Black Women : Why Do We Keep Running?

Thandiwe

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Mar 30, 2001
680
2
Minnesota
well, i'll probably piss a few more people off with this topic. :D

something has been bothering me for quite awhile. i wonder why we are so quick to leave our neighborhoods. i've lived in my neighborhood for 32 years. moved here at age 5 with my mom. we have lived in the same area during this time. though we don't have rampant crime like in other larger metro areas, we do face similiar problems. poor schools, neglected properties, failing schools, and the other problems seen in black neighborhoods.

the area i live in has a great history. the ronda area in the 60s was know for it's black owned homes and businesses. interstate 94 divided the community. today we celebrated Rondo annually. thing is now, many of us have to come back to the neighborhood to participate in the festival.

we have large victorian style homes in the area; hardwood floors, built in buffet large dining area and bathrooms, basement and attics. we occupied many of these dwelling in my early years. we also had to deal with immigrants being deposited into your neighborhood starting in the middle 70s. in the late 90s, it was africans.

asians have created many businesses in our areas, live in the homes were use to occupy and own, and the neighborhood is going through a revitalization.

and guess what, we're locked out. the white folx also wants this part of th town back. it just minutes from downtown and right in the middle is highway 94 making it easy to travel to twin sister city - Minneapolis.

this is what bothers me. we are quick to holler gentrification, and yes i do believe it exists. however, when we start making more money, moving up the corporate ladder, become middle class we want to move to greener yards, thinking life will be better. we say we are moving away from crime and providing our children with better education. however, soon that place you move starts to see more of the element you thought you moved away from. why? it's a cycle. instead of improving conditions our neighborhoods and schools, we move one. the same people you try to leave, end up living right next door to ya. what i mean, white folx don't want to see us moving next door. one might be okay, but two or more, then they start spacking up and seeking greener yards and higher white picket fences.

now we're mad cuz we can't afford to buy home or pay rent in our old neighborhood. the city has dumped money back into our area. we are just a jump skip and hop away from downtown and the newly renovationed convention center. we had opportunity at one time to seek funds. in too many instances, our black leaders cheated us out of the money.

now we are seeking school vouchers instead of demanding better teaching practices, higher expectations. in most cases the parent chooses a religious school which takes money away from public schools.

a neighborhood and i was recently talking about the schools our children attend. she says her daughter is quite bright and might put her into a exceleration school next year. i asked her why she didn't suggest this to the school her daugher currently attends. i explained that she would not only be doing a service for her daughter, the school, but for other parents and students as well. afterall, she had no other complaints about the school.

we also have the issue of crime. we generally don't trust the police and the justice system. this is not without reason. however, we don't help keep our neighborhoods safe(r).

should we keep moving to hopefully better neighborhoods or stay and fight for better services and neighborhoods?
 
STAY !!!!!...... why run jump or hop to a place that's just as bad
in da end when u can stay home fight back and seek better
services for our own surely the funds is their as well as better
teachers and bond together to clean up the neighborhood
i feel ya i've been in one place for many years why move !
 
let me put in my 2 cents...
I was raised in the suburbs in southern CA so I don't have a lot of experience with our "inner city's." When I went to college in Takoma Park, MD and was able to explore Washington DC for myself, I fell in love with the city, yet it seemed like the parts of the city occupied by poor Blacks was run down and dangerous. The parts of the city with mixed residents (Black, white, and other) was clean and nice. It still bothers me that it's that way because if you're proud of what you have you should take care of it, right? I'm not gonna live somewhere where I'm the only one who cares about my stuff and a whole lot of others are just trashing it, whether they're rich or poor Black or white.

Maybe those that leave the area feel that no one else is trying to keep it up, so they need to go to "greener pastures" because they can't do it all themselves. And it's a political thing with all the gentrification going on in major cities nowadays. Some leave so that they can have more space, because let's be real, you can have only so much yard space in the city.

I don't know. I'd live in the city now if I could afford what I want (which happens to be in the mixed area). I'll be honest and say that I'm not going to move into a run down area just to so I can say that I'm living with my people. I'm not saying that all black areas are run down either. Where I want to live is rich with black families and it's so hard to get in there!

Anyway, sorry for running on and on... Gimme feedback. -7:spinstar:
 
Greetings Thandiwe, I was in a discussion of this very nature with a sister here in Atlanta, that has property in the inner city but lives in the surburbs and is considering going back to the city and building on her property. She said that riding through her old neighborhood where she was raised, brought tears to her eyes while looking at the conditions in which her childhood memories served her as awesome had deteriorated.

She wanted to know what should she do. Should she just sell the property and remain where she was or rebuild? The only answer I could offer was that one must pick their battles in life. If she wanted to return to her childhood home and had the strength, and commitment to constantly fight the power structure that have turned their backs on the prosperity and growth of her neighborhood, then by all means....return and be a warrior that her community needed; but just know that it would not be easy.

Another person suggested that she remained where she was because it wasn't worth the aggravation and frustration she would suffer if she'd returned.

She later said that she was going to return...but she had a plan. It was a great plan. I believe she was going to rebuild a shelter of some sort on the property that would serve the community (or something to that effect). I applaude her. Perhaps if I was faced with that situation in the neighborhood where I was raised, I would too do something similar as her. But for me to go into a depressed community without any historical attachments is something that I don't think I would have enough resolve to do.

Wildflower7's comments closely reflect mind's in a lot of ways. However, if this was my childhood community...I might have a differing opinion.
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top