Revisiting the Vibe: POV of the young and black in the city

Sign Up For Our FREE Daily eNews!

screen-shot-2016-12-04-at-8-10-43-pm


screen-shot-2016-12-04-at-8-29-35-pm-pngIt has been a year since I moved to Manchester from another small New England city. As a new college graduate, I was excited about my first full-time job in the “real world” and a little nervous about moving to a new city. As I sat in the back of my parents’ car, headed to my very first apartment, I thought to myself, “there’s probably hella old people there.” I had visited Manchester prior to my move for an interview, but it was such a brief visit and I only got to see downtown. So, in essence, I held off on making an impression on the city. I did know the word “libertarian” surrounded the city, and something about hearing “live free or die” left me reassured. Maybe it was simply because the shackles of my parents’ house were finally in the rearview, but the keywords “liberty” and “free” were making Manchester very attractive.

I had heard “libertarian” before in my first philosophy class in college, and I took a few political science classes to know its political stance. On that ride, it dawned on me that New Hampshire would be the third state I would live in with a different political stance. I grew up in Providence, RI, a small city that is self-labeled liberal. I lived in Indiana for 4 years for the sake of an education; a conservative state, to say the least. There was a clear, distinct contrast between Rhode Island and Indiana, especially for an 18-year old black male. Ironically, before I left to Indiana for my freshman year of college, every soul I knew made sure I knew this fun fact; the Ku Klux Klan was started in Indiana. Even with those consults, I wasn’t deterred.

After all, I was Nigerian; in my culture, and more specifically within my family, fear was a sign to keep moving forward. I also had a specific idea of what racism look liked with my experience as a social justice activist in high school. In a liberal state, it leans towards institutional prejudice, so I thought racism in today’s age across the country would mostly take an institutional form. Four years in Indiana revamped that idea for me. I could not get out of the Midwest any quicker after graduation, and for some reason I still thought, “at least this type of racism doesn’t exist on the East coast, I don’t know any conservative states in the northeast.”

Manchester was now my new frontier, and I wasn’t going to be naïve about racism or discrimination being present; it was the exact reason I was moving there. I had accepted a job as a youth organizer working with students of color in high schools to ensure educational equity for every student regardless of race, sex, religion, immigration status, and class. But again, I didn’t have much to go off from my one and only visit to the city and I didn’t know what racism or discrimination in a libertarian state looked like.

A few months in, the vibe felt very murky, thick, and diverging. Manchester appeared to be at the inception of a transitional phase. There was tension, culture, political strife, and an eagerness for betterment (even if the idea of betterment was a subjective one); that’s what made the vibe so murky. The diverging forces in the city were becoming more and more prevalent and, in turn, made the vibe very thick. Those diverging forces were in the areas I listed above: race, sex, religion, immigration status, and class.

Putting the vibe aside, one thing was for certain about Manchester; it was a city of the people. It was a city that could foster a Vermin Supreme; folks here weren’t intimidated in slapping their views and principles across your conscience, which also meant, most folks weren’t afraid to engage civically.

FYI, it’s probably a good idea to check the demographics of a city BEFORE you move there rather than after. It was clear that the powers that ran the city were old (very old, depending who you ask) and white. So there was the first diverging force; between the old and the young. Within my first year, I would later come to learn that Manchester is a resettlement city for immigrants and refugees, that compiled with a demographic that was largely white.

With that said, you can be certain there were many characters across the city that would let you know how they felt about “those damn refugees.” And there we have our second, third, and fourth diverging forces; race, immigration status, and class. I placed racism, immigration status, and class together because, for one, you cannot talk about racism without classism. It is why Spruce Street looks much more different than Webster street. You can also see this with a short drive up Valley Street from downtown.

Immigration status is intertwined because the recent waves of immigrants and refugees to have arrived in Manchester have been Africans, largely from East Africa. Lastly, people of color that weren’t recent immigrants or refugees (meaning, people of color that had moved to Manchester from other states) had to be less than 3 percent of the city’s population; because, let’s be honest, who in their right mind would get up one morning and move to Manchester, NH, for fun, especially as a person of color.

So why am I still here?

Well, it’s not all bad, and if you ask most of the young folks of color here, “having fun in Manchester is a matter of making it fun for yourself” or the more common response being, “it depends who you are with or how your friends have fun.” In all honesty, I don’t look to this city to have fun; the vibe here is so thick that even trying to have fun becomes a matter of strategizing and effective planning. I work here during the week, and leave to other cities on weekends. In retrospect, living in the city of Manchester has made me more conscious about my social positioning within the political sphere. Because the citizens of Manchester are not timid in acting civically on what they believe in, it has given me a new type of confidence and courage in expressing my own views. The tone of activism in Manchester has lead me to question why I held certain beliefs in the first place.

Moreover, the rewards and challenges of my work has made me want to stay. I work with an amazing set of high school students, who are primary students of color, and I simply cannot quit or settle for their sakes. It’s frustrating to think they are dismissed from certain opportunities because of their race and class, or that they are disproportionately sanctioned by different authorities within this city for similar behaviors displayed from their peers. These are not problems unique to Manchester, but they are problems nonetheless.

I’m inspired by Manchester; not necessarily because of what it is has, but rather because of what it is capable of. As I mentioned before, Manchester seems to be at the inception of a transitioning phase, which is in turn, leading to diverging forces, strife, and tensions across the city. Manchester, being one of the most vibrant cities north of Boston, will only keep growing in the coming years. But in order to get it to the tipping point where the vibe and flow of the city is inviting and collaborative, Manchester will have to make some hard decisions.

Investing in the future of Manchester is more than just an economic venture; we all need to invest in its culture and vibe. If the city desires a vibe that can attract young talent and retain them, rather than what most young people from New England currently see it as; “a retirement hub”, the city should start taking cues from other small vibrant cities. Manchester will have to invest in its youth population. Again, this is not necessarily dumping money into youth services, but rather, making youth life easier and accessible through services like adequate transportation, a comprehensive recreational department, youth employment, and a respect for youth voice, among other things.

Lastly, how the city responds to the diverging forces and tensions across the city will determine why some people across New England decide to move to Manchester. In its current stage, even with the diverging forces, the people of the city are tolerant and incredibly resilient. But mending the divergences will take more than tolerance; it will take embracing the opposition. It will have to be an executive decision within each and every one of us to curb our ignorance and pride, and help push those marginalized identities to fully bloom.

A year in, and Manchester remains a “gateway” city to something else for most recent grads moving into the city, but it has the potential to be a “destination” city if we are all willing to work toward it.


izzyIzzy Okunlola is a Nigerian native who grew up in Providence, RI. He is a 2015 graduate of DePauw University and is currently working as the youth organizer for Granite State Organizing Project. He is a bit of an introvert and philosophical in nature, but also loves to travel, enjoys photography, and appreciates all forms of art. He has been described as a young “renaissance” man, plagued by a compulsive obsession with time and food. You can reach him at izzy@granitestateorganizing.org.


newsletter

About this Author