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Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia are more blue-collar whereas Atlanta and DC in particular are much more white-collar; you DEFINITELY have to have the degrees to move up in DC. It can probably go either way in Houston.
Also, what I was trynna say is it seems that the gays here are more integrated with everyone else instead of having their own district, stores, etc. like people say Atlanta does.
I see what you're saying, but gays don't have to be integrated in Atlanta. They have already TAKEN OVER Atlanta...haha! For that reason, I think Atlanta is by far still a way better city to most black gays than Houston or anywhere else.
Oh Lord. Not this again. Like I said, I know at least 20 other black professionals here in Dallas off the top of my head that love it here, and who aren't having any of the problems the 2 or 3 people interviewed in that article who probably didn't even know their way around DFW well yet claimed they were having.
Last edited by NoClueWho; 03-22-2015 at 02:35 PM..
Nowadays I wouldn't even say Houston isn't on the same level as Atlanta. If one looks at things like average income, education, and poverty, they'll see that these two cities are closer in "black value" than most are willing to admit; namely those who have little to no experience with Houston.
If all you're looking at are discrete categories like that, then places like Salt Lake City would top the list but obviously there's more to it than that.
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Atlanta largely benefits from having a larger black population, but greater quantity does not equal greater quality. You have more of the good but you also have more of the bad as well. The problems and attitudes that plague the black community are as visible there as anywhere else, if not more so.
Same goes for DC and NYC; not sure why Atlanta is being singled out here.
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Sure, Atlanta is a hub for black entertainment and consumerism, but what is really being done in that city that is benefiting Black America as a whole? In DC you atleast have blacks working on issues that impact the entire nation. In my opinion that puts it in the top tier alone, with Atlanta and Houston in the second.
You're kidding right? You're selling Atlanta short here big time. Not only is it the capital of the state with the largest Black population in America, it is also home to major installations like the CDC and a slew of Southern regional federal government offices that have significant impact on the day-to-day lives of Blacks (and others) in the South, the region of the country we are most concentrated. Of course, there's Atlanta's historic status as a focal point for civil rights and Black empowerment which stretches all the way back to the days of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington and today, a plethora of social justice, non-profit, and humanitarian organizations are headquartered in Atlanta such as the King Center, the Carter Center, the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, the Task Force for Global Health, CARE USA, the Lowery Institute, the Andrew Young Foundation, etc. This is on top of having the largest concentration of HBCUs in the nation, having an extremely large Black media presence, the entertainment industry in all of its facets, major Black cultural events that attract Blacks from all over, very high rates of home ownership and entrepreneurship, longstanding Black local political leadership, etc. Furthermore, I think the fact that so many Blacks are doing relatively well in Atlanta in itself benefits Black America as a whole.
Forbes gets something right every now and then, and I think this was one of them:
At the top of our list is Atlanta, long hailed as the unofficial capital of black America. The city, which in the 1960s advertised itself as “the city too busy to hate,” has long lured ambitious African-Americans. With its well-established religious and educational institutions, notably Spelman and Morehouse, which are ranked first and third, respectively, by US News among the nation’s historically black colleges, the area has arguably the strongest infrastructure for African-American advancement in the country. The region’s strong music and art scene has also made it an “epicenter for black glitterati” and culture.
The superlatives extend well beyond glamour to the basics of everyday life. Some 46.9% the metro area’s black population owned their own homes as of 2013, well above the 38% major metro average for African-Americans. Atlanta’s African-Americans have a median household income of $41,800, also considerably above the major metro average, while their rate of self-employment, 17.1%, is second only to New Orleans.
FWIW, Houston ranked 12th in this study. It obviously does quite well for itself with respect to African Americans, but no, it's not up there with Atlanta, DC, and NYC.
The one major area I'd like to see Atlanta improve in is attracting more large-scale manufacturing jobs which also play an important role in opening up a path to the middle class, particularly for those without college degrees. This used to be the case with the Ford and GM plants, but we all know what happened with American automakers over the past decade or two.
But then you have articles like this which seem to paint a completely different, more positive picture: The New Black South
Thank you, Mutiny!!! There are plenty of black people you could interview who don't like Atlanta and who would trash it for many reasons. Doesn't mean it's a bad city for black professionals, though. I guess it all depends on who you ask.
Here's another list to consider. Military cities make a strong showing here which somewhat skews the results, but the data included in the table at the bottom is quite informative: Best Places for Black-Owned Businesses - NerdWallet
Location: SF Bay Area, aka, Liberal Mecca/wherever DoD sends me to
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Every single forum I go, I always see threads similar as this one. Meh. I don't get the obsession of black Americans with making these sorts of threads in every single general forum.
Oh Lord. Not this again. Like I said, I know at least 20 other black professionals here in Dallas off the top of my head that love it here, and who aren't having any of the problems the 2 or 3 people interviewed in that article who probably didn't even know their way around DFW well yet claimed they were having.
I could see where the article is coming from. Even in Washington, DC or "Chocolate City," I think it can be hard finding Black professionals in the city. If that's the case in DC, I could definitely see how that might be the case in Dallas.
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