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Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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The South, rural or urban, is nowhere near the level of racism of the 1960s. If anything, i would imagine it to be one of the lesser racist areas. The Reverse Migration, as well as the continued presence of rural blacks leads me to believe the North might be more racist than the South now. In fact, looking at the way cities of the Midwest and Northeast are laid out, among them my own, I know it to be true. I've seen many more African Americans living higher up the social ladder in the south than anywhere else today.
You probably won't find lynchings anymore in the south, but you may still encounter plenty of racists. But it's simply not the same as it once was (luckily). When I lived there, I encountered plenty of racist people, but I never knew anyone who would actively hurt another person simply because of race. I knew white people who hated black people, but they would still be relatively polite to them and would never hurt a man just because he was black. I also knew lots of white people who would make racist jokes, but certainly wouldn't claim they hate black people. And then there are the sweet old ladies who don't hate anyone, but unknowingly say offensive things. They would be mortified if you told them you thought they were racist, because they would never intentionally hurt another person, including the hurting of feelings. I don't have any patience with the first group, those who will proudly tell you they hate a certain race, but that group seems to have the smallest membership. The second group, the racist jokers, don't really mean any harm, they just view racist jokes the same as dirty jokes: not something you say around ladies, but funny, they think, when alone with the guys. While certainly offensive, they seem to be pretty harmless. The third group certainly means no harm at all, they simply don't realize it when they say racist things. I can't hardly hold that against them, because we may all be a little like that.
I should also add that while I lived there, I saw FAR more hatred toward people of middle eastern decent (whom were assumed to be Muslim) than black people. Black people were usually just the butt of jokes, but the hatred toward, specifically, Muslims was considerably worse.
Edit: I should also add that the people I encountered who hated specific races also hated everyone who wasn't exactly like them: white, straight, Protestant southerners. You could be a white southerner but if you were agnostic, you were inferior. You could be a white Protestant, but if you were from anywhere but the south, you were inferior. And so on.
This is a disgusting post to assume that only whites are only racist.
Oh Lord, here we go again. Mods this subject has been beaten to DEATH...........And I will throw my two cents in, "Blacks are as racist as whites were in the 60's today".
This is a disgusting post to assume that only whites are only racist.
busta
I'm not assuming anything. My only experience with racism has been with whites who are racists toward others, so that's the only thing I addressed. I never said only whites are racist.
I'd say not anymore racist than anywhere else. Unlike other regions; the south rural areas have significant black populations. This isn't the case anywhere else.
The rural South is less racist than most people in the Northeast, Midwest or West believe it to be, but racial idealists still would not be satisfied. (Not that they'll ever be, though.) I can't speak for the West, but there's actually more public pleasantry between races in the South than there is in the Northeast or Midwest. Be that as it may, social circles are still pretty segregated, but often by everybody's choice, not just white people.
I was born there and I don't know that I find it much worse than the rural Midwest, but that's not that great of a compliment. There is still some stuff, but to a large extent it's with people over 60. In some ways I find the rural Southerners under 40 to be either less racist than Midwestern people under 40 or about the same.
However I think elderly people in many of the rural parts of the South are sometimes a bit more racist than elderly people I find elsewhere. The Mountain South was unusual there in that some of them, in my experience, had the mindset of "Blacks are foreign to us and we don't want foreigners." I know back in the mountains of Arkansas many of them did not want the Vietnamese either. And Vietnamese immigrants were fairly often church-going conservative Anti-Communist type people. Still "foreigners."
Elderly blacks and American-Indian of the rural South might also be more racist, I don't really know. Generally if it's a kind of rural college or "Academy" town it probably won't be that racist. If it's like an impoverished rural county in the hills, where the young people have moved away, it might well be kind of racist.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,606 posts, read 55,783,988 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
I was born there and I don't know that I find it much worse than the rural Midwest, but that's not that great of a compliment. There is still some stuff, but to a large extent it's with people over 60. In some ways I find the rural Southerners under 40 to be either less racist than Midwestern people under 40 or about the same.
However I think elderly people in many of the rural parts of the South are sometimes a bit more racist than elderly people I find elsewhere. The Mountain South was unusual there in that some of them, in my experience, had the mindset of "Blacks are foreign to us and we don't want foreigners." I know back in the mountains of Arkansas many of them did not want the Vietnamese either. And Vietnamese immigrants were fairly often church-going conservative Anti-Communist type people. Still "foreigners."
Elderly blacks and American-Indian of the rural South might also be more racist, I don't really know. Generally if it's a kind of rural college or "Academy" town it probably won't be that racist. If it's like an impoverished rural county in the hills, where the young people have moved away, it might well be kind of racist.
Had no idea there were any Vietnamese in Arkansas, of all places (in appreciable numbers at least). I do know some went to Louisiana and Texas though.
If so they have become racist due to bad experiences.
Blacks: There are a few factors behind the racism among blacks.For one as I mentioned earlier the main reason is from bad experiences .And the other reason is because those who were not born during the civil rights era ,may be racist due to fact that it was taught to them from family members who experienced that era.
Whites : The factors behind white racist is due to the superior complex or that every other race is beneath them under all levels.And this way of thinking is past down from generation to generation.
At the end of the day it comes from ignorance.Just an observation
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