At one point in the history of the United States, Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, was a city known for three things: crack, black people, and Marion Barry. Well slowly but surely, the powers that be have been doing what they can to eradicate DC of all three.
Marion Barry fell from public view but has resurged lately and even got himself re-elected for public office in his ward in the dirty District. But he’s not the same Marion Barry. I really must take a moment here to big him up for creating one of the best taglines to ever make it onto a t-shirt:
The Bitch Set Me Up.
Classic.
Crack has become one of those things that is disappearing on its own. Now that’s not to say that crack is gone. It’s still a thriving business, ironically, even in my new currently gentrifying neighborhood in DC. You know what they say though, you can lead a horse to water, but a crackhead needs a hit!!!
However, most of the crack trade is now focused on people who got hooked in the early ’80s, still managed to be living, and somehow still manage to scrap up 5 or 10 dollars here and there for a hit.
Hmm…at this point, is there any reason to believe that any new crackheads are really popping up onto the scene? As a people, we’ve seen what crack did to the community and twenty years later you’d think, or at least hope, that accessions to the crackhead rolls would be declining rapidly. Of course, the same can be said for cigarettes and its effects and just yesterday I saw a 3-year old lighting up a Newport.
Poor kid…somebody should have given him some crack.
Crack has given way to other drugs such as heroin, which is a growing drug of choice in the DC/Baltimore area.
***Public Service Announcement Alert***
If you don’t have to, never go to Baltimore. You’re life is just better that way.
***END Public Service Announcement Alert***
And last but not least, DC has done what it can to eradicate the city of what??? You guessed it: black people. I was thumbing through the internet today and found myself on the Washington Post website. As usual, I read up on the national, world, and local news and came across this article with this title:
Census Finds More Whites In D.C., Close Va. Suburbs
Now I don’t care about the closer-in Virginia suburbs, because, well…no shit. It’s the suburbs and unless you’re in Maryland, or more specifically DC-suburb Maryland, you’re going to run into majority white cities and towns. Hell, it’s what suburbs were made for. But what caught my eye was the fact that more and more white people are moving into DC. Now this isn’t a surprise to me as I’ve written about that before and with Starbucks continuing its evil plans to take over the world this really is just water under the bridge.
Apparently, the black population of Washington, DC, has declined to 57 percent.
57 percent.
The white population of DC has reached a high of 30 percent. Well, a high since us niggas moved in and scared the shit out of white people forcing them to move to the suburbs. Not anymore though, they want back in…and they’re willing to pay to do it. Yes, homes in DC are fetching as much as $7-800,000 in neighbhorhoods that three or four years ago white people wouldn’t be seen in and where homes were fetching probably a good $100,000. Yes, the white people are everywhere and pricing African Americans straight the hell out of the city.
With less black people and a black mayor who seems to have very little interest in the needs and concerns of his black electorate, what was formerly Chocolate City has now become more of a city with a bunch of broke ass chocolate people who, whether they know it or not, are on the way out.
The District’s black majority, now 57 percent, has been declining for years, and some longtime African American residents worry that their concerns will be frozen out by an increasingly powerful white electorate. But civil rights activist Lawrence T. Guyot Jr. said those worries can be addressed.
“If we are honest about having an open dialogue on race before it’s too late, we can deal with anything,” said Guyot, who lives in the gentrifying LeDroit Park neighborhood near Howard University.
This really has nothing to do with what I’m getting at but can I just have a moment here to say, very emphatically…
…when will we realize that an open dialogue on race is never coming. Honestly…why are we holding our breath on this?? I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but there are is one major problem with hoping this will ever happen.
Having an open dialogue on race would require white people to admit that there NEEDS to be an open dialogue on race.
NOT.
GONNA.
HAPPEN.
My mother’s white and even she has told me at times that I place too much emphasis on race and that its not that big a deal. Sometimes, my mother makes my heart bleed.
But I digress.
Back to whatever point I may have had. I don’t think DC, the once mecca of black thought and opinion; the area once as wonderful for black people as Harlem; should call it self Chocolate City anymore. Reason being??
It’s not chocolate city. Calling yourself the Chocolate City implies to me that its a place where blackness is just felt everywhere. Black business, black thought, black love, ummm…black people. The nickname Chocolate City to me implies black city where black people have some say in their affairs since they make up the majority. It’s a city where you will be black and die, but on the way you’ll make some noise and stomp down the Avenue in your best and turn the city out.
Umm…that ain’t happenin’ in DC anymore.
DC doesn’t even feel like a black city to me. Yes there are lots of black people still here. But truthfully, it doesn’t feel like a city where black people are thriving or running anything. There is no black center anymore. All of the uber-successful black people moved out into the suburbs and left their broke cousins and friends behind. What DC has been left with is a city with very rich white people, and very broke black and brown people. This isn’t to say there aren’t any middle class black people in DC, or even rich black people, because there are. But not enough to make a difference.
In essence, black people doesn’t equal black city. It’s just a major city with black people in it.
Are you looking for the Chocolate City??
Hmm…you better take your ass to Atlanta.
1. Heroin was pre-crack. I know people who were on heroin back in the day and never made the switch to crack. Other people have lived healthy and still died before most of these old school heroin addicts.
2. New people get hooked on crack everyday. The person I wrote about in my post yesterday, her ass got hooked on crack. The b*tch was 40+ so she knew better. But what happened…She was screwing her man, and he handed her the pipe. The rest is history. Also, it’s easy to get hooked on crack if someone starts by lacing your weed with it.
3. The whites are slpwoly taking over certain formerly rough parts of Soufeass too!!! Since the stadium is coming, all up and through Anacostia, you see new doors and windows going in. Even across the river!!
Good Post.
***Public Service Announcement Alert***
If you don’t have to, never go to Baltimore. You’re life is just better that way.
***END Public Service Announcement Alert***
AGREED! I remember going through there once…and that was ENOUGH!
On Atlanta, it seems to be every Black person’s oasis. I get so tired of hearing about it. Maybe because I’ve been here for forever, but it’s almost like if you’re Black and don’t love ATL, something’s wrong with you… (sigh)
dammit man…you done dunnit! actually done put up a post that shames me to no end. DC is no longer “Chocolate City”…aww nah! i confess we’ve become “Oreo Village”…brittle chocolate cookies on the outside [east of the river NE and SE], but sweet vanilla frosting on the inside [pick anywhere downtown]!
we all know how Oreos are eaten. nobody just bites into an Oreo! you pull it apart and lick out the middle! or you’re dippin’ it in a big ass vat of milk to loosen the chocolate exterior!
i need someone to blame for this! dammit who should i blame? i know…
i blame George and Weezy for all their damn “movin’ on up to the eastside” ways! Dem bitches set me up!
Atlanta may be the new Chocolate City….
But PG is Chocolate County.
That is until we are gentrified out to Charles County.
Wow, I guess Columbus is kinda the same thing…when it comes to gentrification. There are some areas I still won’t drive around in after dusk, that white people are hightailing it to.
BTW…the revamped site looks really nice.
I love, love the new layout. I see you’re still up to your novel-length posts. hehehe It’s only because I love reading them that I print them out and take them wherever I go. *waiting on printer to stop*
*still waiting*
*2 hours later — still waiting*
You DC folk always feel so superior to Baltimore. As you stated you have a black mayor, that could give a f**k about his decreasing majority. At least O’Malley not only cares about his niggra’s but sometimes I think he believes he is one himself. You guys have no status in this country. You have a representative that can make suggestions to congress or beg on your behalf but can not actually vote on anything on your behalf. That will not change probably unless the white minority closes the gap.
I got love for DC too, I grew up in Gaithersburg so DC was my haven back in the day for other brown folk. So, I try not to hate on yall. I will say that Bmore is more of a blue collar town and DC is for the “professional” crew. Not exclusively of course.
And like someone stated earlier Heroin has always been around it just moved to the back of the drug bus. Heroin is more of the working man’s drug. Meaning people can work to maintain their addiction and is less dangerous to the community because of this. Meth is going to be the new crack though. For now this seams to be mostly the drug of choice for the melanin deficient.
*final pages coming off printer* hehehe
I had time to read this one, while I waited. LMAO Atlanta might be seen as a Chocolate City, but black thoughts and all that other stuff ain’t necessarily bursting at the seams here. You know the term over-rated? Yup, that’s the ATL. All this chocolate, yet very little economical power. Too many people spend too much money in too many of the wrong places.
Heroin was pre-crack…everybody’s clearly right on that one. As was coca-in-e. Got to love the good ole days.
As far as my loathing for Baltimore. I don’t actually think DC is superior to Baltimore. I actually prefer neither. However, Bmore and Detroit (hey KK!) are two cities where things just seem like hell at times.
Now as far as y’all folks baggin’ on ATL. I think stuff is all relative. Living in DC for the past 4 years, DC just doesn’t seem like the black mecca it used to be. It’s missing something and I feel that something in Atlanta. Could be b/c its home. SWATS NIGGA!!!!
Y’all gonna back back off Atlanta shawty. Or I’mma blow ya off the map A.S.A.P.
I’m going home this weekend so I’m kind of excited. Sorry!
I had to come back and just say this…And I admit I’m going straight tangental all up in your comments…
I know a lot of Black men who have benefitted from moving into questional neighborhoods before the great Starbuckian (white) take-over. I can’t do that. I can’t move in and have Ray-Ray and Pookie ‘Nem selling crack out of my back yard and stealing my electricity to power their boom boxes as they break dance well into the night. (Yes, i know drug dealers don’t break dance, but u get my point.) I can’t up and move to a neighborhood and wait for the property value to go up. It just isn’t safe. I wanna buy low and sell high too!!! I wanna watch as Ray’Twon and nem move out to PG County (Exit 17 and below)!! I wanna watch my property value increase to the point that nobody can afford to move on my block!!! But dammit, I value my safety!!!
You should write about how unfair that shyt it!!
Lawd o lawd this is my hot button issue. I can’t say this enough, I voted to anthony and I’ll vote for him again because he’s looking out for Me..the middle class black chick with a mortgage who wants city services and wants to walk to local bars and restaurants and not just to the local checkers and poepyes. So what anthony is also doing is bringing big business and investment back to D.C. now my question is what should he be doing to keep black people in D.C? I want someone to answer that one for me.
People there are homebuying programs out there for folks who don’t have a hell of a lot of money. I know cause that’s how I got my house and guess what the whites know and that’s how a lot of them are buying up D.C. KK made a good point, some folks aren’t too comfortable investing in a sketchy area but guess what the whites aren’t.
Keep Black folks in the District? Not gonna happen. everybody wanna blame whites and coffee shops, but Mr and Mrs White ain’t forcing people outta their homes. It’s simple math…and a little collective action problem. Like this:
Joe Dark owns a house that he’s had for 30 years. Mr. Dark has lived next to the breakdancing crackslangers for the last 10 years and his property has hovered around 100K. Then, Jim White moves in, with Starbucks and Home Depot (who, by the way, moved in because the land was cheap and Mayor T-Dub put on the clear heels for them). All of the sudden Mr. Dark’s house is work 400K. He could stay, and just embrace his new equity, or he could move to Bowie and have a yard and left over money to retire on.
I know tax increases price some people out, but most big cities (DC included, I think) have tax increase ceilings for existing residents to avoid that very problem. And as for keeping Chocolate City Chocolatty, well you’d have to convince all those who are taking the money and running that, as a group, they’d be better off. I’ve seen my people argue for 2 hours over the directions to Taboo…’nuff said.
It’s funny because I own a home in Pittsburgh, PA and i’ve watched the section 8 system gradually move all of the folks who live closest to the city out to the suburbs…and of course our people being the “dumb ass niggas” we are, thought that we were getting over on them by moving into the very neighborhoods that didn’t want there in the first place. However to a lot of folks surprise it was the worst move thet had ever made…because now they not only lived in the burbs far away from everything, they couldn’t get to work without riding two buses and the local mom & pop wasn’t near when Lexus and Chardonay needed milk for cereal…all the while the pale face folks are much closer to the stadium that the Pengiuns play hockey in and to Saxs Fifth Avenue all in walking distance as we in our childhood had done for years. They have bought out a lot of older people for peanuts and displaced them to areas where they can get around for day to day needs…long gone are the days of sending little dude to the corner store to get you a “two liter of pepsi and a loaf of bread for dinner” and “boy bring back my change!” sad part is i’m just waiting for the starbucks to appear to make it all official.