Whitey Ford
08-15-2021, 06:57 PM
Why not just go back to Apefrica?
'We're here to stay.' Despite isolation and racism, Black Americans feel at home in California's desert
https://i.imgur.com/JMuUnpg.jpg
For the few Black Americans who live in the California desert, it takes willpower to feel at ease in these playgrounds, and imagination to make them feel like home.
In the first half of the last century, hundreds of Black people from the South, and from Los Angeles and the Bay Area, settled in desert communities like Palm Springs. They came for some of the same reasons that drew many white people: plentiful jobs, ample land to put down stakes, and the live-and-let-live openness of what still felt like America's frontier.
But the picture-postcard settings and air of possibility masked an uglier reality for Black newcomers.
Many towns historically restricted Black families to segregated neighborhoods through housing covenants and lending practices. That legacy lives on.
Today, the presence of an established Black community isn't obvious when driving through Curtis' hometown, where low-lying houses hide behind Moorish-style screens, meticulously kept cactus gardens look as untouchable as jewelry displays, and locals ride around their condo complexes in golf carts designed to resemble Mercedes and Rolls Royces.
https://news.yahoo.com/were-stay-despite-isolation-racism-120016206.html
'We're here to stay.' Despite isolation and racism, Black Americans feel at home in California's desert
https://i.imgur.com/JMuUnpg.jpg
For the few Black Americans who live in the California desert, it takes willpower to feel at ease in these playgrounds, and imagination to make them feel like home.
In the first half of the last century, hundreds of Black people from the South, and from Los Angeles and the Bay Area, settled in desert communities like Palm Springs. They came for some of the same reasons that drew many white people: plentiful jobs, ample land to put down stakes, and the live-and-let-live openness of what still felt like America's frontier.
But the picture-postcard settings and air of possibility masked an uglier reality for Black newcomers.
Many towns historically restricted Black families to segregated neighborhoods through housing covenants and lending practices. That legacy lives on.
Today, the presence of an established Black community isn't obvious when driving through Curtis' hometown, where low-lying houses hide behind Moorish-style screens, meticulously kept cactus gardens look as untouchable as jewelry displays, and locals ride around their condo complexes in golf carts designed to resemble Mercedes and Rolls Royces.
https://news.yahoo.com/were-stay-despite-isolation-racism-120016206.html