Quote:
Originally Posted by jbermingham123
Nice advertisement-bordering-on-propaganda piece. "Some might even call it the capital of the South" ...give me a fuckin break.
First of all, article aside, one of the first signs that someone is trying to manipulate you is use of vague hedging qualifiers, of which this is a textbook example. Ideally, you learn not to do this in high school.
But anyway, the capital of the south? In what world? Economically or demographically, sure! But this is not an article about stats, its about promoting culture, and to say that Atlanta is the cultural capital of the south is like saying Zurich is the cultural capital of Switzerland, or San Jose is the cultural capital of the Bay Area. Assuming that the biggest city in a given region must be the cultural capital is the first sign that someone has probably never been there or just doesnt know what theyre talking about. As any Russian will tell you, Russia may have its brain in Moscow, but the nation's heart and soul will forever be St. Petersburg.
So to this point, I would ask this writer, have they ever heard of New Orleans? Now THATS a southern city whose cultural contributions have changed the whole fucking world, never mind the US. If you asked people from all over the planet to name American cities they associate with African American cultural impact, you'll probably hear: New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Montgomery, Oakland, and maybe even Seattle (a lot of people know Jimi Hendrix) before you hear them bring up Atlanta.
So thats what i found wrong with one sentence. Extrapolate what I've said here to the rest of the article, and then to CNN as an organization, then rinse and repeat
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Ok I've read enough. There aren't too many people I've heard actually argue that Seattle has any type of cultural impact on Black America or even have the audacity to argue that it has more of cultural impact than ATLANTA, GEORGIA. For people not living under a boulder, Atlanta has been known as a black mecca and a cultural capital for Black America for long time now. How do I know this you ask??
-Longest string of black mayors in the country for a major city(almost 50 years of nothing but black mayors).
-Highest concentration of HBCUs of any place in the entire country
-Birthplace of MLK and cradle of the civil rights movement. SNCC and the SCLC were headquartered here. They were behind of the majority of the marches and sit-ins throughout the South. Atlanta was essentially the strategizing center of the civil rights movement. It was the one safe spot in the South. Ralph David Abernathy, Andrew Young, and MLK lived in Atlanta. Andrew Young became a Mayor and John Lewis became Atlanta's congressman.
-Due to all of the above, and especially after it elected its first black mayor in 1973, Atlanta began to attract black people in droves. Atlanta is still the top destination for black Americans. It's black population has grown to be the 2nd largest of all the metropolitan areas in the entire country. Over 2 million of Atlanta's six million people are black.
-Atlanta has been the cultural capital of black America since at least the 90s.The musicians are too numerous to name. From Freaknik to Tyler Perry, I can't think of a blacker city. Atlanta has practically dominated hip hop from the late 90s to some would argue even today. No black artist rises to the top without crossing through Atlanta at some point.
Furthermore, Atlanta has had an outsize role in shaping American history.
-The capture of Atlanta during the civil war crippled the Confederacy was covered extensively by Northern newspapers and boosted Northern morale which aided in Lincoln being reelected.
-Brands like Coca Cola and CNN are known world wide and are universal symbols of America. CNN changed TV news as we know. Two homegrown companies.
-Atlanta not only produced MLK but also the organizations behind most of the sitins and protests during the 60s in the South. Atlanta didn't have a lot of the activity of Alabama and Mississippi because frankly it wasn't needed. White city leaders would actually speak with and negotiate with black leaders. It's known as the "Atlanta Way"
Atlanta's progressivism and boosterism are the only two things that have propelled Atlanta to being one of the top 10 metros in the country. There is no other physical feature that this city has that gives it any advantage over anywhere else. Unlike a lot of southern cities, Atlanta has never been a city that wanted to look back and fight old battles or try to keep doing things the old way. It always has it's eyes on the next big adventure. That's Atlanta's appeal.
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