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Your list is irrelevant to most blacks simply because much of it has nothing to do with the important reason, how do I make a living off of it. First off, Blacks aren't looking for which cities have the best tourist areas, which city has the best buildings, which city has the best media market, etc. Blacks are looking for where they can be sustainable. It does not matter where in the world it could happen. They are just looking for sustainability. The fact that the South is cheaper and the roots and culture is more blatant is why the South attracts many young and old black Americans. It is indenial to disregard the trend that's been going on the last 30 years in how it is basically a reverse great migration going on. You have three Southern States that have around 3 million blacks each and 1 state that has over 2 million. 4 out of the 5 largest states for Black Americans reside in the South. It is that way for a reason. Not because of some slavery thing that happened 150 years ago. Let's change our mindsets, please.
You don't need to lie about teh South. I don't need to lie about NYC or Chicago or wherever. The facts are there is opportunity in the South. It is the reason why many young black professionals have left NYC and Philadelphia to pursue what they believe is a better quality of life in Atlanta and Charlotte. It is a reason why many young Blacks are leaving Los Angeles and the Bay Area for Houston and Dallas. I'm young and black. I don't need to go to NYC to find things to do or to make a living. I know millions of other Blacks throughout this country feel the same way. Contrary to popular belief, NYC is not the greatest utopia for Black Americans. It never was and it never will be.
As a black male, I always thought the South was a bad region for African Americans in regards of interracial relationships. I can imagine how people in the South are in regards to a touchy subject.
I'm just basing off what I've seen in the news regarding that Louisiana case.
[quote=West of Encino;11607227]As a black male, I always thought the South was a bad region for African Americans in regards of interracial relationships. I can imagine how people in the South are in regards to a touchy subject.
I'm just basing off what I've seen in the news regarding that Louisiana case.[/quote]
THAT is not the norm and that is why people, Southerners among them, are making such a big deal about it.
Further, you're going to have a great deal of ignorance in rural towns, but most Black folks migrating back south are not moving to rural country towns. They're going to major metropolises that already have a high amount of transplants and openness, like Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and, a smaller city that's steadily growing, Charlotte.
As a black male, I always thought the South was a bad region for African Americans in regards of interracial relationships. I can imagine how people in the South are in regards to a touchy subject.
It's not nearly as bad as you think it might be. My younger brother was dating a White girl at one point. Nobody in my family thought anything of it. Like we say, "if you like it, I love it." LOL
Quote:
I'm just basing off what I've seen in the news regarding that Louisiana case.
The reason why it was such big news is because it was the exception rather than the norm.
African Americans are moving to the South for various reasons, but in general, it's for the same reasons that ALL human beings move from one place to another--to obtain what they hope will be a better quality of life. Some of them are older people who were born in the South and are just moving back after they retire. They're ready for a slower pace and more relaxed life back around their relatives "down home." Plus, the lower cost of living allows them to do a lot more with their retirement funds.
But a lot of younger blacks from the North might be several generations removed from the South, not as familiar with it, and don't necessarily consider it "home." They move South simply because they become aware of opportunities down there; their's is simply a logical decision to move to southern cities with lower-costs of living, higher quality of housing, better environments to raise families, and so forth.
There are a lot of stereotypical and ignorant viewpoints expressed on this thread about the South. I can tell that some posters on here don't know what the hell they're talking about. They have views of the South based on TV & Movies--Hollywood images basically. Plus, most blacks in places like NY and Philly are the descendants of people who moved North several generations ago, at the height of the Jim Crow era. They were raised with memories of lynchings, oppression, extreme racism, lack of opportunity, etc., that were passed down from their "great-granparents" who migrated--so that's what they associate with the South. I'm unique in that I'm a first generation Philadelphian who was sent down South (GA) for a period during high school. I also spent time in various states when I was in the military. Then I went to college & grad school in different states. So I've been exposed to different places and don't have to rely on stereotypes.
Today, the South is no more racist than the North, so it's B.S. for some to try and portray that. I feel much more comfortable & safer driving through the rural South than in some of the lily-white, rural areas, deep in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana where I've been. Like Malcolm X said, if "the South" is the home of racism, then "the South" is anywhere & everywhere "South of the Canadian border."
Now, I do love the urban nature and culture of the northern cities (Philly, NY, Jersey etc.), but that's just my personal preference and taste. I love the urban feel that exists in the better black neighborhoods in areas of Philly like Mt. Airy, West Oaklane, Wynnefield, etc. I've visited the middle-class neighborhoods of my NY college buddies who were from areas in Queens, NY, Hempstead, Long Island, etc. My own NY relatives are scattered throughout the city in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Harlem--and I've spent time in all of those areas (although all the older ones that I was close to have moved South). I LOVE the urban North.
But honestly, there is NO black area in the Northeast that can compare to the type of affluent, middle-class, black areas in the Atlanta area, suburban Maryland (that's officially the South too), etc. I chose Maryland because it's like a combination of the North and the South, it has elements of both, so that was a good fit for me. Heard good things about the Houston area too, but I can't speak on that since I haven't experienced it for myself. I've spent time in North Carolina and dig it down there too. I could see myself living in the Raleigh area someday when I retire. Most likely though, I'll remain in MD unless there is some compelling reason for me to move further South.
I agree with your posts, as it touched on many of the things that I tried to state in other posts on this topic in terms of stereotypes, history and so forth.
Also, another thing I think people have to realize is that people in the South know that people from other regions of the country are moving there. So, they understand that said people are going to come with a different view of things like interracial couples and possibly bring that with them from say the Northeast or South.
Then, you have to think about the military presence in the South and knowing how more integrated that atmosphere is, it is something the people are used to. For instance, when I was stationed at Fort Gordon GA outside of Augusta, you would see interracial couples and the children that are the product of such. It was no big deal there.
Lastly, to be honest, there have always been "undercover" interracial relationships in the South that the community knew about, but kept quiet. There are towns in VA that have had such families for decades, if not centuries. Charleston and New Orleans have had a Black middle and upper class(or of color, whatever you prefer) that consisted of people of a mixed background for centuries and interestingly I believe the White ancestry was French in both cases(Catholics in N.O. and Huguenots in Charleston). There are other examples. So, that isn't anything new in the South at all.
I am going to say something that I am sure has been said many times before, but that remains a somewhat controversial statement: it seems like the South is a better place for interracial relationships when one of the people is black.
My opinion is most certainly colored by my experience, but my experience has been this: black/__fill-in-the-blank-other-race-or-ethnicity__ relationships and truly integrated neighborhoods seem to be a lot more common in the South than in any other region of the country.
As much as people love to associate segregation with the South, it seems to be just there where blacks are most integrated into the rest of society. The simplest example I can give is that in places I have lived (New York, Boston, Miami*), there are large swaths of middle class areas that are less than 1-3% black. You're just not going to find that outside of Atlanta, Charlotte, or Birmingham, where even "white" areas tend to have a substantial black population. As recently as 2009 I have been in neighborhoods (even very diverse neighborhoods that are mixed Irish/Jewish/Latin/MiddleEastern/Asian/Indian/etc.) in these areas where I have witnesses residents staring at a black peson walking down the street, probably thinking, "what is that person doing in this neighborhood?" Again, that's probably not something that happens much in the South.
Southerners have been living alongside blacks for hundreds of years; non-Southerners largely have not. It is reasonable and perfectly understable that blacks, especially African-Americans, will want to settle/move to a place with historic black presence, and in this country, that place is the South. Not everyone wants to be an interracial dating pioneer and/or the first black family ever on the block in SW Miami or Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
*Footnote: though it is inarguable that Miami is part of the South and that a contingent of the population identifies with being "Southern," the great majority of South Florida's population is either from Latin America/Europe/the Northeast or is from South Florida and born of parents from one of those places. Overall, I wouldn't include Miami as a "Southern" city, culturally speaking.
I am going to say something that I am sure has been said many times before, but that remains a somewhat controversial statement: it seems like the South is a better place for interracial relationships when one of the people is black.
My opinion is most certainly colored by my experience, but my experience has been this: black/__fill-in-the-blank-other-race-or-ethnicity__ relationships and truly integrated neighborhoods seem to be a lot more common in the South than in any other region of the country.
As much as people love to associate segregation with the South, it seems to be just there where blacks are most integrated into the rest of society. The simplest example I can give is that in places I have lived (New York, Boston, Miami*), there are large swaths of middle class areas that are less than 1-3% black. You're just not going to find that outside of Atlanta, Charlotte, or Birmingham, where even "white" areas tend to have a substantial black population. As recently as 2009 I have been in neighborhoods (even very diverse neighborhoods that are mixed Irish/Jewish/Latin/MiddleEastern/Asian/Indian/etc.) in these areas where I have witnesses residents staring at a black peson walking down the street, probably thinking, "what is that person doing in this neighborhood?" Again, that's probably not something that happens much in the South.
Southerners have been living alongside blacks for hundreds of years; non-Southerners largely have not. It is reasonable and perfectly understable that blacks, especially African-Americans, will want to settle/move to a place with historic black presence, and in this country, that place is the South. Not everyone wants to be an interracial dating pioneer and/or the first black family ever on the block in SW Miami or Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
*Footnote: though it is inarguable that Miami is part of the South and that a contingent of the population identifies with being "Southern," the great majority of South Florida's population is either from Latin America/Europe/the Northeast or is from South Florida and born of parents from one of those places. Overall, I wouldn't include Miami as a "Southern" city, culturally speaking.
It goes back to the fact that the Black population is concentrated more in the South. There has never been a time in the US where the national Black population had less than 50% of the population living in the South. So, in turn, the institutions that most benefit Blacks were concentrated in the south(i.e.- colleges, companies, etc.)
Also, Blacks outside of the South for the most part are urban, whereas Blacks live in urban and rural locales in the South. So, that population will be throughout the region. I can only think of maybe a handful of states outside of the South where you might find urban and rural Blacks(Michigan, NY, Illinois, Missouri-slave state btw, Ohio, Indiana and maybe a couple of other states). Even then, if the black folks are rural in those states, they are generally concentrated in a particular parts of those states. For example, from what I know the rural Black folks in NY are mainly in places like Wayne and Orleans Counties in the Rochester metro area and in some rural locations in the counties in the Hudson Valley region of the state. Maybe some on Long Island and some other towns here and there. On top of that, the percentage of the population in those areas vary by the community they live in.
After living in st louis, chicago, durham and charlotte and memphis, I understand that there are more intergrated neighborhoods in the southeast than there are in the midwest. However I believe that people in general have more opportunities for life (such as education, culture, economic and lifestyles) in larger urban cities up north.
I meet blacks under 40 everyday that in noway want to move south due to white conservatism and the love of the urban lifestyle. I personally think that the southeast growth is a trend due to many people wanting to retire close to families and the hype of cities like atlanta and charlottes economy. Many young people that move there aften complain about it being too slow and express issues with white conservatism (black northerners view as racism).
The bottom line is can we deal with segregation of the north with white liberals or intergration of the south with white conservatism or do we prefer the sophisticated urban lifestyle of nyc or the suburban style cities like houston and atlanta. There is no clear cut answer. The individual will have to decide.
The bottom line is can we deal with segregation of the north with white liberals or intergration of the south with white conservatism or do we prefer the sophisticated urban lifestyle of nyc or the suburban style cities like houston and atlanta. There is no clear cut answer. The individual will have to decide.
I'll choose the (non-LA) integration of the west with libertarian and race-neutral whites and other non-blacks, over both of the north and south.
After living in st louis, chicago, durham and charlotte and memphis, I understand that there are more intergrated neighborhoods in the southeast than there are in the midwest. However I believe that people in general have more opportunities for life (such as education, culture, economic and lifestyles) in larger urban cities up north.
I meet blacks under 40 everyday that in noway want to move south due to white conservatism and the love of the urban lifestyle. I personally think that the southeast growth is a trend due to many people wanting to retire close to families and the hype of cities like atlanta and charlottes economy. Many young people that move there aften complain about it being too slow and express issues with white conservatism (black northerners view as racism).
The bottom line is can we deal with segregation of the north with white liberals or intergration of the south with white conservatism or do we prefer the sophisticated urban lifestyle of nyc or the suburban style cities like houston and atlanta. There is no clear cut answer. The individual will have to decide.
You were in St. Louis and Chicago. There are other parts of the Midwest to check out, such as Columbus,OH among other places. And there are some segregated parts of the South too. I am very cynical as to believe race relations in the South are any better than in the North, or any worse. The way I look at it, the difference is that there are more liberals living in the Midwestern states. Not much better than the South. Personally, conservative politics are not my cup of tea. Suburban places are not my thing.
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