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African American Professionals in Charlotte

CherryPink

By CherryPink
in Charlotte Coffee House

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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

Posted
Posted

I am originally from Charlotte, creative name I came up with isn't it, and can say that I have seen racism in Charlotte, but not from everyone and certainly nothing like it was 30 or so years ago. I am white but was not raised a racist. I had a single mom and grew up in predominatly mixed if not black neighborhoods so I might have been insulated from a lot of racism.

I have many black friends, and my experience with Charlotte is there aren't a lot of African American bars and restaurants because we are actually integrated and don't draw lines with race. My friend base is probably right in line with the 33% stat given earlier. When I go out anywhere I always see people of all races and plenty of mixed couples. I am also gay and see the same with that scene -- I've been asked plenty of times where the gay part of town is and there really isn't one like most cities have.

My black friends seem to be quite happy here and in our group, and most places i go, most people seem colorblind.

As for public professionals this seems like fertile soil as well. Bobby Drakeford has done great things (and was actually accused of being racist and trying to run blacks out of 1st Ward with the announcement of one of his projects -- they didn't realize he was African American also), Neighboring Concepts (architecture firm) is well known and owned by two black principals -- they work on many developments all over and are instrumental in a lot of public projects like Third Ward Park, Bob Johnson -- already covered here.

I think we are very welcoming and hope I am right!

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voyager12 Town

voyager12

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There are certainly gay friendly if not gay areas of Charlotte in this gay's opinion :w00t: Dilworth, Plaza-Midwood Elizabeth, basically every close in city neighborhood is very open minded, which speaks very well for Charlotte as a city. But there I go again ranting and getting tangential and I have made a vow not to get in trouble on here anymore :blush: Back on subject: race relations wise there is some black and white tension like most American cities especially in the South. I think Charlotte benefits from the "New South" moniker as cliche as that term has become. Similar to Atlanta we are thriving business focused metro that is very open to new ideas and people making contributions to improving Charlotte and do not have as many hangups as old Southern towns.

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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

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Thank you...this was a very good article.

Are there any blacks involved in ANY of the development taking place downtown???

See the string above, but:

Neighboring Concepts -- three principals, two are african american, one japanese -- they are heavily involved in a lot of architectural(?) work with public buildings and spaces as well as their projects, Morehead Station -- 18 acre assemblage across from Lela Courts in Wesley Heights, a handful of townhouse projects in Wesley Heights, the project announced off Morehead this weekend with the bridge between the buildings

Bobby Drakeford -- The Drakeford Company, currently building off Central, in 1st Ward, part of the M Street project, Walnut Hill...plus more in the works

Harvey Gantt was one of our mayors and still is one of the principals in Huberman-Gantt architecture

I'm sure there are more, that is just off the top o' my head.

Charlotte is quite integrated and business professionals here are generally hired, respected, partnered with, etc based on merit rather than race. The good ol' boy systems still lingers a bit, but I don't think it is really racial either.

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