Is DC and its suburbs segregated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:do people not see all the biracial families walking around?

Who are mostly Asian and White!

But back to the topic, part of DC is "diverse" but overall, DC itself is very segregated by race and income. Even "diverse" neighborhoods like Columbia Heights and U Street are very self-segregated. Whites stick with whites, blacks with blacks, and etc. If what you're looking for is an integrated neighborhood (a place where people genuinely see past race in determining their neighbors, friends, and lovers), you're better off going to either a middle class suburb in Montgomery County like Rockville, Silver Spring, or Germantown, or a county in Northern VA outside of the beltway i.e. Fairfax, Prince William, or Loudoun. I personally think that overall, Northern VA is the most integrated and least racist part of the area despite how many people want to trash on how it's in a "Red(neck) State."

I'm a black person in my mid twenties, and I find it Hell to socialize in the city. The main reason is because I don't culturally relate to a lot of blacks in DC (unlike what many of you liberal geniuses think, all backs don't like Go-Go & Rap, and embrace the HBCU pompousness), and hence most people I culturally relate to are mostly people outside my race, or blacks who are assimilated." I'm coming to the realization that covert racial tension is one of the reasons (along with the high density of extremely snobby and self-absorbed people). People talk about how many young professionals there are and how many neighborhoods they have full of them, but race is the main determination on how you'll be welcomed. If you're not white or Asian, forget about many of the "yuppie" neighborhoods like Georgetown or Foggy Bottom. And if you're black, you better fit into being "black enough," or forget about being welcomed into places like DC's Harlem a la U Street. And the Latinos do their own thing apart from everyone else. It honestly sickens me how a place that touts to be so liberal and educated can be the racially segregated and covertly racist. It's much worse than the "good ol' South" where at least the people have the balls to admit their racism.

So for any young people in their twenties who are thinking of coming to DC, if you enjoy self-segregation, feel free to move, you'll be more than welcomed <enter sarcasm>. However, if you're a person who finds race-based cliques to be beyond dumb, think twice before coming over. There are well-integrated suburbs, but nearly all of those places are designed for established families and aren't really spots for twenty-something to live and socialize.

The irony of your post is that you manage to negatively stereotype both blacks AND whites -- is there any wonder why you're having a hard time making friends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a black DC native in my mid-thirties and while I get what you're saying, but I have not felt "unwelcome" in any sector of the city. Not really sure what you mean by HBCU pompousness (I think the black Ivy grads are more pompous IMO), but there are black people here that aren't into the go-go/rap scene, and probably would fall into the "not black enough" assimilated category you're describing. There are a ton of us here, living all over the area ... not sure why you're missing us.

I know there are intellectual and non-ghetto blacks out in DC, but for the most part, they themselves have pretty much found their own groups, usually as the token black person. Granted that there's nothing wrong with that, but I tend to find that many "token blacks" in this city want to the be the only token black person in their group, so that in itself becomes a competition and as a result, another kind of racial animosity.

You need to get out more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a black DC native in my mid-thirties and while I get what you're saying, but I have not felt "unwelcome" in any sector of the city. Not really sure what you mean by HBCU pompousness (I think the black Ivy grads are more pompous IMO), but there are black people here that aren't into the go-go/rap scene, and probably would fall into the "not black enough" assimilated category you're describing. There are a ton of us here, living all over the area ... not sure why you're missing us.

I know there are intellectual and non-ghetto blacks out in DC, but for the most part, they themselves have pretty much found their own groups, usually as the token black person. Granted that there's nothing wrong with that, but I tend to find that many "token blacks" in this city want to the be the only token black person in their group, so that in itself becomes a competition and as a result, another kind of racial animosity.

Yeah, I don't know where or with whom you're hanging out, but you're really missing a huge slice of the black population here. Your characterization of black DC is missing the mark in my experience.

[Anonymous]

Somewhat. I didn't read through the whole thread (long!) but I think it's partly because people want to live near other people like themselves so they're comfortable. Whole communities arose because one family bought in, then another, then others were drawn to the area, then businesses started to serve them, which attracted others of the same ethnicity. I'm thinking of the large Vietnamese community in Falls Church, the Korean community in Annandale, etc. I think political leaning had something to do with it too - I'm guessing blacks chose to live in MD rather than VA more often because they historically voted democratic than republican and Maryland leaned democratic for a long time. (Plus VA was seen as more of a southern - i.e. slave-owning - state, perhaps?)

My neighborhood's very diverse. I literally see families of every race and ethnicity when we walk through the neighborhood. It's a neighborhood of townhouses, pretty reasonably priced for the area. Judging from the cars, there's a pretty wide range of economic diversity too. (my street has several BMWs, Volvos and Saabs, but also a rusted-out pickup truck and a civic painted with flames.)