Politically, Brooklyn's blacks are more "radical" (for lack of a better term) than those of Manhattan. There was much to-ing and fro-ing about Dinkins being a candy-ass from the Harlem clubhouse, at least before the Crown Heights riots.
I can remember going to elementary school in Valley Stream (right over the Queens line in Nassau) when we experienced an influx of kids who were fleeing places like Canarsie and other parts of South Brooklyn. The interesting thing about your borough is that the influx of yuppies into places like Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Williamsburgh has been exceeded by an outflow of lower middle class, largely Italian whites from places like Bensonhurst, Bergen Beach, Bay Ridge, etc., over the past decade. For better AND for worse, "old Brooklyn" is no more.