Do North Carolinians view D.C. or Atlanta as their closest major city? (Charlotte: high school, colleges)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
No - Atlanta is way down in terms of "culture" IMO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NC Observer
You are mistaken. It was the other guy who mentioned race. More than once.
Please accept my right to free speech and expression. I will always respect your right to the same. Always.
Stating that Atlanta and DC have been shaped by African-American/Black culture is not anymore a race “issue” than saying Miami has a strong Latino or Cuban influenced culture. That’s not a matter of injecting race into it. That’s a matter of having a rich culture. Just like some places have a rich southern or creole culture, some places have Little Italy or a Chinatown or I think (Im not sure) Boston has some roots to Irish heritage it’s proud of.
And I agree with the previous poster who mentioned neither have much of an influence on NC. I don’t even feel like DC’s influence really even is tangible in Richmond or Charlottesville. I mean. None that I can think of that are obvious to me. Once past Fredericksburg, it seems like Washington fades out.
Last edited by Charlotte485; 01-27-2021 at 12:11 AM..
Stating that Atlanta and DC have been shaped by African-American/Black culture is not anymore a race “issue” than saying Miami has a strong Latino or Cuban influenced culture. That’s not a matter of injecting race into it. That’s a matter of having a rich culture. Just like some places have a rich southern or creole culture, some places have Little Italy or a Chinatown or I think (Im not sure) Boston has some roots to Irish heritage it’s proud of.
Precisely. Atlanta and DC are two cities whose trajectories over the past 50 years have mirrored each other in almost eerily similar ways. They are also the only two major cities to have large, influential Black populations, leaders, and institutions from the prewar era well into the postwar era and are still attracting lots of Black transplants and transplants in general. They are the nation's most prominent hubs of the professional Black class (with practically the same modern origin story) with overall Black populations that are both part of the metropolitan area and worlds unto themselves at the same time. Their Black cultures are also a lot more similar than most here are saying and in my view, they have three components: the Southern (ATL)/Southern-ish (DC....only a generation or two removed from their Carolina/Virginia kinfolk) natives and their accents, the transplants that come for opportunity (and the ones largely responsible for their reputations among Black folks which the natives absolutely hate and will let you know), and the African and Caribbean immigrants in the suburbs who have become an increasing presence over the past 30 years or so.
Of course DC is the nation's capital and the seat of our federal government, but metro Atlanta is home to the largest concentration of federal agencies outside of DC, including the main campus of the CDC. Also, Atlanta is often called the Capital of the New South, which I think of as the nation's post-civil rights capital with a very important role in shaping modern American politics. Aside from the ascension of Blacks to various high-profile positions of leadership in local, state, and federal government and a large influx of Atlanta Blacks into the middle class in the late 70s/80s thanks to the actions of Mayor Maynard Jackson (and Mayor Marion Barry did the same in DC), both the modern Democratic and Republican parties were shaped to a large degree by the actions of Atlanta-area politicians. The gentleman's agreement between the city's civil rights establishment and White local political/civic leaders, called the Atlanta Way, served as something of a template for the post-Civil Rights Democratic Party. GA Gov. Jimmy Carter, an evangelical Baptist, was the nation's first post-civil rights modern Democratic president. Conservative evangelical religious figures made Carter the prototypical enemy of religious freedom due to his support of the IRS's decision in revoking the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC since they refused to desegregate (although it was the previous Nixon and Ford administrations that pushed for it). His commitment to enforcing civil rights legislation, belief in the separation of church and state, refusal to pursue a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion (although he himself was pro-life), and religious pluralistic approach towards religion all made him the perfect candidate for religious conservatives to rally around, and his re-election defeat in 1980 became the coming out party of the Religious Right faction within the GOP. And then you have Newt Gingrich from Cobb County with its affluent fiscal conservative suburban constituency located right outside of a majority Black liberal Democratic urban hub, was elected to Congress in 1979 was responsible for crafting the combative, obstructionist, non-compromising, take-no-prisoners style that now defines GOP politics and paved the way for Trump. And of course, we saw the pivotal role Atlanta/GA played in the presidential and U.S. Senate elections thanks to the efforts of Stacey Abrams which just may foreshadow the voting coalitions that the Democratic Party will come to rely on in future elections.
Also both Atlanta and DC have had to contend with more conservative governments to which they are subordibate that has stymied their progress at various times in high-profile ways. And in both metros, Blacks have a significant and extensive presence along one whole side that, while not as rich in amenities and jobs, have important large employment sites: DC in the eastern swath of the metro (SE and NE DC, southern Montgomery, PG, Charles, Alexandria) and Atlanta south of I-20 (south Fulton, Clayton, Henry, parts of Fayette, southern Dekalb, Rockdale). And both have their suburban areas that are more affluent with high-paying jobs and major retail centers that have larger White and Asian populations, namely the northern Atlanta 'burbs and NoVA with their prominent edge cities of Perimeter/Dunwoody and Tysons Corner, respectively. There's also a strong affinity for New Urbanist-type town centers/mixed-used developments in their suburbs like the town centers of Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Suwanee, etc., Avalon, Halcyon, Peachtree Corners, Serenbe, etc in metro Atlanta and the town centers of Rockville, Dulles, Reston, etc, the Kentlands, DT Silver Spring, etc in the DMV. Their higher education profiles are similar with large research universities (UMD, Georgetown, George Mason in DC and GA Tech, Emory, GA State in Atlanta) and of course their HBCUs of Howard/UDC and the AUC. Both even have a far-flung exurban university that people seem to forget is there: Bowie State (also an HBCU) and Kennesaw State.
You have not once actually explained the reasoning behind your claim that DC has a greater influence on NC than Atlanta does. And if I'm not mistaken, it seems to be you who is the one obsessing over discussions, or lack thereof, of race. No one's turning this into a race issue, nor is anyone trying to shoot down "free speech," but for you to "lol" in response to Atlanta's widely accepted position as a hub of Black, Southern, and urban culture as either a false claim or poor representation of said culture, or culture at large, honestly says enough...
Anyways, outside of the northeastern segment of the state, I really don't buy DC's supposed, outsized dominance over Atlanta in relation to NC. Neither has an influence on NC in the same way that, for instance, New Orleans does for Mississippi or something. And no amount of denigrating Atlanta and simply "preferring" DC is going to change that...
I stated this earlier, DC is/was the big city to NC prior to Atlanta's growth surge in the 80s to date. I know the Braves got coverage in parts of NC, but NC used be Redskins TV coverage area (not the Falcons). The weekly Redskins show was broadcast over HTS (home team sports) to designated local stations in NC. I watched it often.
DC did/does have a huge impact on NC for two reasons: (1) The original African American migration to the north, specially DC, which was a huge landing spot for AA with tons of family/friends/relatives connections. From all over NC (Charlotte included) and not just a part of NC. (2) The enormous federal government, government contractor, political landscape and job market which attracted tons of North Carolinians from all backgrounds, much more so than Atlanta. Atlanta has never been the big city magnet DC is NC...not even to this day even though it is now the big southern city in the region.
The southwestern portion of North Carolina (roughly stretching from Shelby to Burnsville and west) is closer to Atlanta than RALEIGH, much less Washington. I can promise you the Falcons were shown on the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson TV stations that cover that section of the state.
I don't think people realize how wide this state is sometimes. D.C. is a 7-9 hour drive from western North Carolina. It's the same distance (~500 miles) from Cape Hatteras to Pack Square in Asheville as it is from Hatteras to Times Square in New York City. Murphy is closer to Birmingham, Nashville and Louisville than Raleigh.
Break this down beyond the state level and into regions or cities and you'd get a better answer.
Atlanta has never been the big city magnet DC is NC...not even to this day even though it is now the big southern city in the region.
I think this is more generational and regional. In my college/post-college days in the early aughts (as they call it) in the Charlotte area, DC wasn't really on our radar like that to visit although occasional trips were made whereas it was nothing to hop in the car head to Atlanta for the weekend. That was when Buckhead Village and the nightlife in general was still popping. But as you said, that was shortly after Atlanta emerged as a major city on the world stage as a result of hosting the Olympics. I do believe that DC got a new look after Obama was elected, the MLK Memorial was erected, and the NMAAHC opened though.
The southwestern portion of North Carolina (roughly stretching from Shelby to Burnsville and west) is closer to Atlanta than RALEIGH, much less Washington. I can promise you the Falcons were shown on the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson TV stations that cover that section of the state.
Your comment raises a somewhat interesting and possibly even valid point, which is that in their inaugural season of play in 1966, the Atlanta Falcons’ first preseason training camp was held at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly facility in Black Mountain, North Carolina in the western part of the state just outside of Asheville.
The next year, the Falcons moved their preseason training camp to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN for about 4 seasons and then held it at Furman University in Greenville, SC for about 8 seasons before moving it to their erstwhile training and corporate facility in Suwanee for the next 20 seasons thereafter.
Holding those early preseason training camps in the mountains of extreme Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee and in the South Carolina Upstate in areas with TV stations that provide coverage to extreme Western North Carolina is likely what might have helped the Atlanta Falcons gain a following in that western part of North Carolina early on during the first several seasons of the Falcons’ existence before the establishment of the Carolina Panthers.
When I was in college in Chapel Hill, many students casually went to DC to hang out on weekends. Many young people in the Triangle and Northeastern still often go to DC for entertainment and socializing. This is especially pronounced among young black people.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
