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by paul9290 6157 days ago
Also why is there a lack of African American people there?

Anyone ever been to a technology conference? I felt like I stepped into Harvard circa 1955.

4 comments

The city essentially kicked African Americans out starting in the 1970s under the guise of redeveloping the Fillmore District. Since then, it's been a matter of economics. SF has the smallest % of African Americans of any major US city (6.5%). This is smaller than cities typically thought of as "white:" Minneapolis (17%), Seattle (9%) and Portland, Oregon. (7.9%). Even Portland, Maine has a higher percentage of African Americans (6.6%).

As others have mentioned, Oakland is where African American people live in the Bay Area.

You just need to go across the Bay Bridge. I'm not sure how or when it happened but for some reason San Francisco is very white and Oakland is very black.
Hunter's point and the Filmore district are also heavily African-American.

But when I was there during the 97-99 boom there was a noticeable lack of African Americans in tech and web companies.

> Also why is there a lack of African American people there?

This article attempts to explain it: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0615/p02s04-usgn.html

tech conferences != SF