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Yes, Florida has the Panhandle and Polk County, but those regions don't comprise a majority of our population, and they are cultural outliers as far as the state is concerned. I can't understand how people want to marginalize South Florida, Orlando, Tampa, and other similar areas when describing Florida - it's sort of like saying that New York is a bucolic red state if you look at it without New York City, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester. It makes absolutely no sense at all. Miami-Dade County has more people than the entire Panhandle, and yet people want to define Florida based on the Panhandle and other northern, marginal regions of the state.
And I also disagree with the categorization of the black community in Florida. As a black person myself, those comments about "being behind" hinge on racist stupidity. Apart from that, the composition of the black community in Florida is absolutely nothing like what you will find in Georgia or Alabama. A very, very large percentage of the blacks in Florida are from the West Indies - in South Florida, a majority of blacks are. Not in any Southern state is this the case; there, blacks are generally descended from long-established families, not recent immigrants from the Caribbean.
Whoa bruh, yall can’t play sides of the fence playboy!!!! I wasn’t marginalizing Florida by using the Panhandle and North Florida as an example; I was merely bringing light to those areas because quite often people in FLA like to hold up places like Southeast Florida or Orlando as the sole representation of their state. While both you and I know full well that just as many people in Florida live in areas like Plant City, Panama City, or even Wacissa as do places like Miami or Orlando!!!! Furthermore you can disagree with my characterization of the black community as well, I was just calling it how I see it. Playboi I’m a 25 y/o old black male myself and I lived in North Miami Beach for almost 2 years so I know very well the distinction between West Indian blacks and us American born or Yanks as they call us down there. But bottom line Florida’s black community consists of mostly dreadlocks, gold teeth and putting rims on used luxury cars and old piece of crap Chevys. There is also allot of that here in Atlanta where I am know, but there are also allot of progressive minded blacks that are making moves and trying to do something other than buy the next biggest sized rims that’s coming out. In Florida if your black and successful your social options are limited to whatever the other races in your area are doing, or slumming it and going to the ghetto hole in the walls. Here in Atlanta you have the ghetto hole in the walls, but you have just as many if not more upscale joints that are all black. Dude, once again, bottom line, Floridas Black community is slow and very southern in the sense that it hasn’t really changed at all for a long, long time. Say what ya want bruh, but that’s why I left Florida for Atlanta!!!!
Yes, Florida has the Panhandle and Polk County, but those regions don't comprise a majority of our population, and they are cultural outliers as far as the state is concerned. I can't understand how people want to marginalize South Florida, Orlando, Tampa, and other similar areas when describing Florida - it's sort of like saying that New York is a bucolic red state if you look at it without New York City, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester. It makes absolutely no sense at all. Miami-Dade County has more people than the entire Panhandle, and yet people want to define Florida based on the Panhandle and other northern, marginal regions of the state.
Those "cultural outliers" have always been there, even before the massive influx of people over the last few decades. Just because they're outnumbered now doesn't mean they should be sidelined and/or dismissed. Most of Florida was like that up until the huge growth started. And by that reasoning, I guess the state of Texas shouldn't be considered southern...massive population explosion from all over the US has transformed the DFW metro, along with Austin and San Antonio and Houston. Those four metros alone constitute almost 17 million people out of a state estimated to be at 24 million, more or less. Does that mean that Texas can't be defined as the South anymore based on East TX or far West TX or the Panhandle region just because they are marginal regions with far less population? Should the larger more populous regions change the rules for the state now, so to speak?
Whoa bruh, yall can’t play sides of the fence playboy!!!! I wasn’t marginalizing Florida by using the Panhandle and North Florida as an example; I was merely bringing light to those areas because quite often people in FLA like to hold up places like Southeast Florida or Orlando as the sole representation of their state. While both you and I know full well that just as many people in Florida live in areas like Plant City, Panama City, or even Wacissa as do places like Miami or Orlando!!!! Furthermore you can disagree with my characterization of the black community as well, I was just calling it how I see it. Playboi I’m a 25 y/o old black male myself and I lived in North Miami Beach for almost 2 years so I know very well the distinction between West Indian blacks and us American born or Yanks as they call us down there. But bottom line Florida’s black community consists of mostly dreadlocks, gold teeth and putting rims on used luxury cars and old piece of crap Chevys. There is also allot of that here in Atlanta where I am know, but there are also allot of progressive minded blacks that are making moves and trying to do something other than buy the next biggest sized rims that’s coming out. In Florida if your black and successful your social options are limited to whatever the other races in your area are doing, or slumming it and going to the ghetto hole in the walls. Here in Atlanta you have the ghetto hole in the walls, but you have just as many if not more upscale joints that are all black. Dude, once again, bottom line, Floridas Black community is slow and very southern in the sense that it hasn’t really changed at all for a long, long time. Say what ya want bruh, but that’s why I left Florida for Atlanta!!!!
This is absolute nonsense. As far as "mostly dreadlocks, gold teeth, putting rims on old piece of crap cars", I suppose that a certain contingent of blacks never do those things in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Boston?
I am "black and successful", and don't at all find my social options stymied in Florida because of that, so speak for yourself. In any event, that doesn't have anything at all to do with whether or not Florida is a Southern state culturally. I have never once in my life been called a "Yank" in Florida. Nobody does that here, except perhaps in some of the northern Panhandle counties. In terms of ancestry, Florida's black community - particularly in South Florida - is simply nothing like the ones in Georgia or Alabama. That's a fact, and I can back it up with Census numbers, not some anecdotal dribble about how "ghetto" Florida's blacks supposedly are.
And actually, no, Florida isn't split 50/50 between rural communities and our coastal cities. A full third of Florida lives in the three SE coastal, decidedly non-Southern counties of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Southwest Florida - where in many areas 85%+ of residents were born in the Midwest - has far more people than the Panhandle and North Central Florida. The same applies to Tampa Bay and Orlando.
Those "cultural outliers" have always been there, even before the massive influx of people over the last few decades. Just because they're outnumbered now doesn't mean they should be sidelined and/or dismissed. Most of Florida was like that up until the huge growth started. And by that reasoning, I guess the state of Texas shouldn't be considered southern...massive population explosion from all over the US has transformed the DFW metro, along with Austin and San Antonio and Houston. Those four metros alone constitute almost 17 million people out of a state estimated to be at 24 million, more or less. Does that mean that Texas can't be defined as the South anymore based on East TX or far West TX or the Panhandle region just because they are marginal regions with far less population? Should the larger more populous regions change the rules for the state now, so to speak?
I disagree partially with the part about those "cultural outliers" having always been there. That's a part of the key difference between Florida and high-growth Southern states such as Texas and North Carolina. First of all, in Texas there are no counties where people born outside of Texas outnumber native-born Texans. There are dozens of such counties in Florida. Take Charlotte County, for example, where according to figures on this very site, 22,617 American-born residents were born in Florida, dwarfed by the 48,369 born in the Northeast and the 38,752 born in the Midwest. Or Palm Beach County, where native-born Floridians (291,602) are very much outnumbered by transplanted Northeasterners (384,405.) And as far as the "always having been there" argument, that really is only applicable to Northern Florida, the part of the state that grew cotton. Florida south of Ocala was largely empty during the Civil War era, and residents in South Florida - where slaves were few - were actually pro-Union during the Civil War (great discussion of this in the book City on the Edge by Portes and Stepick.) It was basically an empty wilderness, and not necessarily one that was culturally uniform with Dixie. After WWII, there was so much immigration to these counties that the culture became non-Southern, and these people passed down the non-Southern culture to their children to such an extent that even a person born and raised in Miami or Naples in the 1970's is not likely to speak with a Southern accent or identify with the cultural South. And this is widespread, not an isolated thing.
I'm not saying those rural counties should be sidelined and/or dismissed. However, they are no longer representative of the vast majority of Floridians, and they have not been for nearly 50 years. The Florida Panhandle has about 7% of the state's population, while South Florida has around one-third. Some 80% of Florida's population is in the peninsula south of Gainesville, and the vast majority of that population is in coastal cities such as Tampa, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, and Naples. It is a no-brainer, in my opinion, as to which part of the state should be given disproportionate weight when discussing "Floridian culture."
So has Texas seen lots of growth? Yes. Is it comparable to Florida, in terms of how this growth has shaped the culture of the state? Not really.
North of Orlando including the panhandle is like the rest of the South. Central Florida (Tampa, Orlando, on over to the space coast) and Southwest Florida are like the midwest. And South Florida (Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami) are like the Northeast. And the Keys are like the Caribbean.
This is absolute nonsense. As far as "mostly dreadlocks, gold teeth, putting rims on old piece of crap cars", I suppose that a certain contingent of blacks never do those things in Los Angeles, Chicago, or Boston?
I am "black and successful", and don't at all find my social options stymied in Florida because of that, so speak for yourself. In any event, that doesn't have anything at all to do with whether or not Florida is a Southern state culturally. I have never once in my life been called a "Yank" in Florida. Nobody does that here, except perhaps in some of the northern Panhandle counties. In terms of ancestry, Florida's black community - particularly in South Florida - is simply nothing like the ones in Georgia or Alabama. That's a fact, and I can back it up with Census numbers, not some anecdotal dribble about how "ghetto" Florida's blacks supposedly are.
And actually, no, Florida isn't split 50/50 between rural communities and our coastal cities. A full third of Florida lives in the three SE coastal, decidedly non-Southern counties of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Southwest Florida - where in many areas 85%+ of residents were born in the Midwest - has far more people than the Panhandle and North Central Florida. The same applies to Tampa Bay and Orlando.
Nonsense!?!? LOL… call it what you will but nobody ANYWHERE else does gold teeth and big rims on old cars like Florida does. And that’s great that you feel unhampered by the social scene in Florida, I on the other hand found the social scene in Florida for blacks severely lacking quite and frankly boring. Miami may be known for nightlife, but as far as blacks go, neither Miami nor anywhere else in Florida can see Atlanta even on a bad day. And you’ve never been called a Yank in Florida??? Where do you live in FLA and do you leave your house??? Yank is a common slang term especially in Miami for an American born black person, when I used to live in NMB I was called that quite often. I also made a number of Haitian and Jamaican friends some of whom I still go visit to this day and they use the term almost endearingly, so am I to assume that I know more about Florida than you and you live there??? And what does ancestry have to do with anything homie???? Here in Atlanta 3/4 of the blacks here are from the Midwest, Cali or the east coast, so ancestry does not have a place in this argument. Bottom line, bruh Florida is southern, I don’t car how yall perceive it, the simple fact your from Florida means you can’t give an unbiased opinion. So I’m going to tell you as a Chicago native who has lived in Florida and other places in the south, Florida is Southern!!! Nothing wrong with it, but it is what it is.
North of Orlando including the panhandle is like the rest of the South. Central Florida (Tampa, Orlando, on over to the space coast) and Southwest Florida are like the midwest. And South Florida (Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami) are like the Northeast. And the Keys are like the Caribbean.
Nonsense!?!? LOL… call it what you will but nobody ANYWHERE else does gold teeth and big rims on old cars like Florida does. And that’s great that you feel unhampered by the social scene in Florida, I on the other hand found the social scene in Florida for blacks severely lacking quite and frankly boring. Miami may be known for nightlife, but as far as blacks go, neither Miami nor anywhere else in Florida can see Atlanta even on a bad day. And you’ve never been called a Yank in Florida??? Where do you live in FLA and do you leave your house??? Yank is a common slang term especially in Miami for an American born black person, when I used to live in NMB I was called that quite often. I also made a number of Haitian and Jamaican friends some of whom I still go visit to this day and they use the term almost endearingly, so am I to assume that I know more about Florida than you and you live there??? And what does ancestry have to do with anything homie???? Here in Atlanta 3/4 of the blacks here are from the Midwest, Cali or the east coast, so ancestry does not have a place in this argument. Bottom line, bruh Florida is southern, I don’t car how yall perceive it, the simple fact your from Florida means you can’t give an unbiased opinion. So I’m going to tell you as a Chicago native who has lived in Florida and other places in the south, Florida is Southern!!! Nothing wrong with it, but it is what it is.
I don't need to live in a majority black city to feel socially accepted, though some African Americans clearly do, just as some Latinos need to live in a Latino-majority city and some whites scrutinize demographic data to find a nearly 99% white suburban enclave. To each his own. I have relatives who have relocated to Atlanta from New Jersey and who love the area, and I have visited many, many times. It's a great place, but it is no utopia for blacks (such a place doesn't exist.) If what exists in Atlanta suburbs like College Park and Adamsville (hell, all of Clayton County) isn't abject black poverty and strife, I'm not quite sure what is.
I was born and raised in Florida, have lived in several locations throughout the state, currently live in Plantation outside of Ft. Lauderdale, and don't need other people to tell me what I have and haven't heard Floridians say. I've never heard the term "Yank" used. My first college roommate was from the West Indies, and he nor his parents never used the term to refer to me, a native-born and raised American.
We're all entitled to our opinions. My original point is that one person's perceptions of how black people in Florida behave has nothing to do with whether or not the state is primarily Southern in culture, and that's all I have to say on that.
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