Where do the young (black) professionals hang?

It's not in Crown Heights, but my coworkers love SugarCane on Flatbush Avenue. Also, Prospect Pond has a different crowd every evening, but again, a lot of my coworkers hang there (They are all African-American Professionals)

Sorry
Won't UB My Nabor

We don't have cross posting right now, and truthfully you'll get more replies here then at the bedsty forum which is less visited.

Won't UB My Nabor wrote:

What's interesting to me is that it seems that Bed Stuy has managed to foster businesses that specifically cater to the Afro-Am middle class sensibilities while still having broad general appeal - e.g. Peaches, Akwaaba, Bread Stuy, Brownstone Books, Common Grounds - but Crown Heights hasn't really picked up on the market.

I was having a similar conversation with my husband the other day. When 95South opened (the first week they were open) we went and it was only African American and young white professionals. The vibe/clientele has changed a lot since week 1 - it is very surprising to me that there aren't places around here like Night of the Cookers and the like.

I feel that the debate about the gentrification of this area is generally a White/Black debate and less of a low income/mid or high income debate. If there were restaurants/bars that appealed more to Professional African Americans then maybe the debate would be less Black/White and more about income and economics. I feel that Bed Stuy Fort Greene is less Black/White because they have a lot of venues for people of all races but simply have pricier places letting higher-income residents move in regardless of color. If you open it, they will come. The reason for mostly white gentrifiers here is because the places opening are more white places. ...maybe

That's a difficult question to answer as a YBP living in CH because we hang where ever and don't limit ourselves to this nabe or surrounding areas. We go where the events and people we're interested in are.

Ishtar wrote: That's a difficult question to answer as a YBP living in CH because we hang where ever and don't limit ourselves to this nabe or surrounding areas. We go where the events and people we're interested in are.

I think it's a valid question... traveling outside of CH at night is a pain and a half; it would be nice to find a local place to chill with like minded people. I find a lot of the bars in CH to be very sceney.

That said I think it's probably more productive to just link with other YBPs through other means... if the OP's friend is looking for a husband, her odds of finding one through some community or professional association are much higher than finding one in the back of some Crown Royal commercial.

Stella wrote: [quote=Ishtar]That's a difficult question to answer as a YBP living in CH because we hang where ever and don't limit ourselves to this nabe or surrounding areas. We go where the events and people we're interested in are.

Thanks for posting this because I was about to write something not as friendly. lol

So was I. That post is extremely edited.

I hate to sound silly but I must ask.

Why do people wish to segregate themselves by not hanging out together? Young professionals need each other. They can learn, network build real friendships and share information.

Why hang out according to color?

I do not understand.

Park Place, it's my hunch that Won't You Be My Neighbor's friend is interested in meeting Black men, and it is her sense that she isn't going to meet any likely candidates at Franklin Park, because, the Black men quotient is quite low. Also, at the risk of being accused for speaking for an entire race of people, as a Black professional myself, I can garner that WuBMN's friend wants to hang with people whose experiences mirror her own: Black experiences.

Not knowing her circumstances, but being painfully familiar with my own, as a Black person working in a professional context it is often rare to see other Black people. Sometimes the only Black person you see all day everyday is the brother who works in the mailroom as he walks by, or the security guards who wave you in. Sometimes we just want to be with our own and talk about things relevant to us. For instance, if Nabor's friend is from the Caribbean, maybe she wants to talk about what's going on in Jamaica right now. Not that she can't do that with someone who isn't from Jamaica, or isn't Black, but to have a culture-specific convo with someone who shares that culture better allows for informality, and less need of the mask.

I am sure you have heard of 'the Mask'. W.E.B. Dubois spoke often about Negroes in this country being forced to wear a mask. Think of the mask as an avatar that is pleasing to the those who employ you, and potentially determine your future and your fate, but it's assemblage is not pleasing to you. Well, outside of a work context, oftentimes Blackfolk just want to be with each other and be outside of the white normative gaze, and take the mask off and just be themselves.

Cornel West and bell hooks talk about the white normative gaze. And it's real. And sometimes we just want to escape it, drop our faux professional voices and speak with our urban, sub-urban and rural cadence and drawls. And we don't want to be observed doing it, or commented on, as is often the case when Black people hang out with white people. Instead we want to unwind and speak with each other and emote about how hard it is to work alongside whitefolks sometimes. Or to tell stories how white people we thought were so cool truly revealed themselves and said something racist about the Williams sisters, or Sharpton (though we don't agree with him), or worse, Obama.

Take for instance the conversation I had with a Black professional yesterday. She relayed to me being in obvious earshot of a white woman proclaiming her distaste for Obama, and hoping that his Secret Service detail would look the other way so that some crazed maniac could take an accurate fatal shot. Now, one might not say that this woman's ill wish isn't racial bias, but to my Black professional friend, it sure felt that way, and she would never have had that conversation with her white co-workers, because she knows -- she just does -- that they don't get it.

The way Holla Peno above just doesn't get it. And not only does he not get it, he judges what he just doesn't get. Which is cool. That is his right.

MHA wrote:
The way Holla Peno above just doesn't get it. And not only does he not get it, he judges what he just doesn't get. Which is cool. That is his right.

Actually, there is nothing "to get". It's silly to segregate yourself based on some perceived social/class status. I can understand affinity orgs, I happen to hold membership in a few, and professional orgs that are geared specifically toward us for professional purposes (let's be real. most of our opportunities come out of relationships with other blacks), but the attitude that I see among too many of us is this "they're beneath me and I don't want to be in the same room as them" type deal.

Also, in regards to CH, while there has always been a large black population, it is largely of West Indian heritage. The exception in this area being those streets that are closest to Bed Stuy. Bed-Stuy has a history of businesses catering to black Americans. It's extremely hard to build a business around a demographic that doesn't really exist in an area.

Ishtar wrote:

Also, in regards to CH, while there has always been a large black population, it is largely of West Indian heritage. The exception in this area being those streets that are closest to Bed Stuy. Bed-Stuy has a history of businesses catering to black Americans. It's extremely hard to build a business around a demographic that doesn't really exist in an area.

There are plenty of West Indian professionals too you know

Sigh, West Indians go out to eat and party at nice places too

Ishtar wrote: [quote=Outside Child]Sigh, West Indians go out to eat and party at nice places too

Daft?

ETA: If you think Peaches is "nice", you need to step up your game.
Apparently you are and I don't go there ;-)

I hang out in Flatbush a lot which is almost exclusively West Indian and there are several semi upscale lounges where a lot of West Indian professionals go so it definitely is not like there isn't a market for it

No idea why there are not any in Crown Heights, no idea at all