Where do Affluent Black Families live in MA? (Boston, Cambridge: for sale, crime)

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

I do often wonder the same. Why pay for an upper tier school district only to the send your child to a private school with potentially unqualified performance data?

In my relatively white sphere, it was almost always in issue of tradition and not necessarily rational behavior. The Asian/European MDs in town happily sent their children to the very good public schools. William attended St. John’s because his father did (also, girls are distracting). The outliers were as you you state ... started in private schools within a poor performing district (e.g., Worcester), then the family moves to a better performing district (e.g., Shrewsbury) ... older brother finishes out last 3 years at St. John’s and younger siblings attend Shrewsbury High because, well, why pay taxes AND tuition when your district is elite within a national context.

Tradition and depending on the school-control/leeway. Often time private school parents will take trips or miss school for athletics. They also have considerable sway over the teachers and ongoings of the school. SO it is just an extra service they pay for. Good networking too and higher caliber (and more entertaining) athletics (depending on the school).

As one of many black kids in Hyde Park that did not attend BPS I definitely came across many black students from Milton, Stoughton, and Randolph (as well as Boston) in the various private schools in our sphere. We had many joint events and even regional conferences for black children in a private school in New England. People were in the two Jack and Jill chapters and then those people had friends and it went on from there. It might not be a stretch to say most of the black elite in Metro Boston uses private schools.

I did know of four black girls from Lexington, Danvers, Nahant [by way of Paterson NJ] and Andover and one black boy from Hopkinton [by way of Philly]...their parents sent them to private schools because they offered more diversity than their local schools. Two black students who were friends of mine at Roxbury Latin were from Bellingham and Foxboro, prior to joining my school they attended private schools in Providence. One African American boy in my class moved to Canton from Prince Georges County, Maryland at age 7. Both he and his sister attended private school once they reached middle school.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Points for Newton:

https://www.baystatebanner.com/2021/...rles-anderson/

The Board of Directors of The Dimock Center has selected Charles Anderson, MD, MPH, MBA of Newton, MA as the new president and CEO of the 159-year-old organization.

He is originally from Buffalo, NY.

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

It’s a fair critique. There are a handful of users on here, past and present, who have strong political grievances and view every legitimate racial inquiry as a personal attack on their identity. They are seemingly not interested in engaging critical discussion or choosing the appropriate channels to do so.

For these handful of posters, yes I do seek to strong rebuke or discredit their use of this sub forum to spread what I view is deeply authoritarian/right-wing white nationalist behavior ... enjoying their monolithic white insular community while actively discrediting posters who desire a *sliver* of racial and economic sameness. It very much is “I got mine, f’ you” behavior and to me that is very illiberal thinking.

I’m not going to claim any ethical high ground here because I can’t. I’m applying pitchforks to perceived pitchforks ... hopefully we don’t burn down the whole town in the process.

I'm not here to claim an ethical high ground. Yes, I think it's appropriate to comment on any bigoted remarks from extremists on the right OR the left. Depending on the geographic location of the forum will determine which extreme is most prevalent. That said, I come here to discuss ideas and get and share information, not lecture or moralize. One doesn't always have to be right and some things are best ignored. And reading a few posts from a person doesn't mean I know everything about their beliefs nor do I have any power or desire to change their beliefs.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Milton is definitely not just a white flight town. George Bush sr was born in Milton and grew up there. Lots of non Catholics from Milton who go way back.

Ah yes, the birth of a WASP in 1924 doesn't really correlate to Milton today.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

in one ear and out the other.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/u...hborhoods.html

"Even among white and black families with similar incomes, white families are much more likely to live in good neighborhoods — with high-quality schools, day-care options, parks, playgrounds and transportation options. The study comes to this conclusion by mining census data and uncovering a striking pattern: White (and Asian-American) middle-income families tend to live in middle-income neighborhoods. Black middle-income families tend to live in distinctly lower-income ones.

Most strikingly, the typical middle-income black family lives in a neighborhood with lower incomes than the typical low-income white family.

Consider these numbers: A typical black child living in a household with $100,000 in annual income lives in a neighborhood with a median income of $54,400"

The gaps are largest across much of the Northeast and Midwest.The two metropolitan areas where black and white children of similar family incomes grow up in the most economically different neighborhoods are Milwaukee and Newark. In both, a typical white family with $50,000 in annual income lives in a neighborhood with a median income 1.8 times larger than a typical black family making $50,000.


Not far behind those two areas are: Gary, Ind.; Bridgeport and Hartford, Conn.; Buffalo; Albany; Chicago; and Philadelphia. Among the 100 largest metro areas, the 25 with the largest gaps also include Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, New York and Baltimore."

but- by all means, ill defer your understanding of the black middle class and how we navigate the world.

Surely you have some insights on the majors of Black adults in Bloomfield Connecticut you'd like to share.

The OP is upper income, not middle income. They want a town that has black white collar professionals as role models for their children. $100k in the Boston suburbs is middle income. The median income in the Boston metro is now about $90k.

[Lampert]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

I do often wonder the same. Why pay for an upper tier school district only to the send your child to a private school with potentially unqualified performance data?

Aren't a lot of these schools religious? Doesn't this also play a role?

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by robr2

Ah yes, the birth of a WASP in 1924 doesn't really correlate to Milton today.

I grew up in Milton, my parents still live there and I have friends there. I think I'm kind of in the know as far as Milton is concerned. But listen to people who don't live there and never have (not saying you specifically)

People choosing top tier towns and then sending their kids to private school is nothing new. I don't quite get it either, almost feels like they're taking up Space in the town from a family that would truly like to live there and use the school system. On the south shore it's pretty coming for families in Hingham, Duxbury and cohasset to send their kids to Thayer, tabor, Milton acad etc.

[simplexsimon]

Just one more data point for OP: a black executive I know who makes over $500k lives in Milton.

Good luck in your search!

[ben young]

$100,000 income living in a $54,000 neighborhood. Folks don't always chase the income when looking for a place to live ,but follow friends ,family people that have a common interest pvt schools. Come into play. .

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by BostonBornMassMade

But you're literally disregarding the 35% that have college degrees. And the fact that half of all households make more than the median income. Black people aren't expecting All black professionals. Just a community where there are some within a quick drive. Our standards for these type of things unfortunately arent as high and were very accustomed to living in more socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods-even in the blackest of regions.

You cant be buddy-buddy with all of Bloomfield or Randolph. You only need a crew of like 4-6 people, and they each need like 3 people and you've got yourself enough of a social circle.l It's not that deep as people are making it seem because white people have more options and look at numbers differently.

At the end of the day, there a big difference between a town that visibly has black people and has 3-400 black professional families (Stoughton or Dedham) and a town that doesn't have a visible black population at all and has 10-20 black professional families (Boxford or Rowley) ...

That's interesting and it does make sense. In a sense it's a bit of a middle. I'm not a person of color but I have heard from some that say they don't want to be the only one at work. At the same point just because someone is kinda like you doesn't mean you want to hang out or help them. Some guy tried hitting me up for gas money because he said I look Italian and mentioned working for versace ?!? Yeah that's part of me but that doesn't mean I just help someone out because of it.

The other part is the blurring of the lines of where people live and work. There's telecommutting but in some respects there can be the opposite. Gas is still pretty cheap and frankly highways can take people to places. A fair amount of the retirees I know in western mass either have a local government pension or one from Monsanto. They also invested in second homes, usually on the cape. This is why income gets iffy when people talk about it. You can't simply just look at jobs and say

"Well that's alot of jobs so they have money"

or

"Well there's no jobs there so they are broke".

Higher education is nice of course and yes there are strong arguments to be made for higher education and experience does mean higher wages. But at the same point wages are still subject to payroll taxes and not long term capital gains. The qualifications for investing is simply having the money vs having a job which has its own requirements. If you pay someone 100K either from a one year job or a lump sum in say a stock portfolio it just makes more sense for taxes for the portfolio. I rather have the efforts of 3% of 100 people than 100% of the efforts of 3 people. It's more diversified

I might have citied this study but basically what's really holding some back is the lack of home ownership. I'm not saying that each individual should have a house no matter what. But I'd argue that if each family (including extended) had a house that would be optimal. the benefits would be as follows:

- more control over rent increases (i.e. prop 2 1/2)
- sharing more of the mortgage
- buying a two family and renting out one side
- building equity
- access to a home equity loan
- tax credits.

The study basically shows that many people count their "stuff" as assets when it really isn't. Cars drop in price and have to be maintained and any personal equipment. You can't really build wealth on $300 pokemon cards and sports memorabilia. The glorification of easy money just sets people up for failure. this is why some get attracted to deal drugs and some get obsessed with sports as a way out. the average NFL career is 3.5 years (3rd stringers get cut after preseason). Learning about finance, investing and taxes will give anyone an advantage in the long run. There are some rather influential people of color in Springfield that are starting to talk about this.


https://prosperitynow.org/sites/defa...ero_wealth.pdf