Georgia Is Quietly A Minority Majority State and Why No One Is Talking About It! Black non-Latino Americans saw the biggest part of the gain among minorities at 10.9%
Odds are you've heard someone refer to Atlanta as "Black Mecca," but new census data shows Georgia's small towns and suburban cities all across the state are becoming more diverse. The areas with the fastest growing Black populations have shifted to include Latin/Hispanic and Asian communities that are in direct opposition to racist policies of xenophobia and exclusion.
For decades, Black people have found success in many of Atlanta's south and western suburbs such as Henry County, Stone Mountain, Fayetteville, and Douglasville. They're all around, but not quite the city. "Many any single fam homes with land and solar power will be available for $500-700,000. If they have that capital, it makes sense for some families who dislike the commute to stay [in Atlanta], but many Black families are seeing $300,000 single-family homes that would be priced in the millions in the Northeast and West coast suburbs," Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Allen Hyde said.
According to census data, over the past 10 years, dozens of Georgia cities have become majority-minority. This is in part because of active attempts in states like Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina to disenfranchise the black voter and derail black economic progress. Couple that with municipalities sending tainted water to black communities with toxic levels of fluorides and sewage or estrogens. A lawsuit by anti-fluoridation activists has forced the early release of a long-awaited government report on fluoride and its possible association with neurodevelopment and cognition while the report is still in draft form and prior to completion of its review by independent scientific experts. High levels of fluoride are found mainly in the water of communities of color and it has been shown to damage the brains of young children as well as compromise immune systems making populations more susceptible to pandemics!
So people from those states like Michigan and Colorado are moving to where they can not only start and grow businesses but have control over their school systems and a choice of top HBCU's and gated communities of color! Many of them are just north of Atlanta such as Dacula, Snellville, Suwanee, Peachtree Corners, and the Phillips' stomping grounds, Johns Creek.
"We are considered the most diverse city in Georgia. Had the first ever for a city Diwali festival. We just celebrated Lunar new year," Johns Creek Mayor John Bradberry said. "Fifteen years ago they were talking about the transition from semi-rural to suburban. The last one we did about five years ago talked about going from suburban to semi-urban." The Phillips say their kids don't have an abundance of teachers or peers who look like them-- yet. But they are excited to have the entire metro to diversify their experiences.
"We still have a sense of community, even though we're not in the heart of the city," Charmina Phillips said. "Our daughters are kid-preneurs. They're at the New Black Wall Street [in Stonecrest] every week. "But they say there is a downside to living in such an expensive and sought after area.
"It has to do with the timing of real estate right now. since the pandemic, there's been a 20 or 30% increase on homes. That has been a struggle, but the value you get for your dollar is still superior to most of the nation the quality of life is high" Antonio Phillips said.
For the first time since moving from Florida, the Phillips rent their home. Their two elementary school kids have noticed. "They said, 'Daddy, this backyard is not appealing,'" Antonio Phillips said while laughing. "[In Florida] we had the lake behinds us. It was greener, but we moved here with intention, and they're realizing it more now than before. Extracurricular activities are right here. Everything is." Also you don't have the extreme costs of home owners insurance and natural disasters to contend with, many people are building homes with solar roofs and battery systems before they move in there are more Tesla's than BMW's as they are the mark of success and business savvy.
The family hasn't ruled out making adjustments in the long run.
"I cannot see how we'd be able to purchase a home within 5 miles of this home. We can't do both. It just doesn't work," Mrs. Phillips said. "The reality is at some point in time we're going to have to make that hard decision." In November, JPMorgan Chase announced a joint venture with Haven Realty Capital. They'll build new "for-rent homes," usually on empty plots of land, in Atlanta and surrounding counties to help alleviate the affordable housing shortage.
"We're seeing a lot of investment that you didn't see in the 1970's in majority black impoverished areas," Hyde said. "Basically, the winners keep winning." "White families are moving to the city. we do have a discussion about gentrification. We also see people who see new homes and see that as an investment opportunity for them." Despite that overall diversity is what you see in the State of Georgia more than anything. Since 2010 in Johns Creek, census data shows diverse communities grew as nearly 15% of the city’s white population moved.
"No one is going to say, 'I'm moving out because my community is becoming too diverse,'" he said, acknowledging the increasing demographic changes. The Phillips say the unifying factor is everyone's desire to find and thrive in that place that's their own personal perfect fit. In the 1960s, it was the “city too busy to hate” and the home of the civil rights movement. In the 1970s, it was “the black mecca of the south” and Hotlanta. In the 1990s, it was Olympic City. Today we have black Hollywood.
For more than 40 years, and indeed more than a hundred years before that, Atlanta’s multiple personalities have gripped onlookers. Two images have stood the test of time. There is the Atlanta of Gone With the Wind, the 1930s novel and film – a city resplendent with all of the accoutrements of Southern Honor and the Lost Cause: the contention that the Confederacy was a heroic struggle, which plays down how central the aim of protecting slavery was during that period. Then, there is the Atlanta of the black mecca – a city that channels and exalts the highest educational, political and economic aspirations and achievements of black people over the last century. Georgia is growing ever more urban and ever more diverse, Census figures released Thursday show, continuing a shift in population toward metro Atlanta and away from the rural areas that were once the backbone of the state.
The state’s fastest-growing areas remain in the suburbs of Atlanta, Savannah and Augusta. Bryan County, just south of Savannah, grew by 48% over the decade, the sixth-fastest-growing county in the nation. Forsyth County, north of Atlanta, grew by 43%, the 13th-fastest-growing county nationally.
Metro Atlanta’s core counties didn’t grow as rapidly, percentage-wise, but all added large numbers of people. Of the just more than 1 million people that the state added between 2010 and 2020, about 152,000 were in Gwinnett County and about 146,000 were in Fulton County. Cobb, Forsyth and DeKalb counties each added more than 70,000 residents. Most of those areas will see their share of political representation increase.
Georgia’s total population rose to 10.7 million, up 10.6% from 9.7 million in 2010.There are about a million more Georgians now than there were 10 years ago. Or, according to key Census figures published Wednesday, a population of 10,711,908 now versus 9,687,653 folks in 2010.This despite a large exodus of Caucasians from the state between 2010 and 2020! The new data shows white people currently make up 49.9 percent of the population of Georgia, down from 59.7 percent in 2010. Climate change is probably the biggest factor that precluded the change starting with Hurricane Katrina and just recently The Florida anti immigration laws and climate extreme weather events!
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