Memphis is great
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4/10/2013
I am Black and I find Memphis a wonderful place to live. I moved here from Los Angeles because both my parents are from Mississippi and my wife and I both have a lot of family in the Memphis metro area as well as South Mississippi. I went to college in California for undergrad but attended Mississippi State for graduate school. After graduating from there I knew I wanted remain in the South and pursue my career. My choices were Atlanta, Houston, and Memphis. I chose Memphis because it is on the Mississippi border so I would be close to family and Mississippi State University for SEC games. Also if you are Black and educated it is fairly easy to get a decent job because the talent pool here of Black professional is not as overpopulated as say Atlanta or Houston. I found a job with the city as a Librarian. Something I would have never got in Los Angeles because those type of jobs out there are only going hispanics and Asians as African Americans are the forgotten minority on the Westcoast. Also before moving to Memphis I returned home to Los Angeles (Long Beach to be exact) after grad school for about a year. I could hardly find work and was paying $800 a month for a studio apartment with no central air or heat, no stove just a burner, no fridge just a mini fridge, and a single sink. I left Los Angeles went back to Mississippi found a job in one week that I worked at while waiting for all of the pre employment processes with the City of Memphis to go through. Now I have a great job in the field I went to school for and pay $675 a month for two bedroom two bathroom house in predominately Black suburb of Memphis. So compared to Los Angeles Memphis has been great to me. Furthermore the crime here is way over blown. I came from Long Beach, CA right next to Compton. Yes Memphis has some rough areas but those area are no worse than what I saw growing up in Long Beach, Compton, or South Central. I know people who moved down here from Chicago and say the same thing. Also the crime is isolated to only a few areas in Memphis. East Memphis, Hickory Hill, Southwind, Germantown, Colierville, Bartlett, Desoto County Mississippi are all safe. Lastly yes there are rednecks in some places but that is just apart of south and just the way it is. It does not bother me. I have some redneck friends. In my humble opinion Memphis is a great place to live but is not for everybody.
Ra's Al Ghul | Germantown, TN