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Hello, my interracial family is planning to move to Colorado. I am trying to figure out if Denver or COS would be more accepting of our family. I love the Mountain View in Colorado Springs, however, I understand Denver to be more liberal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated I will also add that we do not know anyone in Colorado Springs. We are around our early 30’s and out children are very young. I hope to find a place where I can be myself and meet people who will accept us.
Hello, my interracial family is planning to move to Colorado. I am trying to figure out if Denver or COS would be more accepting of our family. I love the Mountain View in Colorado Springs, however, I understand Denver to be more liberal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated I will also add that we do not know anyone in Colorado Springs. We are around our early 30’s and out children are very young. I hope to find a place where I can be myself and meet people who will accept us.
Though there may be some folks on this forum who are truly familiar with, ie; have direct experience with both Denver and Colorado Springs, i suggest that you post this again on the Colorado forum.
I do know that Colorado Springs is quite conservative.
^^Yes, good idea. Denver is more liberal than COS, but from what I've heard from my daughter who lived in COS for a while, it's not a racially divided city. There's a big military presence there which adds to the diversity.
It depends. I am Native American and had mixed experiences. If you have children in HS who are preparing for college, then Colorado in general is a bad choice The schools are inundated with ultra-huge resentment against affirmative action. Talk to minority students in the medical school and law school - they are usually assumed to be there only because of affirmative action and have no true merit. This may occur even if the minority in "dispute" had a near-perfect undergraduate gpa and scored in the 90th percentile of respective exams (LSAT, GRE, MCAT), etc. Colorado's campuses have resentment against affirmative action boiling under the surface.
As for Colorado Springs, I used to run the Pikes Peak Ascent. Most whites are liberal and polite at the race. The race organizers held an honorary event for a Native American mountain runner who had won the race multiple times back in the 70s.
However, I did run (ironically) into a racist elderly man with bright white hair at the summit. He was mad I had outrun him. I am not a competitive runner at all. I was actually a football lineman. I simply participate in running events to prevent diabetes. The guy was shouting at full blast in the bus boasting his teen son could "run me down". This was white rage. I responded by telling him I knew a Zuni Indian from NM who could win the race. In hindsight, I should have just asked him to calm down or I would call the cops. There is a police station right next to the starting line. But most whites I met at that event are very polite and friendly. I met a blonde white girl who liked me after I got off the bus. Go figure. Such is Colorado.
I don't understand why that guy would choose running as a medium for white supremacy. I had thought that ended in the 1936 Olympics with Jesse Owens (not to mention modern runners from Kenya and Ethiopia). The ascent speed record for the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest, is held by a Sherpa. So much for white racism in mountain running.
So Colorado racism does exist in (1) subtle ways with a pattern of resentment against affirmative action and (2) the occasional blatant racism like that old white man.
I did see subtle corporate racism in multiple jobs in Boulder and Denver. But in general many of my experiences in Colorado with white residents was very positive at work, the gym, or socially. So it's mixed overall.
Colo Spgs conservatism is often greatly overstated and is very dependent upon where you are at. While we have some large evangelical associations headquartered here, participation in major religions is actually below the national average for most of the population. There are some zip codes in the far north parts of town that are very religiously conservative. Overall, the whole city tends to be very fiscally conservative, which creates a different set of issues.
There are areas in central and western Colo Spgs that are much more progressive and the south and east sides of town tend to more racially diverse. So it tends to be a very mixed area. As posted above, the number of military bases in the area is bringing a constant influx of nationalities and race into the area and Colo Spgs can be much more accepting of that than some places in northern CO. Will you find a wide choice of different ethnic cafes or stores, no, but we probably have one of two of a lot of different styles.
Given the number of people who live here, are stationed, or visit here (we have a very large tourist industry), we are not exempt from racism, subtle or blatant. It is not something you will see in marches on city hall or see on the local news with any regularity. There are a large percentage of mixed families here. In School District 11, mixed race is the second highest percentage of the student population, but it is probably the most diverse of the dozen different districts in the area. Others may be a bit less diverse, but higher performing. It all really depends on where you decide to land once you get here.
Hello, my interracial family is planning to move to Colorado. I am trying to figure out if Denver or COS would be more accepting of our family. I love the Mountain View in Colorado Springs, however, I understand Denver to be more liberal. Any advice would be greatly appreciated I will also add that we do not know anyone in Colorado Springs. We are around our early 30’s and out children are very young. I hope to find a place where I can be myself and meet people who will accept us.
I'm a Denver native and moved to COS almost 18 years ago. Denver then seemed much more segregated. Hispanics on the west and north, blacks on the east, whites in the south and suburbs. It may have changed since then.
Colorado Springs appears more integrated. I believe most of this comes from have 5 military institutions and an army base that has 30,000 soldiers.
Denver is twice as liberal as COS is conservative. And each year the gap closes. It's about 60/40 Republican/Democrat as of the last election. That's greatly impacted by active and retired military. Denver was 80/20 Democrat.
Hope this helps. BTW, my wife is Korean and a business owner. I am white so obviously our children are mixed. They we born and bred here. NEVER a problem.
No one in either Denver or Colorado Springs cares about race/ethnic background. I'm a caricature of a Jewish guy from NY, and my wife is from Japan. All people here care about if the ski resorts have enough snow or beating traffic on I-70 to get to their favorite camping spot.
Growing up in CO Springs, I can say the city really doesn't have a race problem. I think it's partly because there's not much entrenched poverty, but moreso because the military does a good job of weeding that out of people, and a lot of Colorado Springs residents either have been affiliated with the military or are directly related to someone in the military.
Growing up in CO Springs, I can say the city really doesn't have a race problem. I think it's partly because there's not much entrenched poverty, but moreso because the military does a good job of weeding that out of people, and a lot of Colorado Springs residents either have been affiliated with the military or are directly related to someone in the military.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Agree Phil.
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I will also add that we do not know anyone in Colorado Springs. We are around our early 30’s and out children are very young. I hope to find a place where I can be myself and meet people who will accept us.
