Why do African-Americans enjoy living in Colorado?

[skins_fan82]

Originally Posted by TCHP

Ahhh, then you missed the thread from the kid who dropped out of high school, was on anti-depression meds, wanted to move out here, get on welfare, live in a $200 apartment, and then open a marijuana grow using state funding.

Good god. And I know that actually happened, cuz you can't make that kinda stuff up LOL.

I started to type a multi-paragraph rant about the OP, but then realized he had to be trolling and probably hasn't responded to this thread in years...so I just deleted it. So much stupid

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Multiple Choice:
1. Plot for a new Cheech and Chong movie?
2. The American Dream has sure changed, eh?
3. This is what we get for spanking our kids?
4. Thank God he's only a distant cousin?

Now that's funny!

[Colorado Rambler]

I happened to encounter a young African American man in Cortez today (very few African Americans live here), and we got to talking together outside the local City Market as we both were waiting on rides. He told me that he'd come out here from California and was looking for work that would "give me a paystub, no under the table." He had yet to find such a job, so he was staying in the local homeless shelter in hopes of finding full time employment which would allow him to rent a place to live and start a new life all over again in Colorado. Dang! Because while Denver continues to boom, the Four Corners region seems to be slipping into a downward spiral thanks to the hit the oil and gas industry is taking from falling petroleum prices. Kinder-Morgan alone has laid off 200 of its employees in this area. That leaves Cortez with an economy largely based on tourism and agriculture. Cortez is no Telluride or Durango. We get no snow bunnies here. Our tourists come in the summer to clamber around the ruins at Mesa Verde, startling lizards underfoot and gazing up at the hawks riding the thermals on a hot morning in July. Feburary is not the month that allows for a show casing of Cortez's many charms, and it sure ain't a good time to hit this area to look for work. I couldn't help but ask this young man why on earth he had picked Cortez to be his new home. "It's so beautiful here," he said. "I love the mesas and the San Juan Mountains. Every day I am amazed all over again." I was speechless. He could have been me when I made my first youthful escape from the Front Range and topped the summit of Wolf Creek for the very first time.

Perhaps African-Americans live here because they are stunned by Colorado's beauty? Mr. Black obviously wasn't much impressed with Denver, but I sensed that my new friend has lost his heart and was already hopelessly in love. "I guess you have to be willing to pay the price of admission here," he said. "I'm willing to do that." Maybe if Mr. Black ever returns to this thread he'll read that young man's reply to his question.

PS I'm streaming jazz from KUVO as I write this. What marvelous times we live in that allow us to partipate in the culture of a major urban area even as we are lost somewhere out near Hovenweep, smell the crisp sweet smell of sage as we gaze off at the mesas, lost a second time all over again, mere vagabonds for beauty.

[PBL]

Originally Posted by denverian

You've summed it up pretty well. I don't know where the OP lives, but I live in Stapleton, right next to probably the largest concentration of black people in Colorado. I'm white, my partner is black and our children are biracial, so I have a little insight My partner is a college-educated, professional black man with a 6 figure income. He doesn't want to live around the "drama" of his family, most of whom are far from being professional, college-educated people. But he's well-connected with several professional black men in our neighborhood, as well as white, Asian, etc. And I'm similar in that most of my family is poor and not college educated or professional. I chose a different path in life and feel comfortable living around doctors, lawyers, etc., no matter what their race. The OP seems to be more interested in social culture than racial culture.

Great post. I am in an interracial relationship too. We were planning on retiring in Colorado also. I was wondering if you are still enjoying the area that you reside in at this time. TY

[miaj34]

So, I am just checking, since this post is a bit older, if the dynamics of Colorado are still the same. I like the responses to the OP.
I am a divorced Black single mom to what I like to consider my miracle baby who is now 10 years old and he is biracial. I am currently living in Indiana. I go between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne a lot. We have lived in another country where race really wasn't that big of a deal. Coming back home to the states where people pressure you to behave a certain way is very annoying.
I am educated and tend to be self sufficient. I teach my son to be the same. He loves to read, engineering and the only sports I can get him to play is soccer even though he is now showing an interest in Tennis and baseball.
That shouldn't be a big deal. But because my main focus is on education and making sure my child has a broad view of the world, we are always accused of acting white or not wanting to be around my so called "own kind". Really. Its annoying. I just want to be in a place where there are good schools, great opportunities and its safe.
I would love to be some place where the main focus wasn't race. I currently live in a great community with a good school district just north of Indy. But the whole race thing is still prevalent here.

So, is Colorado still a good place for this?

[Mike from back east]

miaj, I think you'll find Colorado a refreshing change from back east, at least that's my observation as a married white male in COLO SPGS for 11 years. YMMV

[Katarina Witt]

^^Ditto, almost! I'm a white married female in Louisville for the past 34 years. Having grown up in Pittsburgh and then living in Champaign, IL for seven years, this place is quite the breath of fresh air re: race relations. Not perfect mind you.

[Mike from back east]

We used to have an Air Force wife who posted in the COLO SPGS forum on a regular basis; a white family. The USAF re-assigned them to Langley AFB near Norfolk, VA, aka the Tidewater area of VA. She wrote me a DM a few years back to say she couldn't wait to get back to COLO as the racism she saw in VA was so off the chart she just hated being there. COLO wasn't on the old migration route from the south to Detroit, Chicago, St Louis and other large rust best cities of the industrial age, so we got little of the migration from south to north.