Dallas is not what people make it out to be.
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9/6/2019
I've lived in Dallas for 10 years. I've struggled financially the majority of that time. I'm a college educated African American by the way.
I can only find work in customer service. I've had several highly educated and experienced friends move to Dallas and they have all left within a few months. They were being offered jobs far under their skillset. My friend with an MBA in Finance was being offered positions that paid $11 and $12 an hour. She moved to another state and immediately found a position paying close to $60K per year.
Another friend moved to Dallas with a degree in Finance. He was being offered positions that paid $9 an hour. He moved back to Boston and found a position paying around $60K.
One of my coworkers relocated to Dallas with his wife and child. His degree and background were in I.T. and Software Programming. He applied at the company I worked for which was an Ecommerce company that hired a lot of programmers. He was told to work in customer service for 6 months and 'prove himself'. He quit the job after four months and left Dallas with his family. He said he could find nothing but call center.
All of these people were black.
I met another black man who had moved to Dallas from New York. He had years of experience in Management and impressive educational credentials. He had gone through all the stages of the interview process with a local firm and they all loved him. He made it to the final stage and was told to come into the office for the final interview. His previous interviews were by conference call with various managers.
Well... There was a problem. The folks did not know he was black. His parents were both from the Dominican Republic and he had a Spanish sounding name. The company was staffed primarily by hispanics and these people held all the top positions too. To make a long story short on the day of the interview he dressed up and walked into the building. He was shown to the interview room where 5 hispanic managers were waiting to meet him. When he walked into the room, a 6 ft 6 inch black man, he said their mouths literally dropped open. They were shocked that he was black. He said after that they quickly lost interest and rushed the interview and got him in and out very quickly. He heard nothing else.
Another black woman I had the fortune to meet had relocated to Dallas, TX from Alabama. She had worked for 30 years for a Non profit as a Director. She also had impressive credentials. A similar situation happened to her. She had gone through all the stages of interviews for a local company and the people seemed to really be impressed by her. She was told to come into the office for a final interview with the manager who was a white female.
She said when she walked in she could tell from the Managers face the manager had no idea she was black and the manager looked shocked. She said the manager rushed the interview and she never heard anything back.
This has been my experience as well. I've been stuck in low paying jobs and when I apply for positions I am qualified for I am quickly notified that although my skills are impressive they have gone with other candidates. Yet when I go to the Linkedin page of these companies and look at the employees they are hiring they are overwhelmingly not black. And many are younger and lack the experience. They are hired on and trained.
Dallas is very white washed and very racist. I've heard this from many African Americans I have met. Most of us are stuck because we need to make more to even be able to leave.
I met a guy who worked in Construction for a company in Fort Worth. He said he was working with several other black males and it was in the middle of July and it was hot. They went to the hispanic man supervising them and asked for water. He put his walkie talkie on speaker and called up to the white man who was over all of them and informed him the guys needed water. The white guy responded 'Tell those Nigg&%* (he used the er on the end) that they have not worked long enough for water.
These guys were making minimum wage working in the hot sun and they were denied water.
I've interviewed with several local staffing companies and not one has an african american working in the office and several openly discriminate against black applicants by sending out only hispanics to the jobs.
They even run coded job ads demanding the applicant be bilingual Spanish for even basic warehouse jobs. When questioned about this they give the most insane excuses such as "oh the corporate office is in Spain and they want all the warehouse workers to speak Spanish' or 'the supervisor is hispanic and he only wants hispanics'.
Lots of racism in Dallas.
The apartments are overpriced and often need a lot of work.
The roads in Dallas are terrible. Most are very rough to drive on.
The people are pretentious. They are shallow and empty. Not much substance to them. I've lived here for a long time and I often forget them as soon as I finish being around them because they are bland.
Dallas lacks originality. There are lots of boring strip malls and chain restaurants. There aren't many creative people in Dallas. Dallas seems to be very corporate. Everyone wants a corporate 'title'. Many lack passion to create in the Arts or Music here.
The Heat is oppressive. The summers seem to last forever.
The traffic is awful. Its true what the other poster said about huge trucks and suvs driving around all night with their high beams on. It's true.
Dallas is segregated.
Blacks tend to fare worse in Dallas.
The hispanics, Indians and Whites often flex with blacks. It's hard to explain but they know blacks lack the numbers in Dallas are are often poorer than others and don't have the options other races have. So they flex quickly. They are disrespectful.
The African Americans usually reside in Lancaster, Cedar Hill, Mesquite, Duncanville, Desoto, and generally in South Dallas or South of Dallas.
The companies tend to hire one black person, maybe two, for really good jobs in their firms and they make sure these people are highly visible to the public. But then they close the door on other African Americans. I have worked at call centers that were filled with blacks who had Masters degrees. Working in the call center because they could not find work elsewhere.
I don't like Dallas. As one black woman put it to me - Dallas is the hispanic man's oyster. It's good for whites too. Any effort they make they are greatly rewarded. I think Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte and DC are good for ambitious African Americans. Dallas... Not so much.
Last, Dallas pretty much shuts down after 9 pm. So there isn't much to do.
Dallas as a world class city? It's not. It's laughable to say Dallas is a 'World Class City'. It's a hot, hellish, racist dustbin.
Mary | Dallas, TX