Is NYC the most geopolitically diverse city in the US?

[Crawford]

Yeah, not sure how you'd measure. I think West Indian and African American intermarriage is relatively high. Atlanta is probably the largest U.S. African American population, though. NYC has a huge West Indian-descended population, basically everywhere in the tristate, and a pretty big West African-immigrant population, especially in the Bronx, SE Queens, SI and Newark.

[Docere]

Yeah, there's a lot of Caribbean/AA mixing I think.

There was actually an early 20th century Caribbean immigration too, I think they were about a quarter of the black population a century ago. The proportion would have been reduced by the Second Great Migration in the 1940s and 1950s, but then the Caribbean immigration surged again after 1965.

Harry Belafonte and Colin Powell were basically seen as Black New Yorkers.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Docere

Yeah, there's a lot of Caribbean/AA mixing I think.

There was actually an early 20th century Caribbean immigration too, I think they were about a quarter of the black population a century ago. The proportion would have been reduced by the Second Great Migration in the 1940s and 1950s, but then the Caribbean immigration surged again after 1965.

Harry Belafonte and Colin Powell were basically seen as Black New Yorkers.

They are/were Black New Yorkers. A lot of the West Indian immigrants and their offspring were involved in pretty much all of the major Black political empowerment movements in the 20th Century. Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, was a daughter of immigrants from Barbados.

[Docere]

Of course they were, that was poorly phrased. Obviously the West Indian community was part of the Black community. West Indian roots were common for that generation in NY and few really saw a difference. Point is there are a lot of Black New Yorkers of West Indian heritage that people don't even know or think about.

[Docere]

NYC household heads by race/ethnicity and nativity, 2011-2015

Native born white 23.8%
Foreign born white 9.4%
Native born black 11.5%
Foreign born black 10.6%
Native born Hispanic 11.3%
Foreign born Hispanic 17.2%
Native born Asian 1.4%
Foreign born Asian 12.2%

https://metropolitics.org/IMG/pdf/met-mollenkopf.pdf

[forward looking]

Yes life is not made of two parties, is it? It is made up of people; PEEPLE!
Houston, Tx is the most ethnically diverse City in the Country nowadays, it is said after the last census. Geopolitically is a made up word. A GOP word. To make people into a human amalgam of one mindset.
I would even venture to say that if one could take a cross sampling of Houston's political mindset then there would be a true consensus of what American's mindset is. That would be a more fair and true reading.
Italians? PFFFFT. Even with the true blue GOP reputation which Texas has, Houston is more representative of a cross sampling. NOT, NYC.
The GOP in Texas reduced all of Harris County's (Houston's county -7 million pop.)voter drop boxes to one, and only one, drop box. Right before the last election in November... What a low-life and chickenshit trick.
When I entered this comment into city data forum right during the election I even got a response from Colombia offering their opinion on this dirty move!
It is so good to see the country drifting away from the far right swing of the American political pendulum. Any further to the right lies madness.

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I've wondered this myself, but more along the lines of "What is the most ideologically diverse city in the US?"

Every time I try to look up statistics, it's always framed under the 2 status-quo parties, namely Republicans and Democrats. NYC being the center of capitalism in the US, I would imagine it would be dominated by those two parties.

I've never been a Republican or Democrat, I've only ever been registered in the Peace and Freedom Party and the Green Party. I'd like to know what cities in the US are full of Communists, Socialists, Fascists, far right-wingers, far left-wingers, etc. I can't even find percentages for Green Party members in cities.

[Docere]

In Los Angeles, almost three-quarters of the population was born outside the United States or has at least one foreign-born parent. First and second generation Mexicans make up 28 percent of the city's population, but other large groups include Central Americans (16.4 percent), people from the former Soviet Union (3.4 percent), Filipinos (3.3 percent), and Koreans (3 percent). Native whites, by contrast, make up only 15.6 percent of the city's population and native blacks another 7.8 percent. In New York City, just over half the population is first or second generation immigrants, with West Indians making up 11 percent of the total; Dominicans, 5.9 percent, Chinese, 4.4 percent, and the former Soviets and their children, 4.1 percent. (Mexicans and their children now make up 2 percent of the city's 8 million residents). New York's immigrant population is thus more diverse, more likely to be black, more Asian, less Hispanic, and far less likely to be Mexican than that of the city of Los Angeles. Nevertheless, both cities have attracted new residents from virtually every part of the globe.

On the eastern seaboard, black and white immigrants are altering what it means to be "black" or "white." Nationally, nine out of ten whites are native-born people with two native-born parents; in New York City and Los Angeles, this is true of only just over half the whites. Similarly, almost nine out of ten of the nation's blacks are of native stock, but fewer than half are in New York. Whiteness can have a Russian accent in New York, blackness a Caribbean lilt.

John Mollnenkopf, Immigrant Political Empowerment in New York and Los Angeles (2008)

[streetscaper]

^^Nice info

[Docere]

Seems like the West Indian ancestry population is undercounted. It comes in around 7-8% but 11% are of West Indian birth or parentage.

[Antares41]

Originally Posted by Docere

Yeah, there's a lot of Caribbean/AA mixing I think.

There was actually an early 20th century Caribbean immigration too, I think they were about a quarter of the black population a century ago. The proportion would have been reduced by the Second Great Migration in the 1940s and 1950s, but then the Caribbean immigration surged again after 1965.

Harry Belafonte and Colin Powell were basically seen as Black New Yorkers.

Certainly was my NY ancestry. My mother side is many generations native African- American. However, my father side arrived in the 1930's from the Virgin Islands. I know many examples from other NY families have intermingle with natives of the Caribbean to the point that it difficult to even begin to tease apart the differences, which tend to begin to melt away usually by the next generation.

[Crawford]

Even the legendary centers of African American NYC, Harlem and Bed Stuy, have deep West Indian roots. Yes, many arrived from Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and North Florida. But many others arrived from all over the Carribean.

Many iconic NYC African Americans, associated with the Civil Rights Movement, like Stokley Carmichael (Trinidad) and Malcolm X (Grenada), have West Indian roots.

[Antares41]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Even the legendary centers of African American NYC, Harlem and Bed Stuy, have deep West Indian roots. Yes, many arrived from Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and North Florida. But many others arrived from all over the Caribbean.

Many iconic NYC African Americans, associated with the Civil Rights Movement, like Stokley Carmichael (Trinidad) and Malcolm X (Grenada), have West Indian roots.

Heck you can go back as far as 1916 when Marcus Garvey immigrated from Jamaica. His self-help, separatist ideology had a tremendous following in the early 20th century Harlem, albeit, he was a very controversial figure even during his time. So the intertwining of the cultures in NYC has been going on for a long time.

Conversely due in part to language and religious differences the mingling of West Africans and native African Americans will be a bit more challenging, but, it will eventually happen if for no reason than the proximity of the communities...a process of social osmosis. Likely starting in all the hair braiding saloons, lol.

[Docere]

Yeah, Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s was the Black mecca and attracted people from both the South and the Caribbean.

[Antares41]

Originally Posted by Docere

Yeah, Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s was the Black mecca and attracted people from both the South and the Caribbean.

World War I was also a significant catalyst for the Harlem Renaissance of that period. Black men in the north and south who went off to Europe to fight for America interests and freedom were not interested in returning to a country where they could not exercise the same rights they were fighting for overseas.
It created a critical mass of individuals who were not longer willing to be satisfied with the status quo, thus providing the impetus for the social/ legislative changes that were to come.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Even the legendary centers of African American NYC, Harlem and Bed Stuy, have deep West Indian roots. Yes, many arrived from Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and North Florida. But many others arrived from all over the Carribean.

Many iconic NYC African Americans, associated with the Civil Rights Movement, like Stokley Carmichael (Trinidad) and Malcolm X (Grenada), have West Indian roots.

I wouldn't call Malcolm X an NYC activist. He was born in Omaha and grew up in Michigan and Boston. Even his political activist career wasn't really that NY centric.

[Docere]

Birthplace, Black New Yorkers (1930):

Southeast (Maryland to Florida) 142,165 43.4%
South central (rest of the South) 10,815 3.3%
New York State 79,264 24.2%
Other US 40,708 12.4%
Foreign 54,754 16.7%

Source: Philip Kasinitz, Caribbean New York (1992)

[Antares41]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I wouldn't call Malcolm X an NYC activist. He was born in Omaha and grew up in Michigan and Boston. Even his political activist career wasn't really that NY centric.

True, I would say he was a Black Nationalist that just happen to be based in NYC at the height of his notoriety. His social/political activism reach far beyond the borders of the city; he was international.

[tech12]

whoops wrong thread

[Docere]

Nassau is slightly whiter than Westchester (57% vs. 52%). As is the share of college graduates (51% vs. 48%).

Yet the voting difference is quite striking. Biden won Westchester by 36 points but Nassau only by 10. Zeldin also won Nassau and even Schumer didn't carry it.

[Crawford]

Westchester is basically the original affluent, educated professional U.S. suburbia.

Politically and culturally, it trends more or less like its equivalents (Montgomery County, MD, Lake County, IL, Fairfield County, CT, Bergen County, NJ would probably be closest political/cultural equivalents). Lawyers, bankers, journalists, and other traditional, establishment jobs. Westchester will have more literary and arts employment, due to Manhattan's differing economic mix. The Rivertowns, in particular, have a stereotypical Upper West Side-type employment mix, with musicians, psychologists and the like.

Nassau looks very similar, on paper, but there's a very New York-specific ethnic white distinction. And forget about literary and arts employment. South Shore of Nassau has a lot of highly paid contractors and other small business types and people who work with their hands. Often Trump country, or Trump-leaning.