Posted by By John the CEO
After a business partner and friend of mine brought to my attention that a young white lady and then a white guy made some unfortunate comments about the nature of our Affluent Blacks of Dallas community group page, I debated whether or not to address something already addressed on the About page of our main site here nearly three years ago when I started it. I contemplated capturing screen shots of the comments and putting them on blast, but decided instead to delete and block them from commenting, especially because the guy used foul language. I don’t know where they are from; could be local or anywhere in the country. Nonetheless, I am only addressing the topic here because, as the rule of thumb goes, for every comment you get, there are probably at least 5-10 others who feel the same but never say a word.
The nature of their comments was this: what if there were a group called Affluent Whites of Dallas…wouldn’t that be racist? The actual words were quite negative and derogatory, but no need to stoop to that level. I do, however, want to remind new visitors who first come to the site to please read our full state on the About page. I will say that, for those who may feel the same way as these two, you are certainly entitled to your opinion and I respect it. But keep in mind, such people who hold such views also hold another contradictory view: on the one hand, when blacks create harmless groups to help each other out, they are quick to call it racist, but if we don’t help each other, then they accuse us of being dependent on the government or are a drain on society (which of course is far from true).
My response? They can’t have it both ways. Pick a position and stick with it.
If these two lost ones had simply did some research, they would quickly realize that most business and luxury oriented magazines in major cities, whether they are explicit or not, have visual content that is oriented towards white people overwhelmingly. And that’s their prerogative. It’s all about supply and demand. Sure, they include some black people every now and then, but perhaps 95% of the people we see in such media outlets are white. They don’t call it “Affluent Whites,” but essentially, that’s what it is. I won’t name any such media outlets as that is counterproductive. But all major cities have business and luxury media organizations with content that overwhelmingly appeals to whites. Black Enterprise magazine is a prominent, national magazine geared towards the needs of black business. Magazines like Forbes and Entrepreneur, which I also read, have content that mainly contains white people. And again, I’m not complaining.
Instead, I find solutions by filling in the gaps!
So when more and more black professionals started migrating to Dallas Ft. Worth in bigger numbers each year to partake in the big growth in jobs here, they needed help navigating where like-minded black professionals were working and socializing in order to avoid feeling left out or isolated. Thus, there’s nothing racist about filling that demand. If, after reading this, there are those who still want to insert racism into this, so be it, no sleep lost on my behalf. As usual, all are welcome to enjoy the content here, and they do, based on the feedback thus far. No change coming, of course. Just more concierge style help via our social media presence to assist black professionals in getting acclimated to DFW. Cheers!
Affluent Blacks of Dallas 