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The Worst States for Black Americans

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And by that, you mean the 10 least bad.

Most would be in the south, ironically

Virginia?

It's definitely an interesting read, but only on the most shallow level. It's easy to say "these states have bad/negative outcomes, here's why we think why", it's harder to say, "these states have better outcomes, here's why they've been successful", and it's even harder to say, "here's what we can do to turn these bad outcomes into good outcomes."

I'm surprised by the Jersey ranking (my home state) because where my parents live I'm surrounded by middle-class black families, but at the same time I'm aware that in terms of wealth most aren't anywhere near most of the white families I know. And then of course there are the bad areas of Newark (though the city as a whole is looking better), Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Camden, etc.

My parents are moving to just outside of ATL sometime next year, they're getting much more land (and a much nicer house) for their money down there, my friends from Virginia (Richmond) say the same.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
20 years ago when I lived in Milwaukee, even the whites were segregated into German, Polish, Italian, and Jewish neighborhoods so I'm not surprised. Things may be different now in that regard.
 
I believe what you are trying to say is 'leave the big shithole cities in the midwest, life gets better'. Life in the rural parts of the midwest is easy living.
Yes. Well, sort of. There is objectively more to do in other places. Arts, entertainment, cultural diversity, weather, etc. Easy living is easy elsewhere, often with more social outlets than you'll find in the rural Midwest.

Life is better in general elsewhere, though much more pronounced if leaving an urban center like Detroit.
 

Clearos

Member
Thank god I left CT. It's turned into a shit hole for everyone but people with money.

I live in CT and work in New Haven. The list sums it up perfectly sadly. You drive around New Haven and you can basically see the line drawn between poverty and high society.

CT has a horrible imbalance of income even if you take race out of the picture. If you don't live in the New York Suburbs on the west side where 80%(made up number) of the money is.
 

njean777

Member
Houston seems pretty alright. There are poorer areas of course, but I have seen plenty of diversity among the suburbs around it. Of course I could just be blind, and not notice it. Texas's major cities seems pretty ok, but stay the fuck away from east Texas. I don't know much about west texas.
 

Surface of Me

I'm not an NPC. And neither are we.

Hari Seldon

Member
Maybe the list is partially a result of the geography of these north eastern cities. They don't have the sprawl of the big southern and western cities, and therefore it is much easier to self segregate based on established communities.
 
well not completely related but according to Annie E Foundation the best 15 states for raising black families ranked:

15.Oregon
14. Delaware
13.Washington
12.Virginia
11.New Mexico
10.Maine
9.New Jersey
8.South Dakota
7.North Dakota
6.Maryland
5.Massachusetts
4.Alaska
3.Utah
2.New Hampshire
1.Hawaii

http://rollingout.com/news/15-best-states-raise-black-children/16/

So Jersey is somehow in the top 10 here haha.

Kind of sad that 5 of the top 10 are basically "please leave all major population centers for a chance at success."
 

MightyKAC

Member
Not surprised to see Milwaukee, Wi topping that chart AT ALL.

My home town has been leading the charge in segregation since the 80's.

Had to get the hell out of the place as soon as I had means to.
 

Arcia

Banned
Houston seems pretty alright. There are poorer areas of course, but I have seen plenty of diversity among the suburbs around it. Of course I could just be blind, and not notice it. Texas's major cities seems pretty ok, but stay the fuck away from east Texas. I don't know much about west texas.

Yeah, Houston is not too bad. It's nice if you are raising kids here because most of the schools (public ones at least) are filled with students of all races, but especially a lot of Black and Latino kids. Its great because they get to grow up and interact with so many different people and I have to imagine that has a positive effect on their views of race. I was never in a class with just one or two black kids when I was in school there, they were always really well mixed. Definitely made it a more comfortable environment!
 
PA is so accurate because Philly is so segregated it's not even funny. When I moved to Georgia and seen different cultures living on one street, that shit blew my mind.

Same here, Harrisburg PA to Savannah GA, when I go visit family up there it kinda blows my mind. My grandmothers house is near a jewish temple so her area is predominantly white, but the aunts and cousins all live in what is literally all black areas.

Glad I live in a mostly mixed area here.
 
Can't wait for black history month at this pace. My people are on page 1 here on a new topic daily.
Yeah but it's usually bad news. It's not like there isn't good news, it's just that the media and "media-likes", and thread starters in this case, tend to focus on the negative news b/c it generates more headlines, especially with certain minorities.

You'll be more likely to see a thread popping up focused more on race-baiting than you'll find one about little Tammy singing a perfect rendition of some song. Can't blame them too much tho since they're merely parroting what the media does :S.
 
As a resident of Missouri, I'm shocked it's not on this list. I might have to look up the economic data on this state in terms of black Americans and see where in stands in relation to this list.
 

genjiZERO

Member
My parents are moving to just outside of ATL sometime next year, they're getting much more land (and a much nicer house) for their money down there, my friends from Virginia (Richmond) say the same.

Richmond is a nice city. I find it to be very open and the culture there is great too. VCU is the most diverse campus I've ever been on. There's definitely some segregation, but you'll find that everywhere.
 

entremet

Member
That is a lot of blue states on that terrible list.

I kinda feel the whole Blue State stuff is a sham honestly.

Some of the most solidly blue cities have high cost of living, out of control gentrification, terrible public schools, at least the ones in poorer neighborhoods, and poor social mobility.

Hello NYC, SF, and Chicago. Well Chicago isn't too expensive to be fair.

I love those cities personally, by the way.
 
I'm extremely surprised about this because down here we always talking about how fucked up it is and how you couldn't pay us to go into Alabama and Mississippi.
 

Sophia

Member
I live in a small city in Michigan, and yeah.... the institutional racism is pretty bad. Some people are pretty blatant about it too. Not terribly surprised to see it on the list. :\
 

DonasaurusRex

Online Ho Champ
It's definitely an interesting read, but only on the most shallow level. It's easy to say "these states have bad/negative outcomes, here's why we think why", it's harder to say, "these states have better outcomes, here's why they've been successful", and it's even harder to say, "here's what we can do to turn these bad outcomes into good outcomes."

I'm surprised by the Jersey ranking (my home state) because where my parents live I'm surrounded by middle-class black families, but at the same time I'm aware that in terms of wealth most aren't anywhere near most of the white families I know. And then of course there are the bad areas of Newark (though the city as a whole is looking better), Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Camden, etc.

My parents are moving to just outside of ATL sometime next year, they're getting much more land (and a much nicer house) for their money down there, my friends from Virginia (Richmond) say the same.

Property is definitely more affordable below PA , Delaware gets a lot of people down there that can get huge properties for what they are paying up north.
 

JMDSO

Unconfirmed Member
I live in CT and work in New Haven. The list sums it up perfectly sadly. You drive around New Haven and you can basically see the line drawn between poverty and high society.

CT has a horrible imbalance of income even if you take race out of the picture. If you don't live in the New York Suburbs on the west side where 80%(made up number) of the money is.

I lived in the Torrington/Bristol/Waterbury area until I left in 2009.

To watch them all continually decline over the years is very sad. Litchfield still looks great though. :|
 

FStop7

Banned
Not shocked that the majority are northern states.

When I was a kid I saw this movie about a freed slave who ended up living in (I think) New York City. There was a scene where he was in a store and tried to hand money over to the clerk, and the clerk made him put the money down on the counter because he didn't want to touch the hand of a black man. The whole scene just portrayed this sort of shock and disappointment over having come so far only to end up dealing with more bigotry. I wish I could remember what film that was.
 

Kreed

Member
Huh? Why? Florida would be MUCH further down that list compared to other Southern states.

Because of GAF's "Germany, Austria, or Florida" meme that may as well be the "Florida, Florida, or Florida" meme, the Florida open records law, and the Bugs Bunny gif, many GAFers are under the impression that Florida is the worst state in the United States for just about everything.
 

cajunator

Banned
Yes, but we LSU.

The major issue with Louisianians, is people sticking with their own kind. Like only hanging out with people who look like you will make your life so much richer. Also people really don't like change, of any kind. I know every time I go down there, there may be new buildings but the people and the attitudes are like 100 years old.
And people never bring previous generations to task for their bullshit. It's OK if grandma still uses racists terms, because she did when she was younger. I hear this way too much.

Side note: Someone once told me my physics book was a lie and the only book that had truth was the bible. I was too shocked to respond.

Baton Rouge is pretty stuck in its old ways. I could see that being a major problem. That city has always had a certain arrogant mindset from being the capitol and home of LSU and the segregation problem is clearly defined there.

My city still shows some segregation (basically every city does) but its much less pronounced, and major roadways connect the areas of populations together and races intermingle constantly. Thats just the way of life here. If you take a demographic chart you can see areas that are predominantly black or white in terms of living but they arent like walls barring entry. But the balance is probably more because Lafayette has a growing middle class and is generally doing well economically. There are a lot of hard working blue collar white people who do offshore /oil/construction and they live in the same places the black folks do. The mall on the southside isnt a white enclave either, and the northside of town, long thought to be the side where blacks live, has been renovated and economically supported to the point where there isnt huge animosity towards the south end, because there is plenty to do , plenty places to work and shop and get things done all over the city. Some will always be lazy and not do anything to get by, but the opportunities are there here. The money most definitely is on the far south side though, and that part of town and the small towns south of it, are basically lily white bedroom communities (and super expensive)
 
well not completely related but according to Annie E Foundation the best 15 states for raising black families ranked:

15.Oregon
14. Delaware
13.Washington
12.Virginia
11.New Mexico
10.Maine
9.New Jersey
8.South Dakota
7.North Dakota
6.Maryland
5.Massachusetts
4.Alaska
3.Utah
2.New Hampshire
1.Hawaii
Lol at Maryland. No way in hell am I raising kids here. Baltimore specifically though.
 

Lucario

Member
Exactly. Institutionalized racism is harder to do these days in the South with so many African Americans in power positions in the South.

I find a lot of northern liberals, despite feeling they are immune to racism, to be cluelessly racist. So many of them think it is funny to "talk urban" and flash ironic gang signs in pictures. Look at Jon Stewart thinking it was so hilarious Three 6 Mafia won an Oscar.

I live in the northeast, and I can second this. It's disturbing how two-faced people up here can be about racism. It's the worst with affluent white baby boomers, who somehow think it's okay to spout off racial slurs "jokingly" because they went to a demonstration twenty years ago.

Still, I hear similar shit from white acquaintances at school, relatives, and even co-workers. I pass for white, so they think it's okay to tell obnoxiously racist jokes around me. They think it's hilarious. It fucking infuriates me.



A relative of mine used to work with an inner-city afterschool program. In public, he would constantly brag to other people about how much work he was doing with less-priveleged youth, and how much he was giving back to the community.

In private, though? Suddenly he'd be imitating students in a voice that sounded like a fucking vaudeville routine. He'd refer to the kids as 'gangbangers', show me pictures of them flashing "gang signs" (none of them actually were), and would regularly call them "my niggers". I told him how fucked up/racist/unacceptable this was on multiple occasions, and every single time he'd just scoff and say "what are YOU doing for black people?".
 
well not completely related but according to Annie E Foundation the best 15 states for raising black families ranked:

15.Oregon
14. Delaware
13.Washington
12.Virginia
11.New Mexico
10.Maine
9.New Jersey
8.South Dakota
7.North Dakota
6.Maryland
5.Massachusetts
4.Alaska
3.Utah
2.New Hampshire
1.Hawaii

http://rollingout.com/news/15-best-states-raise-black-children/16/

I don't get this list. Hawaii? New Hampshire? Utah? Alaska? Maine? The black populations are miniscule in those states.
 

C4Lukins

Junior Member
Why do I not see this effect in California? Maybe we're 11th on the list? I know I just read an article about diversity in silicone valley dropping big time.

Most of those states were pretty east regardless of the north south dynamic.

I saw the movie Crash, and that film taught me California was the most racist state of all.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
I don't get this list. Hawaii? New Hampshire? Utah? Alaska? Maine? The black populations are miniscule in those states.
That doesn't really matter as long as the outcomes are much better.

Eg, Kansas population is 5% (which is really small) but there are 3,000 per 100k incarcerations, with only 1/3 owning homes and double the unemployment as everyone else.

So, even if Utah or Hawaii have a small populations, the number of incarcerations would likely be lower, home ownership would be higher, and so would the unemployment rate.
 
In visual form.

wJajOyl.jpg
 

Clockwork

Member
I'm not surprised that Wisconsin is #1. I mean, you have the entire stadium yelling a racial slur at every Packers game.

Huh?

I live in NE Wisconsin and work in GB. I have been to Packer games and am near the stadium on a frequent basis.

I can't ever recall experiencing what you describe.

I do agree about Milwaukee though. Even certain family members of mine down there (predominantly upper middle class republicans) are blatantly racist. Last Christmas when I visited one of them was talking about "boo people" and I was totally disgusted.
 
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