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That's a rather outdated perspective. The biggest complaints about transplants these days are transplants' complaints that Atlanta isn't like wherever they're from ("Delta is ready when you are"), there are too many of them making traffic worse and housing more expensive ("We full!"), and not distinguishing Atlanta from its suburbs ("XYZ ain't Atlanta"). In their heyday, scammers/posers were sharing airtime with those who were disappointed that their lives didn't automatically improve by moving to the metro area from another region of the country. The 15 minutes of fame for scammers/posers came to end around the time the recession hit in '08 and when Atlanta's pop culture and fim/TV/music profile started rising nationwide. The latter even gave some of the scammers/posers opportunities to go legit and achieve success above-board.
Today what defines Black Atlanta more than anything is its political significance as evidenced by recent high-profile mayoral race results, Stacey Abrams' initial gubernatorial campaign, the death of Rep. John Lewis, 2018 midterm election developments, Sen Warnock's first partial-term election to the Senate and his subsequent full-term election victory against Herschel Walker, the state's flip to the blue column politically, and Charles Blow's call to make GA a Black political stronghold. Along with that is its economic performance and potential for its Black residents which is reflected by metro Atlanta's consistent top rankings for best places for Black Americans nationally, the imperative to improve racial equity in the city proper, and the announced investments in 2020 targeted towards benefitting the region's Black workforce and the AUC institutions beginning in 2020.
The perception of Atlanta is also largely formed by things like this.
D.C. is one of my favorite cities but this statement here is delusional at best.
1) Atlanta's rise in popularity came in the 90s and it wasn't the downfall of Black culture. If any city from the 90's into the 2000's was seen as "Black excellence" and the peak of general American Black culture it was Atlanta.
2) I don't recall D.C. being nationally known as prestige or Black Excellence when I was growing up in the 90s. I think D.C. started to get recognized nationally as a Black Bougie region when Black publications started releasing list such as " The top 10 wealthiest Black communities in the nation" and etc. When all those PG County communities started popping up that's when D.C.'s national reputation as an attraction for Upscale Black socialites started to grab the attention of Black America. That was somewhere around the 2000's. Before then D.C. didn't have the best reputation at least in the 80s/90s when it came to Black America. It was considered the murder capital of America in the early 90s. It was home to one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the country. Marion Barry got caught smoking crack live and in color. And then on a street level, D.C. was known to be the home of the homosexual thugs before Atlanta had it's reputation(which a lot of that has some homophobic undertones). So how did Atlanta influence a city that already had a rough reputation to begin with?
3) DC didn't give us BET, Bob Johnson did. Mississippi born, Illinois raised moved to D.C. and started his network there. Did D.C. play a role in BET's success? Sure, but BET wasn't local. It represented Black America as a whole. That was the whole point of the network. Most of the host, producers and writers on the network wasn't from D.C. Hell my sister worked briefly for BET and we're from East Texas. BET was Black America's network not just D.C.
4) BET dipped in quality when Bob Johnson sold the network to VIACOM. The rise in southern music didn't change the value and cores of Black America. Are you suggesting Southern Black people have no values?
5) When Westcoast music became more popular than the birthplace of Hip-hop in the early 90s, there were plenty New Yorkers that claimed the Westcoast dumbed down the genre and caused the destruction of Black America. The reality is there's many factors as to why Black America(which isn't completely doom and gloom as you paint it out to be) is in the state it's in today and it has little to do with any one particular region.
Matter fact there was a special that aired in 1986 entitled "The Vanishing Black Family" that pretty much showed you the cause and effect of why things are the way they are in the Black community all throughout America today. Ironically it was filmed in Newark, NJ. There was one family in particular where the Mother who was originally from North Carolina wanted to move her family back down south because she felt like Newark had gotten too dangerous for her son. She felt moving back to the south would be better for her family because in her words there was more emphasize on family structure and tradition in comparison to the North.
Ironically around that same time drug dealers from the East, West and Midwest would distribute drugs all throughout the south and turn those cities out damn near overnight. If I used your logic, then the blame would go to non-southern Black folks right? I mean Freaknik was created by a bunch of DMV kids. Is it safe to say those DMV kids bastardize Atlanta Black culture?
I am not sure why this post went unnoticed, but I will certainly recognize and expand on it. I am with you on the DC and its "prestige" image comments. I am not sure where people viewed DC as "prestigious" during the 90s or early 00s because we (Georgians) seldom heard or spoke anything about DC regarding "Black Excellence." Even to this day, you will not hear too many Georgians speak about DC unless they have relatives up there.
Also, speaking on your STD/STI rates per cities, while Atlanta still needs to lower its HIV rate, Overall DC ranks much higher when it comes to STDs (per 100,000 people). In fact, based on last year's numbers, DC ranked 9th, while Atlanta came in at 42. The study also showed how Atlanta improved its STD/STI the most among major cities.
Furthermore, crime in DC has skyrocketed compared to other major cities around the country. Cities such as Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles and even Baltimore have seen decreases in violent crime while DC hit its highest murder rate since 1997. Notably, the fifth highest murder rate among the major cities. Let me guess...Atlanta's influencing the crime rate, as well?
Moreover, DC recently ranked 49th in education, only ahead of Louisiana and New Mexico. That's certainly not too prestigious on any level. Of course, VA and parts of MD have great school systems, but education in DC needs improvement. While GA has recently ranked in the 20s and 30s educationally, parts of Metro Atlanta (like the Northern suburbs) perform much higher than the national average. It appears that something other than Atlanta influences DC "kids" and it starts here.
Lastly, while DC has contributed to the black race and gave us proud moments, no city in American history has contributed more than Atlanta from a political, cultural, professional, economical and certainly representative standpoint. It's okay to admit that.
That's because it's kinda out there lol. I remember driving my frat brother to Waldorf in 2020 to get his car from a repair shop, and that was my first experience in southern PG and Charles counties. I definitely got "back home" vibes from the area and it was quite evident that Waldorf had rather recently transitioned from a country town to an exurb. But more than that, it's definitely a slog from DC, specifically east of the Anacostia, and most of PG (within and just outside of the Beltway, Bowie, Laurel, etc) and nowhere within the vicinity of the Metro or MARC footprints. It's not too dissimilar from how folks used to, and still somewhat, talk about Douglasville, Kennesaw, and Conyers in metro Atlanta. And in the DMV, places like Woodbridge, Gaithersburg, and anywhere near Dulles get the same treatment lol.
LOL, I agree with you here Mutiny. I was just pinpointing the benefits of using the county as an "Affluent Metro DC Black County" despite the fact that people around here constantly puts it down and frown upon it.
LOL, I agree with you here Mutiny. I was just pinpointing the benefits of using the county as an "Affluent Metro DC Black County" despite the fact that people around here constantly puts it down and frown upon it.
True, and this even applies to PG County. Despite PG County's longtime status as the most affluent majority-Black county in the U.S., you'd never know that given its reputation locally. While there are parallels between PG County and Dekalb County in key respects (inner-Beltway PG/outer-Beltway PG dichotomy vs southern Dekalb/northern Dekalb dichotomy, County leadership corruption, etc), I don't think Dekalb was ever the face of affluent Black metro Atlanta the way PG was (and still is to a large degree). I think that's because Atlanta city leadership has always been front and center and has a level of autonomy DC doesn't being ultimately subject to the authority of Congress.
Atlanta is just different. This kind of behavior is more common in Atlanta.
Not sure what the relevance is to the point you were making that I responded to in my post you quoted, unless you're arguing that this was a church full of scammers and posers or something.
Atlanta is just different. This kind of behavior is more common in Atlanta.
No, my point is that kind of behavior that goes viral has transplant written all over it. People from Atlanta aren't like that and the culture wasn't like that. People that have moved there the last 20 years created all this hot ghetto mess. DC is no different when it comes to transplant behavior. The "what do you do" and "where did you go to school" also has transplant written all over it. People actually from DC, MD, and Virginia don't ask that.
No, my point is that kind of behavior that goes viral has transplant written all over it. People from Atlanta aren't like that and the culture wasn't like that. People that have moved there the last 20 years created all this hot ghetto mess. DC is no different when it comes to transplant behavior. The "what do you do" and "where did you go to school" also has transplant written all over it. People actually from DC, MD, and Virginia don't ask that.
There are over 38,000 comments on the shade room saying the same thing I just said. It's ratchet to be swag surfing and walkin' it out in church. That belongs in the club, not church. Somebody said they probably have hookah in the lobby and bathroom attendants. Only in Atlanta... That is coming from people all over the world. Are you defending that?
There are over 38,000 comments on the shade room saying the same thing I just said. It's ratchet to be swag surfing and walkin' it out in church. That belongs in the club, not church. Somebody said they probably have hookah in the lobby and bathroom attendants. Only in Atlanta... That is coming from people all over the world. Are you defending that?
Sounds like classic self-hatred, internalized racism, and (probable) pure racism to me.
Sounds like classic self-hatred, internalized racism, and (probable) pure racism to me.
Just to be clear, this is what they’re doing in church in Atlanta? I’m sure the woman were twerking the new year in at church too. I think the point is, how many cities being discussed would have something like this at a church in their city. This would blow my mind if a DC church was caught dead doing something like this.
“I'm on Hypnotic, exotic
This Polo on my body
Got a bad girl beside me
And her friend right behind me
And I'm swagging, I'm surfing
I'm swagging, I'm surfing
I'm swagging, I'm surfing
I'm clean like dish detergent
On Patron, yeah I'm gone
Purple by the zone, yeah I'm smoking strong
And you know I'm gone
Cause I'm swagging, I'm surfing
Swagging in the club, you gon' see me throwing money up
Catch me with a bad chick and all her friends as fine as her
Drinks, we gon' pour them up
Exotic, what we rolling up
Patron, Goose, or Hennessy
They got it, I'mma drank it up
I'm always wearing Polo“
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Not my cup of tea, but "hot ghetto mess"? 
