African Americans living in Short Pump/West End, Ashland/Hanover, Quinton, or Mosely?

[jkang]

We are an Asian American family living in the Rivers Edge ES school district. There are a few, but not many, African American kids attending. I have talked to the kids' parents at school social functions, and most of them live in the Sadler Road area (Dalton Park, Duncan Park, etc).

I will say that we used to live in the Crestview ES district and we loved it there. At the time, Crestview ES was about 40% White, 20% Asian, 20% Black and 20% Hispanic. Not sure about the demographics now, but my understanding from talking to patients in my practice is that the Near West End is pretty diverse like that, with many immigrant families as well. I really miss living in that area, but our current house is so much nicer than the old one!

[am95]

Sorry about your experience.

Skipwith Elementary, for instance, is located in the (near'ish) West End and has a very diverse student body where Blacks make up about 25% of the enrollment: Search for Public Schools - School Detail for Skipwith ELEM. I'm not sure it qualifies as an affluent area, but it is mostly middle-class with some lower income apartments around as well.


Crestview, as mentioned by jkang, seems like a nice area as well and probably along the line of what your looking for.

[usuario]

Any African-Americans want to share their personal experiences? As the OP probably knows, when White posters say "I have African-American friends and they seem happy and therefore experience no problems", it means that they don't have a clue. Sort of like when I as a man tell women that they have nothing to fear in neighborhood X because I've never really felt being in danger of being raped there, nor know of any women who have told me about their rape experience, because clearly women are open to telling all their male friends about when they've been raped.

(last part was sarcasm)

[allamshield]

Originally Posted by snatale1

First, the term "African American" regardless of how PC it's supposed to be is racist. Assuming all Black people are from Africa (yes, that's what an African American is) is racist, or at least ignorant. If somebody called me a Caucasian I'd call them a moron. I'm White. No need to fancy/PC it up. Anyways. I moved to Short Pump from MA (Boston) so maybe my mindset is different. You and your wife sound like educated good people. You would have no issues in Short Pump, I assure you that. I recently bought in Glen Allen right off Hungary rd. My neighborhood is pretty mixed, Mainly White and Black. Text book suburbs. People say Hi when walking by, wave at cars the whole deal. I'd add Glen Allen (the good side) to your list, which it appears you already know. That's horrible what happened to your daughter, I can't even imagine what that must of been like for either of you. I I haven't been a parent for long, but even thinking of that happening to my son, I can seriously feel your pain. It's nothing short of pathetic that in this day and age backwards people are still raising their children to judge people by the color of their skin. I'm of Italian descent. Since moving to VA it's been very apparent to me and my Wife that theirs not a lot of Italians in the Richmond Area. We identify as American/White as we were born here. But it's also noticeable that were maybe not AS white as others here.(Many think were Spanish/Mexican) which I don't think we look like, but different subject. If I had a nickel for every time somebody speaks loud and slow to me because they think I'm Mexican I'd be rich! I was actually at Lowes once and after talking to a salesman (In English) he shows me a book on Grills (what I was looking at) flips the thing over and goes "IT'S IN BOTH ENGLISH AND SPANISH" I had no words. We can't let the ignorance of the world get to us man! Good Luck. I haven't been a parent for long, but even thinking of that happening to my son, I can seriously feel your pain.

African American isn't a racist term for a black person born in America in my opinion. The term is used for those whom had ancestors come from Africa however they are unable to trace which African country their ancestors came from during the African Diaspora (or Slave Trade). Actually using the term African is a homage to their ancestry and detailing the truth about one's self in my opinion.

Example: A Chinese person born in America could identify themselves as Chinese or Chinese American. If you saw the person by genetic make up/ looking at them you would assume the person is Asian by physical features.

If you see a black person by physical feature you can say that person is African much like you could with Asian. They may not be American but if you are Black you have ancestry from Africa PERIOD. The term Black is more of a slap in the face of history and ancestry than African American in my opinion. But i like this thread as i too may possibly be looking into a similar neighborhood as the OP.

[Tracie822]

Originally Posted by stereotyped

So the following year we moved to a rental home in an almost all African American neighborhood in Varina where we were basically treated the same rude and disrespectful way the people treated us in the previous state. It was very strange, sort of snobbish. I thought it was very amusing considering the amount of violence and theft that went on in the area. Just look on the crime search on the Henrico County website. And the schools were not very good, barely a PTA. The parents complained about how terrible the teachers were, but they gave no support. I remember talking to one neighbor about living in the West End and he told me I was crazy because no black people lived their. I thought to myself that he was crazy for raising his family in a crime infested area with bad schools. So, we moved again to a remodled older rental(built in 1950's) in the Tuckahoe area were we had the option to buy if we liked the home and neighborhood. I really liked it there, but the home was infested with pests and my wife wanted out immediately. Apparently it was not a complete remodel as the left all the old insulation in the attic that contained nests of mice. Unfortunately there were no new costruction going on in the area and we just totally lost interest in purchasing an older home. So instead of moving around, reading posts, and searching the internet I decided to post this question.

What neighborhoods are there at least a few African American families living in Short Pump/West End, Ashland/Hanover, Quinton, or Mosely? When I research School Digger, and Great Shools, I see how great the schools are in these areas, but the demographics are mostly Caucasian and Asian with 10% or less African American. It is strange because people on the forum talk about diversity in the West End, but just having Caucasian and Asian doesn't mean its diverse. This area seems so segregated as the school in the East End are basically all African American.

Hi! I don't know what you ended up doing in terms of living arrangements, but we are also AA. We lived in Wiliamsburg for about 18 months and hated it. A good amount of racism witnessed and received. We bought a house and live in the West End near Pump and John Rolfe and like our neighborhood a lot. It has good diversity and we felt welcome.