Being black in Seattle

I wanted to direct this post towards the black community in Seattle. I’ve seen similar posts in this subreddit about whether or not people perceive Seattle to be a racist city. Unfortunately, many of the replies came from white people who don’t have firsthand experience.

I was born and raised in North Seattle (Northgate, Lake City). Went to predominately white schools and didn’t have a whole lot of friends growing up. I grew up very ignorant to the racial discrimination inherent to the US so I perceived any failure to maintain a quality social life as being my fault.

Being in my mid-20s now and still living in North Seattle, I’ve found myself suffering from depression. I felt like I wasted my youth because I didn’t have a community of my own. I’ve gone to therapy to work through a lot of my problems and now I’m making a greater effort to make friends.

With all of that said, I just want to ask any black people who grew up in the Seattle area. Did you find it especially challenging making friends? Do you wish you grew up in a city that was more diverse?