Out-migration, gentrification and expensive housing has had significant effect in the last American city of dreams.
www.truthdig.com
Mentions
-Mexicans
-Black politicians and needing a new Black org
-Gentrification
I always wanted to live in California, but it's strictly for the wealthy at this point.
Even Inglewood looks like Black ppl are leaving the city
There is no doubt that there are fewer Black Angelenos, and Black Californians, than in generations past. Everything the article mentioned is correct but I want to mention three things:
•one, given the fact this Black exodus of LA has been a thing since the 70s, it's slowing down, and will bottom out at some point in the next decade, two max. Proof is an educated hypothesis:
Historical Population of Black Los Angeles
1900: 2100 (2% of LA's population)
1910: 7599 (2.4%, +261.9% from prior decade)
1920: 15,579 (2.7%, +105%)
1930: 40,000 (3.2%, +156.8%)
1940: 63,774 (4.2%, +59.4%)
1950: 200,000 (10.2%, +213.6%)
1960: 350,000 (14.1%, +75%)
1970: 500,000 (17.8%, +42.9%)
1980: 495,723 (16.7%, -0.9%)
1990: 460,893 (13.2%, -7%)
2000: 401,986 (10.9%, -12.8%)
2010: 365,118 (9.6%, -9.2%)
2020: 323,596 (8.3%, -11.4%)
LA peaked in black population in '70, as both percentage and total population. Over 435,000 black people moved to LA in the 30 years between 1940 and 1970, that was really Black LA's Golden Era. In the 50 years between the '70 and 2020 Census, over 175,000 black people have left LA, most coming in the 90s...
2010s era gentrification spiked a higher exodus than in the 00s, but with more groups aimed at preserving Black community like those mentioned in the article, there'll likely be fewer Black people leaving LA in the 20s than in the 10s, or at very least flat (~42,000 black people left LA in the 10s, the 20s will be around that same number +/- 10%)...
So by 2030, we'll see an LA with around 275,000 black people, which will hold somewhere between 7.5-8% of the city population. I personally think the worst if the exodus is over. Long time Angelenos have seen the worst of it, we'd have to have a markedly worse social and economic climate to accelerate the exodus and I don't forsee that happening...
My paternal family started in California in the early 50s, with my great-grandfather emigrating to San Francisco from Alabama somewhere between 1951 and '52 (SF is in way worse shape than LA, but more on that later). My maternal family landed in LA in '73, when my grandma moved all her kids from Arkansas to Sacramento, along with her sisters and their kids...
My LA family is extended family, came in 1980 from Arkansas, so they came at the beginning of LA's black flight. I was in LA a month and a half ago, and my aunt and uncle I stayed with when I was young in the 90s, I was talking to them about the shift in South Central, and they believe the worst is over as well. The problem is, how do we draw black people back to LA----->because while the worst of the flight is likely over, we aren't gaining us in any strong number. We're still trickling out losses in population...
•two, LA has always had both black wealth and a stable black middle class, unique among large California, even large Western cities. As long as LA has that, and it's still there despite shrinking over time, there will be a visible black presence in LA...
In 1980 South Central was 80% black, today it's still 28% black. We still have the population base...
•three, the article halfway thru makes a poignant statement that can't be overlooked:
When you look at the South, at Alabama for instance, Black folks are saying, “We need majority Black districts to elect Black folks,’” he says. “It’s the opposite in California. There are no majority Black districts here. Even though we’ve had Black elected officials, we’re still on the back of the bus.”
As someone who has been in the South for awhile, the struggles in MOST areas here are the other side of the coin----->California is and has elected black officials without majority Black districts in a long, long time...
Down here, you're likely not getting a black representative UNLESS the district is more than 50% black. It's the same systemic racism but it looks different because there are more black people here but the road to equality in many cases isn't less strenuous. These mf's won't even look at your area seriously without a black majority here, in California it's hard for black causes to get support but we had traction despite not having the representation...
The South as a whole is the best place for black people in the nation but there are holes here. Cities with esteemed black histories like Charleston and Miami are dropping black population faster than LA. There are majority black cities like Memphis and Jackson that are mired in systemic black oppression (Jackson water crisis recently illustrates this); there are a bunch of majority Black cities and areas here where the quality of life is mid, because while the population is majority Black, the people and systems that control those cities, the MONEY and POWER, is not black...
And Texas cities are gaining black people in volume but are losing the demographic shift to Hispanics similar to what happened in California before them, there are twice as many Hispanics in Dallas and Houston as there are black people. And those are the "black" Texas cities, it's worse on other Texas cities...
Here in Raleigh, South Raleigh is majority Black (58%) but gentrification and a rising cost of living is eating into that, just 20 years ago South Raleigh was about 10 percentage points blacker. Here where I am in North Raleigh we still have a larger population than Hispanics, but they are moving to this side of the city faster, it's feasible that within 20 years there'll be more Hispanics than blacks here, so how will the city handle that demographic shift?
My point, it's easy to highlight how much better the South is than other regions for us, based on a larger foundation of black people, lower cost of living, but the issues here persist as well!
Personally, I say find your place. If you want to move to California, LA and Sacramento are still safe. I'll be between Raleigh and Sacramento probably for the rest of my life, this is where I'm at. It isn't perfect for us anywhere, so we find our place that's perfect for us. Most big cities outside the South are losing black people back to the South. St Louis is in big trouble. There are articles like this LA article, on Chicago and New York...
Find your place, g!
