Outstanding Piece About Being A Black Woman in Austin (Houston: spring break, live)

[Raskolnikov]

Joshunda Victoria Sanders, The Most Beautiful City in the World

"ustin’s narrative is that it is the cool, hip, laid-back kid who might dress like it’s Monday for a paycheck but has a heart for year-round Spring Break. All this beauty and fun and queso and breakfast tacos, all these festivals and all this live music and all that football and burnt orange everything and our shared contempt for Interstate 35. What only a few people say is that what keeps Austin from leaping from the precipice toward greatness is its aversion to constructive criticism, a kind of collective defensive denial about what it really means to be liberal, progressive and great."

This is a really thoughtful article about the African American experience of Austin, and why she is leaving.

[sxrckr]

Many Austinites don't take any criticism of Austin in general well, while at the same time using 1980s or 90s descriptives of places like Houston and Dallas. And this is not a black/white issue...

[centralaustinite]

She talks all over the place (and the piece is too long) but never really gets down to hard detail.

[Idlewile]

Originally Posted by Raskolnikov

[url=http://jvictoriasanders.com/post/66501262194/the-most-beautiful-city-in-the-world]What only a few people say is that what keeps Austin from leaping from the precipice toward greatness is its aversion to constructive criticism, a kind of collective defensive denial about what it really means to be liberal, progressive and great."

I think her fifth paragraph is right on, (this is the second half of it) having nothing to do with race.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Raskolnikov

... aversion to constructive criticism, a kind of collective defensive denial about what it really means to be liberal, progressive and great."

So if you don't aspire to be "liberal, progressive and great", then you are just "averse to constructive criticism"? Oh, quelle horreur!

And then there is the stereotyping of Texas, by someone who is quite adamant about not being stereotyped... Can I get my ten minutes back?

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by scm53

So if you don't aspire to be "liberal, progressive and great", then you are just "averse to constructive criticism"? Oh, quelle horreur!

And then there is the stereotyping of Texas, by someone who is quite adamant about not being stereotyped... Can I get my ten minutes back?

No, she's saying that Austin considers it self liberal, progressive, and great but won't take constructive criticism on what that actually means.


Austin isn't Hawaii where black people are actually rare. She probably sees things the way she does because of where she hangs out-- in places where blacks generally choose not to. She could come to Houston and find similar places. Heck, she can come to a very black city like Houston, and find an office with zero black men.

8% of Austin is black, compared to 13% of the whole nation. Blacks aren't overrepresented because Austin isn't the South or a big Northern city that blacks fled to during Jim Crow, but 8% is plenty. Why does every city need to be dominated by black people?

It's also 68% white-non-Hispanic compared to 78% of the nation. Should Austin import whites so it can be more in balance? And 35% Hispanic vs 17% for the nation. Should half of them be deported?

[rynetwo]

As in its liberal cousin hubs, like Berkeley and San Francisco, I feel a hypervisible invisibility in Austin. Like people are happy to see me because it means that they are not racist, because, look, there is a real, live black woman here, too, and it’s so great that she didn’t have to come in the back or that she’s enjoying a fine meal, too

Seems like she is standing in her own way if she really believes this...

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Austin isn't Hawaii where black people are actually rare. She probably sees things the way she does because of where she hangs out-- in places where blacks generally choose not to. She could come to Houston and find similar places. Heck, she can come to a very black city like Houston, and find an office with zero black men.

8% of Austin is black, compared to 13% of the whole nation. Blacks aren't overrepresented because Austin isn't the South or a big Northern city that blacks fled to during Jim Crow, but 8% is plenty. Why does every city need to be dominated by black people?

It's also 68% white-non-Hispanic compared to 78% of the nation. Should Austin import whites so it can be more in balance? And 35% Hispanic vs 17% for the nation. Should half of them be deported?

Houston is a "very black city" at what, about 20%? Mmkay then. I guess that means Dallas is too? Both places are Hispanic as the largest single group.
Look at Atlanta, DC, Chicago, and several smaller towns in East Texas for black cities.

[RogerMurdock]

I don't get it. Does she want us to care if she's black? Or does she want to be "invisible." Would she be happier if we all stared at her when she walked into a building?

[Austin97]

sounds like she would like to talk about black-woman issues with her groups of friends, but they just want to smile and be shallow. Maybe she doesnt realize it but people dont want to hear about conservative issues either when they are out.

Very few of my friends like to talk politics or any kind of serious issues. Thats just the way people are here. In washington DC it is probably totally different.