that was going on before it was seen as a "southern" thing (00's).

and we have/had a lot of southern influence, most of our g-parents were from the south.
the black people from here embrace black culture just as much as any other area, so you're wrong there as well.
the issue is that the black population has decreased (it never was that high if you compare it to southern metro areas and those on the east coast) and dispersed, so the opportunities to celebrate black culture have dwindled: attendance went down, so funding went down, so quality went down, so then attendance goes down again, rinse and repeat.
we used to have the black cowboy parade, karijama (big black arts celebration memorial day weekend), two big juneteenth celebrations, the malcolm x jazz festival, art & soul festival (labor day), carnival used to be bigger and blacker, festival at the lake (which rivaled any "block party" that happens in other black cities), we had/have a well known black/african dance center, a black theater group, oakland is home of the damn panthers. so miss me with not embracing black culture.
unfortunately the loss (and dispersion) of the native black population paired with the transplant blacks (many of whom rather be shea butter blipsters or buppies) are the things that have watered down black culture out here, but don't get today twisted with the how we got down in the past. outside of size, black events in oakland/sf/berkeley were just as beautiful as those i've attended in chicago, DC, philly and atlanta