In which places in the country do people still think of race as being black/white vs. many ethnicities and cultures. (food)

[markovian process]

Hearing about, talking to people from and reading about places in the South, I'd imagine due to the historical color line and the importance of it, places with a legacy of slavery still tend to think in terms of that as most prominent. So, white identity would trump say immigrant identities of Polish, Bosnian, Hungarian or black identity would trump say Guyanese, Nigerian, Puerto Rican etc., not to mention non-black, non-white immigrants like Arabs or Chinese.

I'd imagine places with more historical immigration like NYC obviously and the northeast (but also places like California, Florida, and places like Atlanta within the South with more recent immigration) would not think much in terms of white/black as the main identity definer but say many different ethnicities, like Italians and Puerto Ricans, Chinese and Nigerians, Jamaicans and Polish, immigrant vs. local.

I'm not just talking about presence of old stock blacks or whites but the feel of identities. For instance, in some places, since black/white color line trumps immigrant ones, maybe a Polish and old stock white American would see each other as a group and a Jamaican and old stock black American one as a group. Whereas in another place, a first generation Jamaican and first generation Polish might think of themselves as "immigrants" first with their own culture worth preserving and think "we're both ethnic minorities with our own culture" compared to old stock Americans, black or white.

Do you find there is that divide between where particular ethnicity identities are stronger than "race" identities? Which places have this sort of thing?

[Hamtonfordbury]

Depends on the ethnicity and cultural background really. A New Yorker of Italian Catholic or Jewish heritage will probably be more alien to a person from Alabama than a black guy across town, same goes for a white Mormon from Utah or a white Lutheran from Minnesota. I think the south's general mindset has always been that blacks and whites (usually meaning Scots-Irish or Anglo-Saxon protestant) are symbiotic, but generally separate. Things are changing now, of course, but I think historically it was more of a caste-type system. They may see whites from other backgrounds of the same general European "race", but things divide up much more around religion than race in the south. If you aren't Baptist, Church of Christ or Methodist (or Protestant in general), that really is a strike against you in the politics and social life of the South, in my experience and observation.

Southerners went to war against a bunch of northerners of mostly Puritan and other northern faiths over the religious issues behind abolition and government issues of states rights. I don't recall against blacks in the south of that magnitude. They have lynched and killed Catholic Italians in Louisiana, Mormons in Georgia and Missouri, and Jews in Georgia, among others. Needless to say, religion and preservation of the Southern way of life is serious business to them.

[Jcan1634]

The maritimes in eastern canada is 98% white, christian. All the groups have been there for 400 years or there abouts. They all speak only english (some speak french). The immigrants who came later took on our culture and just keep their ethnic culture and food at home, including their language. Its different in other parts of canada where newcomers come and dont change at all and stay indian or whatever their culture is and dont take on the canadian culture.

[f1000]

the Midwest seems to put the most emphasis on "black" and "white" and forget there's a whole lot of Hispanics & Asians in other parts of the country

[NowInWI]

Originally Posted by f1000

the Midwest seems to put the most emphasis on "black" and "white" and forget there's a whole lot of Hispanics & Asians in other parts of the country

Please explain how we forget this.