Do you remember when "inner city" and "urban" were code words for "black"?
 

looking at census 2020 results and tracking the ongoing phenomenon of black flight/black suburbanization in many US cities, i came to realize that there really aren't that many major US central cities left that are majority or plurality black.

growing up in 80s/90s, i remember hearing terms like "inner city" and "urban" frequently used by white people as code to talk about black neighborhoods and black culture, but with the continuing suburbanization of the nation's black citizens, combined with the substantial growth in many urban latino & asian communities and white gentrification, those old connotations seem to make less and less sense with each passing decade.


of US municipalities over 300,000, there are only 4 that are majority NH-black:

detroit: 77.2% NH-black
memphis: 61.3% NH-black
baltimore: 57.3% NH-black
new orleans: 53.6% NH-black


and of US municipalities over 300,000, there are only 6 that are plurality NH-black:

newark: 47.5% NH-black
cleveland: 47.5% NH-black
Atlanta: 46.7% NH-black
DC: 40.9% NH-black
philadelphia: 38.3% NH-black
milwaukee: 37.8% NH-black


and there are 2 municipalities over 300,000 that are over 40% NH-black, but because of their very low numbers of other groups, NH-whites hold a slim plurality:

st. louis: 42.8% NH-black
cincinnati: 40.3% NH-black




for reference, the US now has 69 municipalities over 300,000 people. only 10 of them are majority or plurality NH-black (14.5%).

What do you mean "do you remember"? This is still the coded language among tens of millions.

Urban means black in much of the U.S. Ask white, suburban/exurban boomers. And I don't think it has much to do with reality, so no sense in arguing about city propers. People aren't talking about Buckhead when they're talking "urban" Atlanta. They're not even talking about the city of Atlanta, necessarily.

what i mean is that the old connations of those coded terms really don't make a ton of sense any more, as the demographics of the nation's major cities continue to change pretty substantially.

i don't hear the word "urban" used as code for "black" anywhere near as much as i did 20+ years ago. nowadays, "urban" is FAR more likely to mean what it originally meant: "in, relating to, or characteristic of a town or city"

and the term "inner city" just straight up isn't used as much at all these days. it seems to have been supplanted by more PC terms like "under-resourced communities" and similar such euphemisms.

And DC was referred to as 'Chocolate city'. It's really not that any more. Suburban Prince George's County, outside DC, is now. Probably similar with Atlanta and one or two of its suburban counties.

People in Chicago still refer to Black areas as the ghetto shamelessly.
Ive also heard transplants in Silicon Valley living in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara refer to San Jose as the ghetto too lol

I know it's not PC anymore but this is a rare example of a word being used in exactly the correct historical context. It's not a euphemism OR a slur.

What else would you call a neighborhood where a minority is forced to live in poverty due to legal and structural barriers? It doesn't really matter whether the neighborhood is urban or suburban, that's not the relevant thing.

Words like "urban" or "inner city" are euphemisms and, as Steely points out, don't really make sense in much of the US as a way to refer to poor Black/brown communities.

True, but these are also the same type of people that would refer to anywhere in chicago not in downtown, mt greenwood or garfield ridge as the ghetto.

It's also interesting how "Black/Alone" is now a thing. Growing up, if you had a black parent(or grandparent for that matter) you were Black and counted torwards the black population. Now the black population is deemed smaller due to this statistical change though I'm still not sure it's actually lived out like this.

"Urban Beach Weekend" is still used as the term for the yearly gathering of African Americans in South Beach.

yeah, "race" is an extremely inexact notion, so i went with the black alone figures to keep things easier/neater. there are some very closes calls like st. louis where the white alone and black alone numbers from 2020 were very, VEY close, and introducing those of multiple races made it pretty difficult to make a clear call on which group had a plurality.

that said, in just about all cases in US cities, the difference between black alone and total black in combination with other races is typically only a percentage point or two, so it wouldn't radically alter the overall arc of the data provided.

That's no longer the case...it's often now 3% and higher outside of the Deep south according the the link you provided.

ok then, "a percentage point or two or three"

it still wouldn't radically alter the overall picture that there aren't a ton of black majority/plurality major cities in the US.

^ really? i would think mixed race is pretty large. larger than that. no?

anyway, yeah the now long running back to the city movement has played a part in charging this perception. and i would hope social progress as well.

also, not sure if whitey taking over the city center donut hole and pushing people of color out to suburban banlieus is progress.

in most cases, the difference is 3 points or less. have a look:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ck_populations





i'm not making a judgement on the good/bad of these changes, just making note of them, and how our language about cities is changing as their demographics are changing.

if someone used the phrase "urban chicago" today, i wouldn't have a clue they were coding for "black chicago" without further context. but back in 1991, that jump was more straightforward.

Totally agreed. 'Urban' is still very commonly used to refer to Black. Sirius XM has a channel called Urban View, which is Black talk radio. The Grammy Awards just announced this year that they are renaming the "Urban Contemporary" category to "Progressive R&B".

It is becoming less common, but I think it's more a reflection of a more socially aware society than a commentary on shifting demographics of inner cities.

it seems urban is an old fashioned term that is rightfully if slowly falling out of favor, at least as far as coded use.

Is that really true? When I was there in 1991, if you said, south side or west side, the jump to 'black Chicago' was obvious, and probably still is today. If you said north side, southwest or northwest side, that connotation was not true in 1991. Unless you said certain streets/intersections, like maybe Howard and Clark, but even then, you could not say that... it's interesting to me that the Chicago 'Good Times' sitcom was cast on the near northside (in Cabrini Green housing projects) while the majority of Chicago's community lived on the south and west sides, and there were housing projects there as well. Despite being near the Mag Mile, that area had bit of roughness and edginess in addition to the Cabrini Green. It was the gayborhood until many moved up to Boystown. I believe the area is all upgraded to high class now...

yes, there's a "social awareness" component to the vocabulary change as well, but i don't think it's helpful to downplay how the demographic shifts taking place in our major metro areas are also shaping that change.

each and every single passing year, most US central cities are getting proportionally less black and, simultaneously, an ever increasing proportion of black children are growing up in the burbs.

how could the "urban = black" code not lose some of its meaning given these big societal shifts taking place?

This such a Millennial take. Boomers hang onto this term because it was in widespread use during their formative years and onwards. Just like our grandparents using dated terms from the 40's and 50's that made us squirm at Thanksgiving. I remember 'urban' being a common term for black music, black neighborhoods, black culture and so on as a kid and it still exists to a certain extent...e.g., the examples above.

I don't think most non-urbanites are particularly attuned to such nuances.

If you had to ask the average person on the street, they wouldn't be aware that urban cores were generally getting whiter (and/or less black) over time.

And again, I don't think urban was ever meant to imply city proper. If Detroit's black population reverts to nothing and the entire black population lives in suburbs, it doesn't mean the reference loses value. "Urban" issues will probably still refer to issues of concern in black spaces.