(from the Quora Archives - Feb 2016)
Q: Do they mostly live in DC and ATL?
A: It's more or less true. Among my peers who generally have graduate degrees, there are a handful of cities that are considered when they want to start off their careers. I would say that there is a select subset of folks who, like me, got fairly deeply into black organizations, clubs or fraternal orgs in college. So we had a certain social credibility that we wanted to extend into our professional lives. So for that kind of glory, we would naturally ask, where are the smartest, coolest most well-connected black folks going to be found in America?
The DC area became one of those spots primarily because of the number of political connections that could be had. While the Congressional Black Caucus was in its heyday and one might be within whispering distance of power brokers like Ron Brown or Kweisi Mfume, there was no better place to be than inside the Beltway. So what generally happened was that the reputation and the actual demographics of Prince George's County went through the roof. 'PG' County was still pretty high up the list last time I checked.
It bears repeating that among the black elite, there are hangouts and vacation spots that are popular just as with all elites. Again I can only speak about what was hot back in the late 80s to mid 90s when I was one of those singles trying to maximize. All you have to look for, really, was the National Brotherhood of Skiiers Summits, or perhaps a Sinbad concert in Jamaica. Also the Essence Awards were a very cool place to make such connections. Talking to those folks, you could easily find out where the cool kids were living.
I lived for a short time adjacent to Fort Greene in Brooklyn where Spike Lee hung out. Soon after I got married, I headed down (by mutual agreement) to Atlanta. I still have fond memories of tooling through the suburbs just East of downtown out Cascade Road and admiring that particular set of upscale black residences. Oh. look that's where Evander Holyfield lives. Oh, Gladys Knight lives over in that neighborhood. In the end, I returned to Los Angeles, but for a time I was seriously flirting with that particular suburban lifestyle. It's all about the right neighborhood and the right church in the right city.
What's particularly appealing about these enclaves is that they come automatically with a Cosby-Show prestige. (No matter what Cosby does now, does not erase that glory which was the Huxtables). It's something that matters less these days, but back in the times before people even considered Colin Powell, this was about as prestigious as you could get.
Understand that this primarily applies to black Americans in the upper middle class, folks who can pick and choose more or less where they want to live. But rich black Americans require a little less of this prestige. I mean when you actually are Evander Holyfield or Prince, you can build your house where ever and *you* make the neighborhood, rather than the neighborhood making you.
Los Angeles still has some prestige. There are established neighborhoods like View Park, Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills that still have drawing power. Also certain parts of Altadena and Pasadena have that old school appeal. But as I talk you young folks now coming out of grad programs with minds for money, they are not so concerned with such associations. They are buying real estate for market value in unfashionable neighborhoods, improving them and then selling them or renting them out. Similarly, my kids now in their 20s pay little attention to the old school prestige of these traditionally upscale black neighborhoods.
I think that there is nothing particularly unusual about this. Black America is simply a much larger ethnic group and every part of it does not mainstream or rise in society at once. I've known folks with five generations of college whose fortunes have risen and fallen and risen again, all with different relationships with these neighborhoods and their equivalents in foreign countries. But I think there will always be some upscale black folks around DC, ATL, NYC and LA. That's an American tradition. (Chicago, I don't know.)
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