[quote=no_such_reality]Interesting read. I’ll put this here since many think this person winning or that person winning means that or this.
Why has there been an exodus of black residents from West Coast liberal hubs?[/quote]Great article, NSR. Thanks for sharing! CA’s well known NIMBYism and agencies such as CEQA DO have the effect of dampening runaway growth (as it should be) but the article focuses too much on “housing costs” when this phenomenon really only affects mostly Gen Y who are just starting out in life (as it does with ALL races). Most black families in CA now headed by boomers and older bought their homes a long time ago and never felt a need to “move up” repeatedly like other cultures do because they want to feel “comfortable” in their areas and neighborhoods. That’s more important to most Black families than paying top dollar for a newer “mcmansion.” I don’t think the article delves into the true reason why the Black population has gone down in what is now dubbed as “west coast liberal-enclave metropolises.”
In the ’80’s and ’90’s, I used to book months in advance to fly Southwest (instead of drive) just days (or 1 day) before TK and X-mas to be with my peeps in TX, AR and OK because I was working FT and didn’t have the time to drive or stay away from home for very long. In addition, I had many Black longtime co-workers and old friends whose residences mostly seemed to be concentrated into ONE approx 3 x 4 mile section of SD and bordering areas of 2-3 adjacent small cities (which I initially found odd since many of my co-workers made very good money and had many choices on where to live). These areas had several churches but didn’t have a lot of services (grocery, cleaners, gas stations and other retail establishments) at the time, causing this population to have to drive out of their neighborhoods to obtain basic services. The truth is, the typical Black family is “set up” primarily to help each other, especially if both the matriarch and patriarch are still alive who assign “expectations” to other members of the family. Meaning this culture provides child care for each other, including religious education and imparting a sense of peace and continuity among their children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They check on each others homes while they are away, provide pet care, housekeeping, lawncare, cooking, care of a sick family members, transportation to doctor’s appts, job interviews, help to move, etc. Unlike some other cultures who are “okay” with living a long way away from family for a lifetime, I feel that Blacks feel most comfortable around family and others who are of their same culture as well as prefer living in areas with their churches nearby, which also serve as a social anchor.
As you all know, SW Airlines’ longtime hub in and out of CA is at PHX. Once passengers from all the airports in CA converge at PHX, they are rerouted on planes to smaller cities throughout “flyover country.” Without this type of system in place, there would never be enough passengers to fill a plane to Little Rock, Tulsa or Memphis, etc, and SWA is still the only carrier who offers regular, consistent service to flyover country’s “secondary markets” thru their “hub system” and multi-stop flight routes.
Once I typically boarded my plane in PHX to TX, OK or AR airports, I always tried to get a seat near the front of the cabin in the front row where six seats on each side of the plane face each other, conducive to a nice visit with other passengers for the 2-3 hr flight. In all cases, my (pre-holiday) plane filled with 75-90% Blacks (mostly all from CA) going “home” for the holidays. The entire rides were spent laughing and reminiscing about the important role our grandparents or a favorite aunt/uncle had in our lives, the mint leaves our mom grew on the back porch for “sweet and unsweet” iced tea, 3 layer chocolate cake with a warm hard-shell frosting poured over it and long toothpicks holding it together, pecan pie, fried okra in cornmeal with red-eye gravy, hamhock and beans, grits for breakfast, collard greens, fried eggplant, homemade fried chicken, the clothes our mother’s and grandmother’s sewed for us (and the fact that they taught us dressmaking skills), the veggie gardens we had to tend, the small baptist colleges they attended, playing outside until midnight in the summer with the crickets singing and fireflies buzzing and going fishing at the local lake, etc. There were never any complaints about their early lives from the passengers … just reminiscing and yearning to be “back home.”
I’ve been to several “Black” funerals in SD and have felt not only very inspired but also included. To this day, my memories of these gatherings still move me. In my mind, the Black culture of the south and southwest part of this country knows how to “do it up right,” even if the family is now headed by a matriarch through the death of their spouse. Children are raised to feel like they have a “village” which cares about them day to day. Even though the MSM paints a different picture with single Black parents in large cities who are living away from family, the Black culture doesn’t seem to me as “fragmented” as other cultures.
Some cities and towns where my peeps have lived all their lives have a Black majority and I have found these people to be the nicest and most helpful people you could ever meet. I have had to have help from neighbors a few times and they are willing to step right up, no questions asked. (Actually, ALL races are this way in certain parts of the country.)
I’ve spent several days in Baltimore, as well, taken hired “cars” to different tourist traps and eaten at all the local haunts, recommended to me by the locals and had the best time ever there.
CA is a melting pot where Black dust bowl refugees and southern dwellers came here for the (primarily defense) jobs during and after WWII. They carved out niches in cities for themselves to keep their culture alive and their kids (the boomers) stayed here and raised their kids. Now that these niches are being slowly “gentrified” into crowded, multi-unit nightmares (ex: Compton, parts of Downey, Norwalk and even the western part of SESD), I can’t blame the boomers (who don’t need high-paying jobs anymore) for wanting to go back “home” to retire. I disagree with the author in that I don’t believe Black families strive to live and raise their families in multi-unit nightmares. They (esp the boomers and beyond) prefer a SFR in a quiet neighborhood with a large backyard for their pets and garden. I don’t blame Blacks for feeling like a Martian living in isolation in (inhospitable) west coast cities (ex: Oregon) where their culture doesn’t exist anywhere and where they can’t even find the groceries to create the dishes of their youth.
And yes, Blacks vote both R and D for candidates whom they feel will act in their best interests, just like everyone else. We’re not going to be able to predict precisely where the “Black vote” will be cast in this election.
