I lived in Southern California and Los Angeles for a good chunk of my adult life. I would not recommend it for black people who want to preserve blackness and black culture. It's not really like that.
Also black people are definitely below all races/ethnicities including Mexicans. So you feel a nagging feeling of inferiorty constantly. So you can't blame folks for feeling the need to swirl to improve the racial status off their children. It's how it is out there.
I made the conscious decision to move to DC to get away from that toxic place. That's why you have to watch how you examine stats. West Virginia and other places shouldn't be combined in the DMV metro area. I actually ran census stats in grad school on IR marriage. Nothing in the East or South fukks with California as a state.
Trust me, the DMV is no where near a close second to the LA metro IR wise. In LA I could go a week without seeing a black/black couple. Out here I go a week without seeing reverse (I don't venture out to NoVA, Mo County that often
). Not close at all.