I think they re already coming, she says. The lack of jobs and apartments in Ocean County is Almendras only guess as to what s keeping minorities from the county. The owner of the only ethnic store in the area said she has seen no racial tensions since her daughters were in school. People are very open when they come here, she says. So far, there s no more tension here.
People are open and cultured.
In Barnegat Township, which has the largest number of blacks in southern Ocean County, Ed Palmer says he has had no problems with his neighbors, but will often get pulled over by police in certain towns because he is black. Other than that, the lifelong Barnegat resident has accepted that he s living in a white county. It ll never change, not in my lifetime. Ocean and Cape May counties were similar in their lack of racial diversity. Most towns in Cape May County saw little change in their mostly white composition last decade.