on things like what type of car someone drives or what type of shoes/designer clothes they wear, etc. And there was more of that in Atlanta than I would have liked to be around. Also, people always asking me why I lived where I lived when I could afford to move to Midtown or Buckhead, etc. Or why I drove an old vehicle when I could afford to buy a new one. Just more materialism there IMO and want to add for all the defensive Atlanta people that I felt mostly transplants from specific areas exuded this sort of aura and tried to act like just because they were black in Atlanta they had "made it" and had all this material stuff and how being black with stuff in Atlanta made them important in some way. It was pretty funny and silly to me.

Well said!

We both grew up in a poor neighborhood in Baltimore. He decided to leave to move down south for new life and got culture shocked by the residents.

[Devin85]

Originally Posted by glovenyc

I attended college in Baltimore and I learned quickly that DC metro folks want nothing to do with Baltimore folks. They feel that Baltimore folks are beneath them for some reason, so yes this ASSININE post probably could apply to the DC metro as well.

That's because the DC area is more high maintenance than Baltimore area. It's always been that way for years.

[Devin85]

Originally Posted by magnetar

But that's not what bougie means... Bougie is new money; ostentatious displays of wealth (that you might not even actually have). What you're describing is just stuck-up rich folk. Atlanta is one of the largest metros in the country, so yes we have plenty of both, but in a city as crazy diverse as Atlanta there is no single defining characteristic of any group in this city. I don't doubt that your friend met some when he went out, but hardly representative of the larger population.

I'm fine with the pay I'm getting. You are the example of being "bougie" looking down on others.

[glovenyc]

Originally Posted by afdinatl

What's crazy Is I thought Go Go was garbage in DC because I only heard it on the radio. Never went to see a real Go Go performance. A few years ago here the Chuck Brown band performed here after he passed (RIP) and I went to it. It was so live in there and I was like damn I missed all of this when I lived there lol smh. It's not bad if you like live music

Most definitely. Initially I to didn't like Go-Go as a college freshman at Morgan State. As a young hip-hop kid in 1985, I couldn't understand it or appreciate the live instrumentation although I learned to DJ on breakbeats like Chuck Brown's "Bustin Loose", "Pump Me Up" and EU's "Knock Em Out Sugar Ray"...does were original b-boys classics. Once my musical taste matured, I would go see Chuck Brown every year when he did a live show in NYC.