Are You a Black Person Who Left New York with the Shirt on Your Back?

Why do I continue to read so many stories about African-Americans leaving New York City? When Harlem was opened up, it was a center of Black intellectual activity. Even after those days had passed and the neighborhoods were decimated by heroin, and then crack cocaine, hip-hop came out of New York City and the African-American community was at the center of Black artistic expression once again.

So the question remains; just how friendly is New York City to African-Americans. Are you trying to survive, trying to get through the day without being harassed by the police and being searched or are you trying to stick it out and determined to make it? I have my own theories about African-Americans that have left New York City. I have always maintained that it is not about an urban lifestyle for African-Americans as much as it is simply being in a place that has everything that a Black person needs to express one's self. You do not have to be in the inner city for this to occur anymore because there are plenty of Black suburbs in cities across the nation.

New York City may have the highest concentration of Blacks, but if you look at the demographics, the numbers have always been a relatively low percentage overall in comparison to other cities in the Midwest and the South. The highest percentage of African-Americans the city had ever experienced was 28%, and that was in 1990. It has been a little bit different in the Bronx and Brooklyn, where Blacks have comprised of more than 30% of the population of each borough since the eighties. But New York City is an exceptionally segregated city; it is the sheer size of the population that is impressive, not the demographics. There are no "Black Boroughs" in New York City, Black neighborhoods perhaps, but the entire borough, not a chance.

If Blacks are leaving New York City it may be that they do not see themselves in the city as they once could. The city was never a "chocolate city" to begin with, and it has always been difficult. However it has become difficult for anyone that isn't middle class to make it in New York, and even for those that are middle class, less than $150,000 a year is not a lot of money in the city anymore. What New York City can offer African-Americans is the ability to live in areas where hundreds of thousands of Black people can co-exist across different socio-economic levels. Clearly, there are parts of New York City where African-Americans are all you will see, and the idea of loosing yourself in one of those neighborhoods among your own people is intoxicating and part of the dream of a Black person who wants to live in New York, or is it?

If Black culture can be found anywhere in this country, and Black intellectual activity can be found anywhere, and no longer confined to Harlem, or cities like Washington DC or Atlanta, what would be the reason that a Black person would want to live in New York? Has anyone thought that there may be African-Americans that can compete with everyone else that has an interest in the intellectual and artistic pursuits of the city that are simple, intellectual and artistic ideas, not necessarily Black ideas?

This should be put into perspective; despite the gentrification and "Disneyfication" of New York City there remains an air of intellectualism, artistic achievement, and a respect for urban exploration that you cannot find in other cities. In Chicago it exists, to an extent, but some would say that Chicago is clean, and that it is still part of the Midwest. In southern cities like Atlanta and Charlotte you can find it, but people do not seem to care that much about downtown in either city. Texas has interesting cities, but Texas is still Texas. Miami is a nice city but you have to push the beautiful people out of the way to see what else the city has to offer. What New York City has to offer, is far more than the trappings of bourgeois Black intellectualism. It is a beautiful city; but you have to appreciate the ugly exterior and listen to the stories of the people in order to get a sense of just how poetic it can be.

Black intellectualism does not always pay the bills. It works for academics that can make a career out of being controversial, poignant, and provocative, but the rest of America could care less about it. If Black people need jobs and they cannot find them in the city they are going to move elsewhere. Black people need to open up their own businesses and heal the wounds of the Black communities they have abandoned for greener pastures, as opposed to worrying about Black intellectualism. Intellectualism is not professionalism, and intellectualism is not consciousness. These are the issues that are more important right now.

Too often we assume that something merely happens to be wrong with the world in the absence of intellectualism. We quickly forget that intellectualism is often a conspicuous pursuit for those with the money and means, and time, to pursue creativity because their needs have been met. Mentally, it doesn't take that much to make money. You can make a lot of money without being the sharpest tool in the shed. Most African-Americans that are making a lot of money have focused their efforts on being a good businessman, and could care less about intellectualism. A lot of African-Americans have realized that they could either make more money outside of the city or that they can stretch their money further than they ever could in New York. We go where the opportunities are at; Harlem was the place to go at a time when our voices were oppressed and we wanted to live outside of the social norms of the South. These days many have found that same energy in the South; no it isn't the same as what you find New York, but if it works for someone why knock it? New York City still has that rarified air; but can African-Americans enjoy it to the same degree as the hipsters, trust fund babies and socialites that continue to flock there?