Scranton race relations

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Wilkes-Barre isn't any more "diverse" than Scranton....actually probably less so. Wilkes-Barre does have the area's largest black population, but there doesn't seem to be a major hispanic population in W-B.

Wilkes-Barre also has a larger proportion of Asian residents than Scranton does.

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Actually, I think an alien ship DID land on Courthouse Square...it came from the planet Corrupto.

i grew up here and was convinced as a child that a lot of the adults around me WERE aliens

[W-B proud]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Wilkes-Barre isn't any more "diverse" than Scranton....actually probably less so. Wilkes-Barre does have the area's largest black population, but there doesn't seem to be a major hispanic population in W-B.

Actually, they just did a story in the sunday paper of the hispanic population breakdown of the region's cities and counties, and percentage wise, Scranton had the smallest hispanic population of the three major cities in NEPA with Hazleton being the overwhelmingly, dominant capital of the hispanic growth, W-B in 2nd (but barely nosing out Scranton), and Scranton being 3rd. Wilkes-Barre is pretty diverse. My neighborhood seems to be an even mix of white, black, and hispanic residents from what I have seen, and my neighborhood (northend) has always been a traditionally white neighborhood up until about 15 years ago when it started to become more diverse

[Magritte25]

Originally Posted by W-B proud

Actually, they just did a story in the sunday paper of the hispanic population breakdown of the region's cities and counties, and percentage wise, Scranton had the smallest hispanic population of the three major cities in NEPA with Hazleton being the overwhelmingly, dominant capital of the hispanic growth, W-B in 2nd (but barely nosing out Scranton), and Scranton being 3rd. Wilkes-Barre is pretty diverse. My neighborhood seems to be an even mix of white, black, and hispanic residents from what I have seen, and my neighborhood (northend) has always been a traditionally white neighborhood up until about 15 years ago when it started to become more diverse

What he said. Except I live in the heights, not north end.

[NYRangers 2008]

Originally Posted by go phillies

No, it appears the data from the wiki page is accurate, its backed up by an article from the Scranton Times in a series highlighting the local census figures:
Scranton's population decline bottoming out; growth led by minority population - The Times-Tribune

According to the data, about 12,000 residents of Scranton are non-white....that is not "whiteville" by NEPA standards. Maybe it is if you're coming from Harlem or Philly, but not around here, considering that when I was a kid, even in the city of Scranton, seeing a dark-skinned person walking down the street was almost as rare as seeing an alien ship land on courthouse square.

I'm seeing more black people here than 10 years ago. I wouldn't call Scranton "whiteville", even though we are still a big majority. I believe that Scranton's population is bottoming out and any little population growth is from minorities.

[W-B proud]

Originally Posted by NYRangers 2008

I'm seeing more black people here than 10 years ago. I wouldn't call Scranton "whiteville", even though we are still a big majority. I believe that Scranton's population is bottoming out and any little population growth is from minorities.

Yeah, that seems to be the trend throughout NEPA and probably the Lehigh Valley also.

[bloominscranton]

Originally Posted by go phillies

Actually, I think an alien ship DID land on Courthouse Square...it came from the planet Corrupto.

Priceless...simply priceless...

[SteelCityRising]

In my opinion Wilkes-Barre seems to be the most well-intergrated city in terms of race relations in the metro area. We all know the hostilities that have been occurring in Hazleton between the newbie Hispanics and the native (largely uneducated) whites, and Scranton has also seemed to have a LOT more tension on these lines than Wilkes-Barre.

A "post-racial" society can happen. In Northern Virginia for as much as I despised certain facets of the area---the incessant sprawl, obnoxious cost-of-living, atrocious congestion, etc.---I do miss the racial and sociocultural integration. I was a minority as a Caucasian male in my former Reston neighborhood, and that didn't bother me in the least. Guess what? For as "diverse" as our suburb of 65,000 was we only had one homicide in the year-and-a-half that I lived there (a domestic violence issue between two CAUCASIANS). I loved all of the ethnic dining options.

Now I'm in Pittsburgh, which is a "zebra" city (nearly entirely white or black with few Hispanics, Asians, or Native Americans). This city is highly segregated, which is a shame to me. Most of our blacks in the city are uneducated and poor and live in pockets of the city that are derelict. Most whites have latent racism and will not venture into predominantly black neighborhoods for any reason. Our store is located in a black neighborhood that is now transitioning to becoming more mixed-race; however, we still answer the phones as saying "Thank you for calling ______ on Penn Avenue" instead of "Thank you for calling ______ in East Liberty" because many whites hear the name of the neighborhood and immediately decide to NOT patronize us. I live in the only predominantly Caucasian neighborhood in a majority-African-American zip code (15219). When I first moved here and applied for a players' club card at the city's casino the clerk welcomed me to the city initially and then told me to move as fast as I could because there were "no good parts of 15219" (mind you part of our now-thriving Downtown is also in this zip code, but I digress).

I don't really think we'll ever see a fully integrated society, at least not here in America. There are too many "old-timer" Caucasians, especially in behind-the-times pockets like Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, who can't accept the fact that whites will one day no longer be the predominant racial group here. Instead of celebrating the metro area's modest population growth for the first decade in many we have people lamenting that it is almost entirely fueled by minorities. Scranton's population nosedive has finally bottomed out, much to the chagrin of the uneducated "Doomers" who proclaimed at council meetings that the city had 68,000 residents (I'm still awaiting their source). We need to be THANKFUL that people are going to move back into this declining area to help revitalize it instead of irked that instead of being "The O'Haras" they'll be "The Rodriguezes".

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

In my opinion Wilkes-Barre seems to be the most well-intergrated city in terms of race relations in the metro area. We all know the hostilities that have been occurring in Hazleton between the newbie Hispanics and the native (largely uneducated) whites, and Scranton has also seemed to have a LOT more tension on these lines than Wilkes-Barre.

A "post-racial" society can happen. In Northern Virginia for as much as I despised certain facets of the area---the incessant sprawl, obnoxious cost-of-living, atrocious congestion, etc.---I do miss the racial and sociocultural integration. I was a minority as a Caucasian male in my former Reston neighborhood, and that didn't bother me in the least. Guess what? For as "diverse" as our suburb of 65,000 was we only had one homicide in the year-and-a-half that I lived there (a domestic violence issue between two CAUCASIANS). I loved all of the ethnic dining options.

Now I'm in Pittsburgh, which is a "zebra" city (nearly entirely white or black with few Hispanics, Asians, or Native Americans). This city is highly segregated, which is a shame to me. Most of our blacks in the city are uneducated and poor and live in pockets of the city that are derelict. Most whites have latent racism and will not venture into predominantly black neighborhoods for any reason. Our store is located in a black neighborhood that is now transitioning to becoming more mixed-race; however, we still answer the phones as saying "Thank you for calling ______ on Penn Avenue" instead of "Thank you for calling ______ in East Liberty" because many whites hear the name of the neighborhood and immediately decide to NOT patronize us. I live in the only predominantly Caucasian neighborhood in a majority-African-American zip code (15219). When I first moved here and applied for a players' club card at the city's casino the clerk welcomed me to the city initially and then told me to move as fast as I could because there were "no good parts of 15219" (mind you part of our now-thriving Downtown is also in this zip code, but I digress).

I don't really think we'll ever see a fully integrated society, at least not here in America. There are too many "old-timer" Caucasians, especially in behind-the-times pockets like Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, who can't accept the fact that whites will one day no longer be the predominant racial group here. Instead of celebrating the metro area's modest population growth for the first decade in many we have people lamenting that it is almost entirely fueled by minorities. Scranton's population nosedive has finally bottomed out, much to the chagrin of the uneducated "Doomers" who proclaimed at council meetings that the city had 68,000 residents (I'm still awaiting their source). We need to be THANKFUL that people are going to move back into this declining area to help revitalize it instead of irked that instead of being "The O'Haras" they'll be "The Rodriguezes".

PAUL--IT'S PA---there are many well integrated neighborhoods down south where one would least expect them