What are race relations like in FC? Are people tolerant?

[ledjar]

I'd like to think that there's very little racism in Fort Collins. Wile it is a very white city and there are a few 'good ole boys' here, for the most part i like to think we're fairly civilized and racism is far behind us.

You might run into an average run of the mill drunk hillbilly ******* from Wyoming that came to drink for the weekend spouting off some racist BS but other than that i sincerely hope that no African American has encountered any racism here especially from our residents..

[bco24]

Fort Collins isn't diverse at all. I've spent quite a bit of time up there and the only african-americans I see probably go to school at CSU or play sports there (no racist, relax I'm a minority myself).

[AMidnightSoul]

I have to agree it's not very diverse off campus, but I've had African-American friends visit from another state and we spent several days hanging out in Old Town and never had any issues. I have a few African-American neighbors and they've never mentioned having any issues, even during race relations conversations we've had, but it might not be something they feel comfortable talking about with a white chick and I've never directly asked them so can't say they haven't had any issues, just that they've never mentioned any.

[somedaysomeway]

Both of my kids have African-American classmates at school (also Korean, Vietnamese, Indian ...). We moved from a small rural town where you were either white or Mexican. Fort Collins feels like a veritable melting pot!

[Mommalot]

I am not a local so i am only adding to the questions on this topic here, sorry.....

I am so glad this question has been posed for comments. This is something we will be looking at when we visit. We are Caucasian, my husband and I grew up in Los Angeles which was and still is very diverse and we both appreciated that. We feel our kids sort of missed out on something we were fortunate enough to enjoy. We left due to crime and crowd to raise our family. (child kidnapping exploded about then, hearing of a new child missing each night & and being the new paranoid mommy, i bolted!) When moving to northern CA (just shy of OR) that kind of diversity was lost and our area was predominantly white, though this is changing a lot in recent years. A thought that comes to my mind as I read the posts is that there is intolerance everywhere and it doesn't require race! We experience a lot of intolerance re:the size of our family, our beliefs, the vehicles we choose, etc. There are things where I live that I wish we're not so tolerated, so it really can go either way depending on personal views and what the community and its culture embraces or discourages.

I am curious how others responded when the gentleman was not allowed into the bar? If this was so blatant and yet tolerated perhaps this is not a place the gentleman and his friends (or others who saw it as blatant) would like to support with their business? My family and I have gotten up and walked out before when a business seemed to be operating unethically. (happy to share that almost every time it was resolved and the owners or managers were appreciative to be made aware of the circumstances) I am curious how folks in FC respond if they are witnessing something like this?

I have read about FC folks being snobbish among other negatives but overall in all my research I have seen FC folks reported to be quite welcoming. Coming from CA, (try not to hold that against me!) anywhere we go there is a hint of dread as the result of learning there is a possibility of one more CA family relocating to someone's neighborhood, but what I end up learning is that there are so many CA transplants who understand why we want out that it never ends up mattering much in the long run.

I do wonder why particular areas (perhaps FC) have such low diversity to begin with though?

Being new to the forum, can any old timers tell me if new questions should all be new threads? Thanks!

[barefootmeg]

I used to live in Detroit, then moved to San Francisco, and then moved here to Fort Collins. The biggest shocker for me here was the utter lack of diversity. When my husband or I saw a person of color around town we'd joke that we'd seen half of the __fill in the racial type__ population in town. That's slowly changing, but when I say that, I mean we've grown from a minuscule amount of diversity to a small amount.

There's definitely racism here. My kids attend one of the local middle schools that has a high hispanic population and when other people find out where my kids go to school, they're shocked that I would let my kids go there. (I should add that we've been at the school for 3 years now and I love the teachers, the administrators and even the kids (despite the fact that they're all a bunch of grumpy middle schoolers) are pretty darn cool.)

Dunn Elementary is one of the more racially diverse schools, in part because children of CSU students attend there (and at Bennett Elementary, I believe) and in part because people who adopt Asian or African children often choose to send their kids to Dunn so that they don't stand out as much. But there are no black teachers at any of the schools my kids have attended (including Dunn). Lincoln is the most racially diverse middle school. Poudre is probably the most racially diverse high school. But our largest racial group (after pasty white people) is hispanics. Then I'd make a guess that Asians come third (largely due to the university and adoptions) and black families are very few and far between, though I've been noticing more black CSU students in the past 5 years or so.

I'd venture a guess that every single person that's replied on this thread is white. So none of us can probably give you a decent sense of what it would be like for your family to move here. Among the kids at school who are black, they seem to fit in alright, though I think the girls have a slightly harder time making friends. (I think that has more to do with which elementary school they came from than the color of their skin, though.) The kids' middle school did a survey on bullying (which is a huge topic at that age) and found that most bullying wasn't around race but gender.

I don't want to steer you away from Fort Collins. It's a pretty cool place to be and I do think you'll find lots of folks here who accept you warmly. But from the blacks I've talked to around town, it seems like a bit of a mixed bag at times. I wish I could direct you toward some specific folks to talk to, but I'm not sure what direction to point you in. :-\

[Mandinkalya]

I moved here from the east coast several years ago and I'm always shocked when I see a black person, any black person, because you rarely see it in Fort Collins. It's a shame. I wish there was more diversity.