Many Black New Yorkers Are Moving to the South (NYT)

[somone]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/nyregion/many-black-new-yorkers-are-moving-to-the-south.html

Seeking New Life, New York Blacks Heed South’s Tug
By DAN BILEFSKY

In Deborah Brown’s family lore, the American South was a place of whites-only water fountains and lynchings under cover of darkness. It was a place that black people like her mother had fled.

But for Ms. Brown, 59, a retired civil servant from Queens, the South now promises salvation.

Three generations of her family — 10 people in all — are moving to Atlanta from New York, seeking to start fresh economically and, in some sense, to reconnect with a bittersweet past. They include Ms. Brown, her 82-year-old mother and her 26-year-old son, who has already landed a job and settled there.

“I feel a strong spiritual pull to go back to the South,” Ms. Brown said...

[adigal]

1. Good for them, maybe they will help make it more sane

The more northerners move south, the more progressive it will get. Has happened in parts of upstate NY.

[Dawson Leery]

2. Seeing that the Northeast is heavily Democratic.

the region can afford to cede some of their votes other parts of the country. Virginia and North Carolina are not as "red" as the used to be.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

5. Based on all that's going on in NC right now, I'd say it's...

bright Jesse Helms red. I just hope (there's that word again) that voters perceive the Rs as having overplayed their hand, and it backfires on them ROYALLY come November 2012. If the voter suppression bill passes this July, Dems really have their work cut out for them.

[provis99]

3. some are leaving because of NYC race relations?

Well, they're in for a shock then. Leaving NYC to go to the Deep South in hopes of better race relations is about as upside down as you can get.
It's about like someone moving from San Francisco to Mississippi because of the bad relations between straights and gays in SF.:crazy:

[FrodosPet]

4. They are moving to Atlanta

It is not the same as moving to a small rural town.

[JVS]

12. Zero posts. How odd!

Welcome to DU.

[mahina]

13. Aloha

Welcome to DU!

[provis99]

20. Atlanta is chock full of rednecks.

Try going to the Buckhead neighborhood, for example. You wouldn't even know black people live in Atlanta.

[noiretextatique]

8. i don't think any black person is that stupid

especially people who have spent time in the south. and if you are in a neighborhood with nothing but black professional in atlanta, you might have less racism to ndeal with than you do in la or new york. most of the black people i know who are leaving california for the south are educated professionals.

[customerserviceguy]

10. I have to tell you

I moved here from the Pacific Northwest four years ago, and that place is relatively color-blind when it comes to NY/NJ. I've learned more slurs for African-Americans here in that time than I ever learned in my life before here. I really can't imagine that the South is that much worse, frankly.

[JI7]

15. no, it's like someone gay moving to New Orleans

and certain areas in the South which can be more liberal than certain areas in states like California, NJ, NY .

[noiretextatique]

6. black people are moving from california to the south also

my sister left for alabama and a big raise four years ago. many of her neighbors are from elsewhere also. my nephew went to school in florida and settled in atlanta. i am considering the move also because i could buy a house and i will never be able to afford one in oakland. several people i know are thinking about making the move too.

[misanthrope]

7. Good luck to them...

...Incidents like the police brutality the woman described aren't unknown. Segregation is still in effect, it's just not legislated.

Moving to Atlanta, Charlotte or Raleigh/Durham is one thing. Moving to Birmingham, Mobile, Jackson, Memphis is quite another. There's still plenty of racial friction in the South, it's just of a different type than what they are used to.

Do they have massive Confederate flags beside the interstate highways in New York? Do they celebrate Confederate History Month? Is there a gargantuan carving of Confederate generals on a mountain outside New York?

And if they're Democrats, they can kiss any future votes for president goodbye, as long as we have the electoral college system.

[napi21]

9. I wish them luck and would welcome them in my neighborhood, but I'm afraid

they're in for a shock. I have one black family living across the street from me, but that's it in the neighborhood. Employment is sparse to nonexistant too. We are from Pa. and have no problem with other races, but that's certainly not the reaction of most Georgians, especially the natives. I know everyoe thinks the civil wr is over, but the atives in the deep south do not! Ga. is a bit better than SC, but not much, and look at how hard SC fought to keep the Confederate Flag flying over theirState Capital!

I'm very fortunate. I have a house that's paid for and the taxes on it are low enough that I can afford them. I was listening to Berne Sanders last week, and soo wanted to move to a State like Vermont and have representation like him. Well...I checked Realtor.com for home in Vermont. HA! Not only could I not afford any that were for sale ANYWHERE, but if I could have managed the house, I could never have afforded the taxes! The south does have quite an advantage on taxes, but that's the only advantage I see.

[misanthrope]

21. Those higher taxes in Vermont...

...are likely reflected in a higher standard of living, too.

[loyalsister]

11. I saw a documentary about this

Morgan Freeman was in it and he said it felt like going home in a sense. He now lives down the street from a friend of mine in Mississippi. Seems surprising in the context of history, but like retirees who move away from cities, there is something to getting away from the crowd and complications of living in a city.

[Hugabear]

14. Racism's still alive and kicking here in Florida

This is the sight that greets drivers heading towards Tampa on I-4

[Elwood P Dowd]

16. There are several that have moved to the road parallel to mine

out here in the country of SE Alabama. Many of them came from the Detroit area it seems. Their grandparents have owned the land on that road for decades, and now these 55-65 year-old retirees own it. They buy nice mobile homes or build small houses on this land and have a much less stressful and more affordable retirement than in a large city in the north. Plus, they have many relatives that still live here.

This part of the state is mostly repuke (55% in 2010) but not bad as far as race relations go. I haven't seen a confederate flag or bumper sticker in years. The public schools have been integrated since 1965, and the football/basketball teams of the local high schools and colleges are at least 50% or more African-American. Sports is big in the south, and most fans, black or white, don't care about skin color. One of the new neighbors told me the public schools were more integrated here than in parts of the midwest he had worked.

Now there are other parts of the state even I, a 64-year-old white guy and native, would not want to visit. There are also other parts of the country even worse when it comes to race relations. When I lived in Washington, DC, the most racist person I met there was from Boston. Blacks and Jews were simply not allowed in his parent's neighborhood according to him. We both were Army draftees, and the black officers and NCOs at work were often called the "N" word by this guy and his New England friends when we were off duty and out having a drink.

[noiretextatique]

17. more on this current migration

An analysis of migration data from the past four decennial censuses at regional, state, and metropolitan-area levels indicates that:

The South scored net gains of black migrants from all three of the other regions of the U.S. during the late 1990s, reversing a 35-year trend. Of the 10 states that suffered the greatest net loss of blacks between 1965 and 1970, five ranked among the top 10 states for attracting blacks between 1995 and 2000.
Southern metropolitan areas, particularly Atlanta, led the way in attracting black migrants in the late 1990s. In contrast, the major metropolitan areas of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco experienced the greatest out-migration of blacks during the same period.
Among migrants from the Northeast, Midwest, and West regions, blacks were more likely than whites to select destinations in the South. Atlanta and Washington, D.C. were the top destinations for black migrants from all three regions; white migrants moved to a broader set of areas including Miami, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
College-educated individuals lead the new migration into the South. The "brain gain" states of Georgia, Texas, and Maryland attracted the most black college graduates from 1995 to 2000, while New York suffered the largest net loss.
After several decades as a major black migrant "magnet," California lost more black migrants than it gained during the late 1990s. Southern states, along with western "spillover" states like Arizona and Nevada, received the largest numbers of black out-migrants from California.
This full-scale reversal of blacks' "Great Migration" north during the early part of the 20th century reflects the South's economic growth and modernization, its improved race relations, and the longstanding cultural and kinship ties it holds for black families. This new pattern has augmented a sizeable and growing black middle class in the South's major metropolitan areas
http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2004/05demographics_frey.aspx

[diane in sf]

18. I've been to business trips in Atlanta, the large number of professionally employed

Black people was impressive. It seemed like a pretty cosmopolitan place to me.

[KamaAina]

22. And increasingly, Latinos and Asians as well

The ATL always did kind of want to be New York, Jr. Looks like they may be getting there.

[SoCalDem]

19. People who came north in order to find work, are now getting older

and retiring to where they grew up, and may have elderly parents still alive...who need taking care of..

Living a retirement life in the pricey north east, could be a drag too.. why not move to where you grew up, and where it;s warm :)