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Yeah. The reason why I said NOLA was because when I went there it was very gay friendly and trans friendly, I also saw a multitude of interracial couples, and my friend said that the city has a lot of Democrats. Plus the architecture in New Orleans was stunning/ I didn't really hear a lot of "southern accents" if you will. I'm not meaning to generalize but I feel like the state of LA as a whole does not contain those characteristics/mind set.
New Orleans is an extremely creative city that attracts many social outcasts and that does set it apart from the rest of Louisiana, no doubt about that. However, interracial couples are pretty common statewide believe it or not. I have a bunch of friends who are married to another race and have kids that live in NW LA.
As far as politics, populism spreads throughout Cajun country as well. Healthcare and higher education for the poor are two things we almost expect from government in South Louisiana, not just in NOLA. In fact, this state has given free care to the poor for a long time, and pays full in state college tuition for any resident meeting academic prerequisites, both are extremely popular around the state. Democrats v Republicans don't really indicate what social policies one has, just their voter base (black v white, primarily).
Not to pick you apart because you have very valid points. But I just wanna inform you of some similarities and take a chance to dispel a few misconceptions of this state if I can. It's kinda like this: if I had to pick a state that has the biggest cultural divide between it and the US, I'd pick Louisiana. A lot of misconceptions get cast on us because our QoL statistics reflect a typical southern state. But once you get to around I-10, the only stereotypes that really hold up is that there are swamps and weather is nasty in the summer.
Different accent in NOLA is a good point. Though I still feel there's more of a cultural divide within the state itself than just NOLA vs the rest of the state. Chicagoland also has a different accent than rural IL.
You could probably divide Louisiana up into 4 different states and nobody would argue: NOLA metro (south shore), Florida Parishes (north shore), Acadiana (cajun country), and everything else, and the only question would be where to put Baton Rouge.
New Orleans is an extremely creative city that attracts many social outcasts and that does set it apart from the rest of Louisiana, no doubt about that. However, interracial couples are pretty common statewide believe it or not. I have a bunch of friends who are married to another race and have kids that live in NW LA.
As far as politics, populism spreads throughout Cajun country as well. Healthcare and higher education for the poor are two things we almost expect from government in South Louisiana, not just in NOLA. In fact, this state has given free care to the poor for a long time, and pays full in state college tuition for any resident meeting academic prerequisites, both are extremely popular around the state. Democrats v Republicans don't really indicate what social policies one has, just their voter base (black v white, primarily).
Not to pick you apart because you have very valid points. But I just wanna inform you of some similarities and take a chance to dispel a few misconceptions of this state if I can. It's kinda like this: if I had to pick a state that has the biggest cultural divide between it and the US, I'd pick Louisiana. A lot of misconceptions get cast on us because our QoL statistics reflect a typical southern state. But once you get to around I-10, the only stereotypes that really hold up is that there are swamps and weather is nasty in the summer.
The weather is nasty in summer is an understatement! I just came back from NO, not sure why I decided to go in the middle of Aug. haha. Well, your post was informative, I guess I just thought that LA was very racist outside of NO. It's a common stereotype that most people outside of the state think is true.
The weather is nasty in summer is an understatement! I just came back from NO, not sure why I decided to go in the middle of Aug. haha. Well, your post was informative, I guess I just thought that LA was very racist outside of NO. It's a common stereotype that most people outside of the state think is true.
The northern half is very racist, but somehow they still interact. The southern half doesn't really care and has a very long history of coming together, despite what Jim Crow did to us. We've long been tolerant of blacks in general because of the wealthy black creoles throughout the states history. In fact, we even had a black unit serving in the Civil War.
David Duke actually came from the New Orleans area. We have pockets of idiocy reinforced by north Louisiana and the north shore (a very wealthy part of LA), but for some reason we like to make radical idiotic politicians famous (like David Duke, Kathleen Blanco, Bobby Jindal, and Ray Nagin) and national news just loves to pick on us for that, which we deserve thanks to the wealthy affluent racists between New Orleans and Mississippi.
I'd recommend coming back in November or Early April... c'est magnifique!
The northern half is very racist, but somehow they still interact. The southern half doesn't really care and has a very long history of coming together, despite what Jim Crow did to us. We've long been tolerant of blacks in general because of the wealthy black creoles throughout the states history. In fact, we even had a black unit serving in the Civil War.
David Duke actually came from the New Orleans area. We have pockets of idiocy reinforced by north Louisiana and the north shore (a very wealthy part of LA), but for some reason we like to make radical idiotic politicians famous (like David Duke, Kathleen Blanco, Bobby Jindal, and Ray Nagin) and national news just loves to pick on us for that, which we deserve thanks to the wealthy affluent racists between New Orleans and Mississippi.
I'd recommend coming back in November or Early April... c'est magnifique!
I personally would say Miami, Atlanta, and maybe New Orleans. Interesting that Chicago is being brought up so much. I feel that although that city is diverse and unique, you still get a very big Midwest feel when you are in the city. I'm also surprised no one has brought up Detroit. I've never been so I'm not sure if it feels like the rest of Michigan or not though.
I went to college in Central Illinois, at a school primarily comprised of kids from the Chicago suburbs. It was amazing to see how strained the town-gown relationship was. People from downstate think Chicagoans are rich demented liberals that are ruining the state, and people from Chicago think the rest of Illinois is so backwards and ignorant it might as well not exist. Both sides have valid and invalid claims.
I went to college in Central Illinois, at a school primarily comprised of kids from the Chicago suburbs. It was amazing to see how strained the town-gown relationship was. People from downstate think Chicagoans are rich demented liberals that are ruining the state, and people from Chicago think the rest of Illinois is so backwards and ignorant it might as well not exist. Both sides have valid and invalid claims.
This has been my experience as well: the vast majority of the differences are more perception than reality, especially differences among the average, middle class suburbs of Chicago and the cities of central Illinois. Certainly there is a division between many parts of the city of Chicago and other towns in the state, but then there are parts of the city comprised of average middle class people from the rest of Illinois as well as every other surrounding Midwestern state, lessening the stark contrast (although the perception still remains).
The weather is nasty in summer is an understatement! I just came back from NO, not sure why I decided to go in the middle of Aug. haha. Well, your post was informative, I guess I just thought that LA was very racist outside of NO. It's a common stereotype that most people outside of the state think is true.
You're guess was correct, outside of New Orleans the rest of the state is pretty racist, I'm not saying everbody but as a whole it is. New Orleans is the MOST diverse city in Louisiana by far and that's not something the rest of the state is really down with that much.
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