IX. UPSCALE ENCLAVES

There are upscale, all black neighborhoods in Dekalb County, Georgia (which is adjacent to Atlanta) and Dade County, Florida and in neighborhoods north and west of St. Louis, Missouri and Atlanta, Georgia, which have a large and rapidly growing middle- and upper-middle income African American community. For more than a century, the colleges in the Atlanta university system have produced generation after generation of highly educated African Americans. Economic institutions such as black-owned banks and other business establishments have long been pillars of Atlanta's African American community. In Cascade Heights, an upscale, African American neighborhood in Atlanta, developers constructed a gated community in which the price of homes is just under a million dollars. There are similar enclaves of affluence in other metropolitan regions.

In The Failures of Integration, Professor Sheryll Cashin examined neighborhoods located in Prince Georges County, Maryland (a Washington, D.C. suburb). One of these was a gated, 350 acre development that contained trophy homes with three-car garages, vaulted ceilings, glass encased foyers and elaborate entryways with Doric columns. Unlike the neighborhood in Black Picket Fences in which black homeowners replaced whites, this development contained newly constructed homes where blacks were the first buyers. The neighborhood's residents are physicians, lawyers, white-collar professionals, high level federal employees, professional athletes, and successful entrepreneurs.

Professor Cashin explained that many upscale blacks choose all black suburbs as a result of integration exhaustion. The black enclaves in which they reside provide a comfortable retreat from the stresses of an integrated workplace. The residents can relax and interact with neighbors who are like them. They do not want to be isolated in a neighborhood in which they would be the only black family. They do not have to fear being racially profiled by police; their expensive cars and clothing are not seen as curiosities. Their neighbors understand the problems that African Americans experience in a society in which race still matters. The residents are members of the same black churches, fraternities, sororities, and other social organizations. They do not need to live next door to whites to experience self-satisfaction or personal fulfillment. Their neighborhoods provide a stimulating and enriching social environment.

In Blue Chip Black, Professor Karyn Lacy examined the black middle-class and identified some socioeconomic divisions. Lacy divided the black-middle-class into three distinct groups: the black lower-middle-class earning less than $50,000; the stable, core black-middle-class earning $50,000 through $99,999; and the elite black-middle-class, earning more than $100,000. She examined two majority black neighborhoods in suburban Prince Georges County and another, mostly white neighborhood in Fairfax, County Virginia.

Lacy concluded that the racial and class composition of a black family's suburban neighborhood shaped the ways in which individuals viewed themselves and the ways in which they interacted with others. She found that structural conditions that maintain housing segregation adversely affect opportunities for the black middle-class, especially those in the middle- and lower-middle-class. However, the socioeconomic characteristics of the group earning more than $100,000 closely resembled their white counterparts.

Despite the affluence of the black residents, there are some conditions that make Prince Georges County different and less desirable than other Maryland and Virginia suburbs. It is adjacent to low-income communities in Washington D.C. and Maryland. It has a higher level of low-income residents than other Washington, D.C. suburbs. The public schools in Prince Georges County have the second lowest test scores in the state of Maryland, ranking the school system just above Baltimore. Compared to other suburban communities in Maryland and Virginia, Prince Georges County has a much higher rate of crime, a higher tax rate, and a lower level of municipal services. High end retailers do not locate to Prince Georges County, and it does not have the restaurants, shopping, and other amenities that would normally be found in an affluent suburban community.