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I firmly believe Atlanta for a multitude of reasons. According to the 2020 census, the city population is 51.85% black (the majority). This is one of the few premiere cities in the United States that has a majority black demographic. Another interesting statistic in one of the many articles I have read on this matter states that Atlanta is the number one rated city for black entrepreneurs in America. Here's the link [url]https://rollingout.com/2017/05/05/the-top-cities-for-black-entrepreneurs/[/url]. Even though I have been stating recent statistics, Atlanta has had a history of having a generally large African American population. After the Great Migration in the mid 20th century where many blacks fled the South to the Midwest to seek better opportunities, large amounts of that population returned to the South many decades later to cities such as Memphis and Atlanta. Since then, Atlanta has provided countless opportunities for blacks to further ingratiate their influence on the city's culture and economic prosperity.
Last edited by SolomonM34; 02-28-2020 at 04:29 PM..
the way you interact or sometimes more importantly don’t interact with varying people and with your physical layout does have an effect on your social skills and how you localize. By taking the City train and bus to school since I was 12, I feel that I sort of learned how to mind my business and tolerate accept and even appreciate differences. People don’t really say excuse me, people act the crazy, people try to get you to look at them, every now and then you exchange a brief few words with people you’ll never see again, in short-you get very used to being out of your comfort zone.
That sounds almost identical to my old neighborhood that I grew up in in East Texas. Grew up in a predominately Black community that was primarily blue collar hard working families and pockets of poverty. Shared a park with kids from the projects and other hoods close by. You acknowledge people but because of a few bad apples you didn't stare too much. You knew to mind your business. Wasn't ethnically diverse but because we shared the community with Mexicans you knew how to appreciate and tolerate different cultures. Not to the extent of Boston with way more ethnic groups but we weren't isolated or cut off from human interaction with people of different classes and races. Also we all grew up riding the bus to school in our city. That's not a new concept at all. I get there's a difference but it ain't worlds apart like your emphasizing. Atleast the example you just used.
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Now you’re in Houston so this next part is less applicable to you... but when you always in your car and you have few neighbor( let alone a wide array of ethnicities as neighbors) you might get used to a certain level of comfort, tact and certain customs. It can make you a bit rigid or even close minded. Then you go into your large house where you don’t share a wall or floor and so you don’t hear or smell the Goya or bakchoy cooking in the other apartment, you don’t hear the patois or the Cantonese. You don’t get accustomed to the rude server the Jamaican/Haitian spot-you’re expecting southern hospitality and smiles not indifference and business like banality. You don’t really get used to waking up and g the Chinese people doing their morning stretches/tai chi in front of your apartment door at 7am when your rushing out the house to work. You don’t really get that when the dude at the deli yells at you rn put in your order and get out the way, that you should just yell back at him “yo, that’s what I’m doin!” You don’t get used to the random dude chillin on your front steps smoking when you arrive home and all you gotta do is ask him to stay off your steps, you might get up in arms about your property and trespassing etc
I moved to Houston after I graduated college. The only time I've lived in a house in Houston is when I first moved to the city and lived with my sister in a an actual suburb. Even in that community it was mostly Black,Mexican,Arab and Whites in the neighborhood. My nephew and nieces had plenty of friends in the community. There was a community park nearby they all played at. I knew the neighbors and we spoke to each other when we'd see each other. Houston suburbs are not filled with communities with large lots of land that separate you from your neighbor. It's not like the Northeast where you can walk to your neighborhood bodega or walk to a bar from your home. It's not like the Northeast at all in that regards in the suburbs of bigger cities or even in the inner core but it's not as isolated as you think.
Now as far me I've mostly lived in apartment complexes. I hear everything my neighbors say. I smell the food they cook. I interact with them every now and than. On the floor I reside in there's an Indian family, a Cuban family, a Saint Lucian couple, a White family and a Nigerian couple on the same exact floor. And this is a suburb that is far from diverse as far as Houston metro standards. It's a lot more diverse than that in the Southwest and West part of the metro. Of course you said Houston is less applicable
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When you get comfortable always being in your own space or surrounded by people culturally similar too you, and things outside that norm come off as gruff and can be upsetting. Especially when your used to having more physical space to yourself in general. Over the years that impact your development and viewpoint as a person.
That might be true for certain states in the South. I'm only knowledgeable in depth of Texas/Louisiana and Georgia. Since I've lived in those states or spent enough time in those states. I understand what your saying and that does exist to an extent. Especially the smaller the town is. However there are definitely cities in those states I named(I would also include Florida in this as well) that are so diverse that we're used to being around people that are culturally different than us. We're use to that cultural clash of interaction and socializing. It's not like the Northeast but it's daily interaction once we get out of the car.
I firmly believe Atlanta. According to one of the many articles I have read on this matter, Atlanta is the number one rated city for black entrepreneurs in America. Here's the link https://rollingout.com/2017/05/05/th...entrepreneurs/
The only US metro with more blacks than metro Atlanta is metro NYC. So I can't argue with your choice at all.
My list by size category after reading this thread...
Mega City
NYC
Large City
1 Atlanta
2 Philadelphia
3 DC
Medium City
1 Memphis
2 New Orleans
3 Charlotte
Small City
1 Baton Rouge
2 Savannah
3 Charleston
In the small City category, part of me wanted to replace Savannah with Columbia, SC due to the fact that Columbia's metro has a higher percentage of blacks than Savannah and Charleston.
You should add Chicago in that list. Subjectively speaking i don't see how BR, Savannah, nor Charleston are small cities.
My list by size category after reading this thread...
Mega City
NYC
Large City
1 Atlanta
2 Philadelphia
3 DC
Medium City
1 Memphis
2 New Orleans
3 Charlotte
Small City
1 Baton Rouge
2 Savannah
3 Charleston
In the small City category, part of me wanted to replace Savannah with Columbia, SC due to the fact that Columbia's metro has a higher percentage of blacks than Savannah and Charleston.
My list by size category after reading this thread...
Mega City
NYC
Large City
1 Atlanta
2 Philadelphia
3 DC
Medium City
1 Memphis
2 New Orleans
3 Charlotte
Small City
1 Baton Rouge
2 Savannah
3 Charleston
In the small City category, part of me wanted to replace Savannah with Columbia, SC due to the fact that Columbia's metro has a higher percentage of blacks than Savannah and Charleston.
My list by size category after reading this thread...
Mega City
NYC
Large City
1 Atlanta
2 Philadelphia
3 DC
Medium City
1 Memphis
2 New Orleans
3 Charlotte
Small City
1 Baton Rouge
2 Savannah
3 Charleston
In the small City category, part of me wanted to replace Savannah with Columbia, SC due to the fact that Columbia's metro has a higher percentage of blacks than Savannah and Charleston.
This is a very interesting list.
Philadelphia most certainly has its advantages here but seeing as though it's not the draw for Blacks that ATL and DC have been for the past 40 years or so, I don't see how it can be grouped with them. DC and ATL truly stand alone (but right under them I'd list Houston and Dallas). This would be the same reason I would list any of the other cities you did except Charlotte. Charleston is an interesting case in that it's growing like gangbusters but isn't attracting a large number of Blacks. I do think Columbia has an argument in the small city category not only for the size of the Black population, but it also has one of the highest educational attainment rates for Blacks for metros under 1M.
The Triangle most definitely deserves to be listed. Raleigh and Durham have strong cases individually and even more so combined.
My list by size category after reading this thread...
Mega City
NYC
Large City
1 Atlanta
2 Philadelphia
3 DC
Medium City
1 Memphis
2 New Orleans
3 Charlotte
Small City
1 Baton Rouge
2 Savannah
3 Charleston
In the small City category, part of me wanted to replace Savannah with Columbia, SC due to the fact that Columbia's metro has a higher percentage of blacks than Savannah and Charleston.
Charlotte has more people than Atlanta and I think Charlotte should be in the large city list and replace Philadelphia. Or maybe even Dallas or Houston can replace Philly.
I also think Memphis should be replaced by Nashville.
Memphis, Baton Rouge, Savannah and even Charleston’s are all questionable. I do think another city could replace each.
In baltimore this is not the case m. The college students don’t stay and they don’t leave campus. At all really.
I have one friend from Boston who-like me moved to DC first and relocated here.
I drove Uber for a New Yorker visiting family, an NJ couple who moved here, a woman from Rhode Island, a businesswoman here for work form Atlanta and Morgan State student also from Boston.
In my 20 months here those are virtually the only balck people not from Maryland I’ve met I. baltimore. No hyperbole. Dry regionally limited, I feel like 90-95% of balck baltinoreans are from Maryland.
It doesn’t compare to NYC DC ATL LA at all because they’re not as economically vibrant or livable in general.
Hell even in Boston I met people from a grade student Houston, I had a coworker who moved form South Carolina when she was 5, my mon is from North Carolina, coworkers from Dayton, Detroit, and Miami...clas mates who moved there after graduation from New York City and Lawrenceville NJ, an actor from Atlanta, a community theater director from DC a neighbor from Richmond VA.
I’ve worked at a warehouse and now for the city and have yet to work with a black person not from Maryland. Doesn’t mean Baltinore is bad for black or not a tier 2 hub and above Boston for sure-just it’s not a major draw as a city-to black people from all over
Me and the majority of my close acquaintances fall into this category that you describe as not existing in Baltimore. Almost all of us attended college in the Baltimore area and ended up staying after graduating. We all did not initially come here intending to stay, it just ended up happening. Friendships and social networks developed in college which led to job contacts and eventual professional networks. Then life happens. People meet significant others, relationships develop, children start being born, and before you know it years have passed by and everyone starts settling down.
I'm not denying your experiences, but I don't think you've been in the area long enough to make a fully informed assessment. Also, the circles you move in are very limited. You're not really going to meet many non-native college grads while driving Uber and working at warehouses. You're mainly going to come across everyday native Baltimoreans living their lives. Most of the non-native college grads are primarily present in local arenas such as education, the medical field, government, law, law enforcement/criminal justice, entrepreneurs, etc.
The majority of them also reside in the suburbs now, especially once they start having children or their children start getting older. And even the acquaintances I know who still reside in the city live in very suburban-like neighborhoods close to the county line, mainly on the far Northwest side of Baltimore and those far Northeastern neighborhoods up past Morgan State.
Baltimore is certainly not a "nationwide" magnet like DC, Atlanta, or certain other cities, but it is definitely a regional hub for the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic. People from the nearby big metros (Philly, Jersey, New York) are all well-represented in this area. Aside from those areas, I have acquaintances from random places like Connecticut, Virginia, Jacksonville, FL, Orlando, FL, and so forth (I don't know anyone from Boston though).
And there is no way you can be in the Baltimore area for long and not come across Black people with connections to the Carolinas, especially North Carolina. That seems to be true for this whole general area, DC even more so. A significant portion of the Black Baltimoreans I am well-acquainted with are only one or two generations removed from North Carolina. An older lady that I know who is deeply involved in the local Black history and genealogy explained to me that the east side of Baltimore was mainly settled by people from rural Maryland while the west side was primarily settled by people from the Carolinas (don't know how true it is though). But my wife's family falls into that category. Her maternal grandfather and grandmother moved here from Charleston and Manning, South Carolina respectively, and her dad is from Sumter, SC. And that seems to be the norm for many of the natives that I'm acquainted with in this area. I actually have far deeper Maryland roots on my dad's line than most of the Baltimore natives I know.
If you remain in this area for long, I think you will eventually come across many non-natives or at least people who have recent family roots elsewhere.
I was reluctant to comment on this thread, but I just wanted to give a more fully informed perspective on Baltimore since I know the city pretty well. I've visited and spent time in many different cities, but I only like to comment on the ones that I've actually lived in and know deeply. I read so many people on this site commenting so "authoritatively" on cities I can tell they barely know anything about or don't have any thorough first-hand experience with. Just relying on hearsay and stereotypes. Philly has a crew of homers and defenders on this site, so I feel no need to comment when I read posts from people who clearly don't know what the hell they're talking about. Same with Baltimore; but I think there are only two or three people on this site (including you) who seem to have any first-hand knowledge of that city. So in Baltimore's case I feel more compelled to comment.
Charlotte has more people than Atlanta and I think Charlotte should be in the large city list and replace Philadelphia. Or maybe even Dallas or Houston can replace Philly.
We're looking at metro areas, not just city proper. The Black population and influence go well beyond the primary city's borders for all of these places, including NYC. But even if we were only looking at the city limits, Atlanta would still have more clout than Charlotte and most other cities due to history, longstanding Black municipal leadership, prominent Black institutions and neighborhoods, etc.
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