The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Race, ethnicity and a changing state
We were out of plastic cups. Not a crisis. But when you’re the black family hosting Carolina High School’s almost all-white academic team and their almost all-white families, you don’t want anything to go wrong.
As it turns out, something went right.
One of my white teammates reached into our kitchen cabinet and grabbed a glass. It was one my family used, emphasis on used. He poured himself a drink. He guzzled it down. It floored my mother. The year was 1987. And what was unremarkable to me — and to him — meant the world to my mother, Carolyn Chapman. To her it was stunning, convincing evidence that the world she grew up in on the west side of Greenville, S.C., had changed. Really changed. This wasn’t Southern politeness or clenched-jawed tolerance or court-mandated integration. This was a white kid in a black home comfortable enough in his surroundings to use that black family’s stemware.
To understand why this moment is one my mother has never forgotten, you’d have to understand how she grew up. Poverty. Segregated schools. Relegated to back-door entrances and standing in permanent deference.
She spent some of her formative years as a dishwasher, working alongside my grandmother at Hinton’s cafeteria. It was the kind of place in the early 1960s that was destination eating, serving up a deepfried meat and three menu prepared by black women that included my grandmother. It was also the kind of place that had flatware and stemware for the white customers and a separate stash of glasses, plates, utensils for the black help.
At Hinton’s, the rules were clear about where black folks stood. To my mother — on that day, in that moment — she saw a new order, where children saw themselves as equals and parents of different races socialized around a common goal, the further education of their children.
Fast forward 30 years, and things are still changing.
Georgia will soon become a state where racial minorities will outnumber white residents.
I am proud to be a part of a group of journalists here at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution who recently launched RE: Race, a project dedicated to telling the story of the dramatic racial and ethnic change sweeping Georgia.
Our goal is to create a respectful conversation within our community about this complicated, emotional and personal issue.
I’ll recap what we’ve done so far.
Two weeks ago, reporter Bo Emerson wrote a story on how the demographic change in Georgia is surprisingly showing up in Cobb County. In a few years white residents will no longer hold a majority in Cobb, and the changes will affect the county’s local culture, politics, education system and leadership.
This change isn’t subtle or symbolic. It’s fast.
And such rapid changes raise questions about how this diversity will shape the way we live, work and worship together.
Last Sunday, reporters Leon Stafford and Ernie Suggs wrote about the Atlanta mayor’s race and noted how the voting population and shifts in attitudes about what it means to have a black mayor could result in the city electing its first white mayor in nearly 50 years.
Atlanta’s run of black mayors has long stood as tangible evidence of the hard-won gains of the American civil rights movement. But is such symbolism still important? We found residents to be split on the issue.
Add to that the demographic shifts: The city is getting younger and whiter. We found among the residents we spoke with more concern about how the city is growing and whether it will solve its transportation issues and build the types of amenities urban dwellers desire.
If you look at both stories they share a common theme. There is natural tension between the newcomers and the longtime residents, who feel like they’re losing ground.
In Cobb, it means residents who got there 40 years ago have gone from living in a place that was overwhelmingly white to a place that is increasingly black, Hispanic and Asian. Everyone, it seems, is drawn to Cobb for the same reasons: its affordable suburban The Atlanta JournalConstitution wants to explain openly to readers what we do and why. Discuss this column and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s coverage of other areas at editor Kevin Riley’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ ajceditor. living, good schools and growing job base. Still, longtime residents expressed a sense of loss that rapidly growing Cobb has lost some of its “Southernness” in exchange for an international flavor that is redefining what it means to be a Cobb resident.
In the minds of some Atlantans, a white mayor might challenge the city’s distinction as America’s “black Mecca,” a place where African-Americans have consolidated power for the better part of two generations. Among some of the folks we spoke with, such symbols may not be as important as a candidate’s ability to master the fundamentals of good government. A few we spoke with lamented potentially losing what to them is an important and powerful statement on racial progress.
The goal of RE: Race is to talk openly about such differences. We want to identify the fault lines and orchestrate responsible discussions about how, despite our differences, we should live together. Our shared fate will be determined by how we talk about race.
Find us at myajc.com/race; click on the “join the conversation” link and tell us a story; or email us at race@ajc.com.
Each of you is welcome to grab a glass from my cabinet, pour yourself a drink and have a discussion.