Claiming famous people from your city:born or raise?

[valet]

This debate always comes up. Especially in my city (Detroit). Lizzo, was born in Detroit but she wasnt raised here. Arethra Franklin wasnt born here but we claim her as a Detroiter. Where do you draw the line.

 

[MoveForward]

Wherever you spend your formative years is where you're from imo.

 

[mbewane]

I'll side-step the question. As someone who was raised in different countries, none of which the one where I was born, I would say it has to be wherever you spent your formative years (10-18?). Tony Parker was born in Bruges (Belgium), Dominique Wilkins nearby Paris lol. No one from those cities/countries claim them, and they're right.

 

[ThaEruditious]

Wherever you spend your formative years is where you're from imo.

This. I was born in Augusta, Ga (where I currently stay), but raised mostly in Nashville, Tn. I claim the latter even though I have a huge love/hate relationship with tha city.

 

[richaveli83]

Where you spend your formative years.

 

[murksiderock]

Mostly where you spend your formative years, but this also can change when you're an adult...

I know a girl from Virginia who was born and raised in Virginia (I went to high school with her), but hasn't lived in Virginia since she was 18. Went to college at Penn State, moved to Harlem at 22 and has been there since working in the NY public school system...

She'll be 32 in January, so we're talking a woman who has spent almost a decade of her 32 years in NY, that's nearly ⅓ of her life...

She'll always be a Virginia native, and just posted on her IG last week about her sister and how she still in some ways a VA chick, but at this point she's also a New Yorker. She not a NY native and you can make that distinction, but a decade there isn't some time you can easily erase and pretend it didn't happen...

Similarly, I spent most of my formative years in Virginia, and definitely consider myself a Virginian, but I'm still a Californian too. Everybody isnt born or raised in one place or even two places and you can identify with multiple places for different reasons...

In Lizzo case her biography says she was raised in Houston, but hasn't been there since she was 18-19. She's 31 years old, where she spent the last 13 years if her life counts, and they say she was in Denver and mostly Minnesota the last 13 years. I know she claims Minnesota and Houston, she can do that. She isnt a native of either, but one city raised her abd the other (Twin Cities) is where she spent most of her young adult years...

It's really specific to the person and you have to allow that people experience places differently!

 

[murksiderock]

Ludacris was born and raised in Illinois, then moved to Virginia, and didn't get to Atlanta until halfway thru high school, yet he claims Atlanta and Atlanta claims him (and I don't have a problem with it)...

Same thing with Ciara, who grew up everywhere because of the military but she claims Atlanta and they claim her. I don't have a problem with that either...

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

Raised

 

[Pazzy]

Honestly, it doesn't matter. Where you have lived does have an influence on you to some degree. I would say you are where you've lived but certain places most definitely have to be taken to account because they have a role in who you are or your identity even if you didn't spend your whole life there.

 

[Sex Luthor]

Anybody from around new orleans just say that's where they're from. Most of them aren't from the city but claim it anyway. A lot of the time it's just easier to explain bc nobody knows the city 10-15 minutes away from new orleans

 

[Vandelay]

Kurupt was born in Philly, but he doesn't seem to claim nor does Philly seem to claim him.

 

[murksiderock]

I think the other part you gotta consider is how you experience a certain place...

I love Virginia to death, but have no ties to it besides growing up there. Didn't graduate high school there. No college there. No family there, didn't start working there, nothing to really draw me back there other than the fact I bonded with the culture in my multiple times living in multiple parts of the state...

I didn't graduate from anything in California either, but I did start my primary education there, and the biggest thing is I have family all over. That can't be replicated, and no matter how long I've been away, every time I'm back in Sac or LA it feels like home. It's a different feeling...

They are both home to me for different reasons, I just didn't have the experience of growing up in one city or state, so I was shaped by both in different ways at different times. California is my home of record, my home by birthright and my home by family, not to mention i know people and am extremely comfortable there...

Virginia is my home because i experienced most of my "coming of age" moments there, developed relationships with people, and assimilated some of the culture living amongst its influence...

So I have a bi-coastal personality, people knew when I was younger I'm not really from VA, not just the fact that cats didn't grow up with me before middle school, but people also know I have no family out there. It's my adopted home, but I'm still one of them in other ways...

People in Cali know I wasn't raised there after elementary school, you can hear it in my speech and style, but you can also tell I'm from there, and people know I have family there. It's my original home...

And I'm 30 and have spent parts of my adult life in both states...

So my point is that plenty of people have had similar journeys to mine, it all just really depends on how that person feels, how their city receives them too...