Despite the fact that I’m feeling a little blue about having just sold my house, when the day was over, it was still a massive achievement in unloading, and opening up the doors to the various paths that the future has in store for me. For every melancholy memory that makes me a little depressed that I’ve said goodbye to my old house, there are at two things I did not like about the area in which my house resided, which contributed to the general notion that I really wanted to get out of the obligation of the house.
For a long while, I’ve always thought of the reasons why the area in which my home resided was not a good place, but I often neglected to notate any of them, and eventually I’d forget some of them, inconvenient, for when I wanted to channel my frustrations with long commutes, or the feeling of despair of living in an area that did not have a whole lot of hope for the future.
I started a Google note file on May 28, 2016, simply entitled “reasons south of Atlanta is not a good place,” and told myself to add to it whenever I had something new to add. The thought was that eventually one day when I successfully succeed in unloading the house and moving forward, I would have some notes to look back onto for my eventual post about saying farewell to my old area. It’s a little surreal that that time has finally come, and despite the fact that I’m still feeling bummed about unloading my house, I am in a way relieved that it’s an area that I won’t really see myself going back to any time soon if I can help it.
Because of my general paranoia of the world, I never was very specific to where I lived. Even now, I won’t get too specific, but I will admit that my old house was on the south side of Atlanta. The half of the metropolitan Atlanta area south of I-20 that doesn’t get much acknowledgment or credit for anything, and the half of the metropolitan Atlanta area that pretty much has no hope for the future.
Let me just start off by saying that if it can absolutely be helped, I never want to live on the south side of Atlanta ever again. Never again below I-20, for specific measure, as far as the metropolitan Atlanta area is concerned, although this probably applies to the rest of the country as well, since I have little reason to want to ever relocate to places like Florida or Alabama, much less anywhere in Mississippi or further west.
Honestly, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought as far as the rest of the country goes, I think I’d rather not live on the south side of any major metropolitan city if it can be helped, because there seems to be this stigma everywhere, that the south sides of every major city are always associated with the lower class, and sub-par means of living. South Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco come to mind immediately; all have pretty known identities as south-X this, southside that, and are typically where the lower class tend to be. Even Detroit, the most sad-sack city in America in my opinion had the infamous 8-Mile Road which separated poor impoverished Detroit from the even more impoverished and clinging to life Detroit.
Some places like Miami try to glamorize the south ends with beaches, but can’t hide the fact that outside of the name, it’s definitely the less than desirable places aesthetically and for people who actually want to live there. And then there are places like Washington D.C. that gentrify the shit out of the areas, and Southeast D.C. is hardly the once bullet-riddled war zone it once was.
As far as Atlanta is concerned though, I’m. hard pressed to think of another major city that’s as transparent when it comes to using the geographical division of the region as means to divide race. Seriously, it’s almost comical to just how different the racial identity of the city changes the moment you cross over I-20 going northbound from everything else underneath it, and vice versa when driving the opposite direction.
To cut to the chase, despite the fact that Atlanta is well popularized as being a very “black city,” the city as a whole has nothing on the title when it comes to the south side of town. Once you cross I-20 going southbound, you’re not going to find anywhere where the majority demographic isn’t African-American. From College Park, Forest Park, Union City, Hapeville, East Point and so on, if it’s in the south side, you are most definitely in, the black part of town.
Now I just want to state that as much criticism and my lack of hesitation when it comes to pointing out black hypocrisy, double standards, and reverse racism, I don’t not like black people. Sure, I’m not going to deny when people try and tell me I’m being racist at times, but accuse not those who are free from any wrong doing as well, and whether people want to admit it or not, I believe everyone has a tendency to be a little bit racist from time to time. But I don’t dislike black people, far from it. It’s just the media is so quick to put black people on blast, and it’s easy fodder for me to talk about when I want something to write about.
Ultimately, I don’t want to live in a predominantly black area ever again. Frankly, I’d rather not live anywhere where the majority is in such a high margin, but as far as my own life experiences go, I do not want to live in a predominantly black area ever again.
There are a lot of stereotypes that come along with living in predominantly black areas that are unfortunately true, one discovers when living in one. Higher crime rates, slower police response time, and a snail’s pace when it comes to getting community support. Every black activist that cries out about all of the aforementioned issues is rarely incorrect, as living 13 years of my life in a predominantly black area, I’ve witnessed myself the comparison of statistics from where I lived, to various other parts of my own county, that just so happen to exist north of I-20. It’s an unfortunate case of feeling like perception becoming reality, and it just feels like there’s this downward spiral of perpetuating stereotypes and allowing them to be justified, and things never seem to be headed in a positive direction of change.
Over the 13 years of living in my old home, it was always a tremendous challenge to get people to come visit. Often times, we heard the excuse that we “lived on the moon/Guam/Alabama” and other rehashed jokes about how far from the rest of Atlanta the house was, and although that wasn’t necessarily incorrect, I believe that simply our quality of neighborhood had a lot to do with it. I’ve known people who have lived about as far from civilization as I have, but in nicer, less colored parts of town, and they’ve never had as many complaints as I’ve heard when it comes to visiting.
It’s always been easy to applaud us from afar for being visionary pioneers or some shitty rhetoric about living in a predominant black area, but I highly doubt and would wager money that most of my friends and peers would not be willing to do the same.
Jen and I stopped doing our 4th of July parties primarily on the fact that people wouldn’t stop bitching about the distance, and honestly it was depressing seeing people show up and leave early after they realized how far they drove to get to us.
I think one of the biggest problems the south side of Atlanta always faced was the sheer lack of help from the media when it came to perception. On nearly a daily basis, there’s almost always a shooting on the south side of the city; regardless of where it happens, it’s almost always portrayed as “shooting in South Fulton County” or “fatality in southwest Atlanta,” as these wide swooping brushstrokes that encapsulate as much of the south side of the city as possible, without being specific. It’s an easy way to widely proclaim “the black part of town” in blanket statements, despite the fact that a shooting in Atlanta doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone in Union City, Fairburn or Hapeville had anything to do with it, but who needs clarity when there’s a media agenda to denigrate the black part of town as much as possible?
Just the other day, there was a story I came across that admittedly made me chuckle at first, but when the context of it in conjunction with writing this post, kind of made a little upset. Basically, a woman flipped out at a Zaxby’s and threw her food at the employees before bashing an order terminal on the way out, and is now wanted by the police. Sure there’s an ironic humor in it, but when I realized that just about every major Atlanta news outlet reported on it, there was an air of “oh look at the silly stuff black people do” about it, and naturally it was reported to have happened in “southeast Atlanta,” when it happened in a very specific part of Clayton County, and nowhere near East Point or Atlanta proper.
The bottom line is that now that I’m out of the south side of Atlanta, this is my goodbye and parting thoughts about it. I’ve waited a long time to put all this stuff in writing, but I didn’t quite feel right doing it while I still lived there, as if it really mattered when I did. As much as I am sad having said goodbye to my house, I am definitely relieved that I don’t really have anything else tying me to the south side of Atlanta. I won’t have to hear any more bitching and complaints about where I live, no more passive-aggressive swipes about the driving necessary to get there, and I don’t feel like I have to periodically look at the security system online to make sure that there were no shady characters lurking around my property.
I’ve lived my experience on the south side of one city, and if it can be helped, I never want to do it ever again, in any city, Atlanta or any other.
