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Places that haven't been mentioned in the past 10 pages that I'd like to bring up:
Saginaw, MI (pop 50k): ~50% black
Muskegon, MI (pop 40k): ~35% black
Southfield, MI (Detroit suburb of 70k): ~70% black
Pontiac, MI (Detroit satellite city of 60k): ~50% black
In terms of the bolded city, it also has an adjacent small city, Muskegon Heights that is 75% black out of just under 11,000 people as well.
Benton Harbor MI is about 84% black out of just under 10,000. Albion MI is about 30% black out of a little over 8000. Jackson MI is 20% out of just under 33,000.
Michigan has quite a few smaller cities with above average to very high black percentages. Some small towns as well.
It's "Sagnasty"... it's more well known to people in the public than many might think. Flint is well known for various reasons including the water crisis, Saginaw is basically in the same area as Flint. Saginaw and Flint have many transplants particularly black that have moved to growing areas of the country in the Sunbelt like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte so when I mention them to other people in those cities surprisingly they usually know someone that has moved from there.
Yes, the schools in both cities along with Bay City and Midland schools used to play in the Saginaw Valley Conference back in the day. So, you would have city schools like Flint Northern(which was essentially an all black HS and they had Mateen Cleaves and Antonio Smith(went to MSU later) when I was going to college in the state) against say Saginaw High(aka "The High") or Flint Northwestern against Saginaw Arthur Hill, among others. I believe they share some media outlets as well.
Anecdotally I'd say a solid 70% of youths in Brockton are black, the public schools are about 63% black. The city is one of the blackest large cities in the Northeast.
But because the black population is mainly lower middle class and has MORE THAN TRIPLED in the past 20 years. Most people holding positions of power are white. The turnovers been so fast and people often have one foot in Boston or some Island and one foot in Brockton. Thats changing with things like Brockton Magazine, Black Owned Brockton and others that promote black culture within Brockton.
While folks get along in Brockton there is often an ethnic splintering of the black vote. The city's black population isn't as mature as Boston's and isn't as organized.
Brockton and adjacent Randolph MA have over 60,000 black people combined.
What is interesting is that Brockton is/was known more for its HS Football program instead of its Basketball. In fact, I can remember when they were ranked #1 in the country. So, maybe it is changing in that regard too.
What is interesting is that Brockton is/was known more for its HS Football program instead of its Basketball. In fact, I can remember when they were ranked #1 in the country. So, maybe it is changing in that regard too.
Brockton does have some good players (the last guy there just finished playing at Nevada) but in New England, basketball players get "plucked" and put into the local boarding schools. St. Thomas Moore, Deerfield Academy, Tilton Academy, Milton Academy, Cushing Academy, Lawrence Academy, Tabor Academy, Governors Academy, Masters School, St. Andrews, Brewster Academy, Thayer Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon School, etc etc the NEPSAC has 128 schools. Talented players don't play in public school. Even the man i linked to Nisre Zouzoua-hes from Brockton but played HS basketball at Boston Trinity Academy in Hyde Park
Also as Cape Verdeans and Haitians have become more common their Football program has declined. Also, MA doesn't allow for national schedules at HS anymore and they used to-It was part of Educational reform in 1993. Athletics at the public school level in MA are not a priority.
Everett has replaced Brockton as the top football school in MA with several College and 2/3 NFL players.
Springfield has also surpassed Brockton. Pop Watson III won the Massachusetts Division 3 State Title as a freshman QB last year. He has many major offers including Tennessee, Pitt, Arizona, BC, Michigan and Oregon
Brockton does have some good players (the last guy there just finished playing at Nevada) but in New England, basketball players get "plucked" and put into the local boarding schools. St. Thomas Moore, Deerfield Academy, Tilton Academy, Milton Academy, Cushing Academy, Lawrence Academy, Tabor Academy, Governors Academy, Masters School, St. Andrews, Brewster Academy, Thayer Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon School, etc etc the NEPSAC has 128 schools. Talented players don't play in public school. Even the man i linked to Nisre Zouzoua-hes from Brockton but played HS basketball at Boston Trinity Academy in Hyde Park
Also as Cape Verdeans and Haitians have become more common their Football program has declined. Also, MA doesn't allow for national schedules at HS anymore and they used to-It was part of Educational reform in 1993. Athletics at the public school level in MA are not a priority.
Everett has replaced Brockton as the top football school in MA with several College and 2/3 NFL players.
Springfield has also surpassed Brockton. Pop Watson III won the Massachusetts Division 3 State Title as a freshman QB last year. He has many major offers including Tennessee, Pitt, Arizona, BC, Michigan and Oregon
And, really ,not all that different than Black Americans due to how long these groups have been in America and assimilation, and extreme levels of residential density/proximity/intermixing(intermarriage).
So many people in Boston are "part this and part that." You're not going to necessarily know who is who and I've met black people in Boston that don't even know if they're West Indian or not-seriously.
There are differences but ultimately I would just say the Boston black culture is very mixed and very urban. ITs not as though Haitian or Trinidadian people are in this cultural silo apart from African American, its couldn't possibly work like that just for a myriad of reasons. And it's not as though African Americans in Boston have the same culture as those elsewhere. I guess you would have to be there to understand.
It's an environment where anyone can find their people but it's more of a shared black space. It's not quite as heterogeneous as New York can be where you really get a stronger sense of the cultural contributions of everyone. And a lot of that is just due to smaller numbers.
Cape Verdeans and Jamaicans, in particular, have been in the US for very long (especially Cape Verdeans, 150+ years) I have some in my family. Folks like Michael Beach and Pooch Hall are Cape Verdean but people don't automatically think of them as such.
Haitians and Dominicans are more noticeable but then again many Haitian who don't speak Creole and arent from Haiti. Less so with Dominicans who seem likely to have been to the DR.
What Haitians from my neighborhood are like in reality (this is shot literally 3 minutes from my childhood home). Would we know this guy is Haitian or African American just base off how he presents? Unlikely.
another Haitian state representative we had. NO is she really operating in a very different cultural space than African Americans in Boston? No. Shes speaking to a room full of black people probably of various ethnicites. (And white people). This is a Haitian with a whole Boston accent.
Obviously, this varies based on geography but I agree that differences between different black ethnic groups in the US aren't as large as people say there are. Not to ignore that there are certain differences, but those differences are generally minimal for *US born* folks and relationships between AAs and non AA black Americans are incredibly common IMO. Like you said, there is a long history of Caribbean (particularly English speaking) and Cabo Verdean immigration to the States, that predates the modern era of immigration (post Civil Rights Era). Black immigrants tend to assimilate very quickly (within one to two generations) compared to other immigrants in my opinion. I think that language, race, and similar histories plays a role for this (most black immigrants are English speaking, similar religion to black Americans, similar history of chattel slavery/discrimination in home countries).
In terms of a small city that may surprise some may be Williamsport PA, which is a little over 14% out of about 28000, but currently has a mayor that is black: https://www.cityofwilliamsport.org/g.../mayors-office
...This is a Haitian with a whole Boston accent...
i think the whole foreigners with a boston accent thing is a survival technique. i used to talk differently depending on if i was in filenes vs. in porta classica.
Quote:
I spoke Taishanese, a country dialect from southern China, like a Chinese peasant girl. But I wasn’t. I was a city street urchin from Boston, United States of America. Don’t let my face mislead you. A Boston accent crept into my English, and into my Taishanese, too. I spoke Chinese with a Boston accent. I spoke a country dialect from the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong, China and also the Boston English I had learned in American School.
i think the whole foreigners with a boston accent thing is a survival technique. i used to talk differently depending on if i was in filenes vs. in porta classica. https://universalhub.com/2021/growing-old-chinatown
Naw idk about that. Too many Cape Verdeans have stronger accents than white people and black Americans from Boston. I don't agree with that, most Haitian don't have an accent really in Boston. Linda Dorcena Forry never spoke with a Boston accent, there's probably zero percent chance MSF is faking one here in what looks to be the Harriet Tubman House.
How would you need a Boston accent for survival if most Bostonians don't even have one? If anything she's just an older Bostonian and many of them have accent regardless of background. I've never noticed any benefit in the professional world of having a Boston accent.
I read the article you shared earlier today... The author said she got a Boston accent organically-
not that she was adapting it “for survival” lol. She's-like I said- is just an old Bostonian. But aren't you from Cambridge and Somervillle?, do folks have Boston accents in Cambridge?
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