Race relations and Huntsville (Birmingham, Guntersville: crimes, house, neighborhood)

[jayman1981]

I have a simple question. I live in the D.C. area. My wife and I were talking about moving. My wife suggested Huntsville because she is in the gov't.
Most of my life I've always had a negative view on Alabama as a whole (my mom has told me a lot of negative stories). This is impart due to the civil rights movement. I would like to know how race relations in Huntsville were? Do hate crimes happen often and is it really a friendly town? Does there still residue of hate and animosity towards African americans. Mind you I know there is no such thing as a place without racist individuals

Don't mean to sound ignorant, it's just I had a friend who also was thinking of moving out there, and he said all he could feel was racial tension in the air and decided to stay in the D.C. area. I felt that way about Biloxi, MS. Anyway this is in no way a bash against Huntsville or Alabama period, but I want to hear it from other citizens and get a fresh perspective on the area. My wife and I have plans to visit and I'm excited to come and visit, for the most part it seems like Huntsville is getting a lot of positive responses. So plug away. I'm starting to look at more Alabama games (Go crimson tide!!!)

[Guntersville Boomer]

Jayman-- I have a house we have had for 2.5 years in Guntersville which is about 45 minutes outside Huntsville and have seen nothing, even in the news that was called a hate crime, nor have I sensed any race relation problems in our area. My daughter lives in Birmingham and my husband and I are very active with Habitat for Humanity and if I remember correctly, Birmingham has the highest percentage of african american home ownership of anywhere in the US. I just haven't seen anything that should frighten you from considering moving to the area IMO.

[zenjenn]

I think it's a great area and if you don't like Huntsville it will be for reasons other than race relations. Frankly I'm perplexed that anyone would say they can "feel racial tension in the air" in Huntsville.

The only thing I can think of, is there is a geographical segregation that exists, more socioeconomic than racial, but as in many places, there is a resulting "white area/black area" phenomenon. However, the "white area" here in Huntsville has FAR more black residents than my "white area" in California where the black population was %wise lower, and the socioeconomic gap was much more extreme. I feel less racial tension here than I did in the Los Angeles area where I used to live. I actually even feel more respected as a Jew here than I did in California. I have a lot of theories as to why, but that's another story.

[Mawoods]

My humble opinion on the subject -- you are right, there is racism everywhere from everyone. However, it is more a socioeconomic thing here than color I believe. I have just returned here after leaving 2 years ago and moving to Atlanta. We have also lived in Wisconsin for a good while. Every neighborhood I have lived in the South was integrated. No one cared what color you were. What is interesting is that in Wisconsin, there were no African Americans in our neighborhood and my theory was there were much fewer people of color up there and we were middle class , of which there were even fewer people of color. I missed the vibrant interaction between all that we had in the south. In Atlanta there is a huge Asian of many nationalities population too. My daughter went to a top rated high school in a northern suburb that had 49 different nationalities. Never experienced anything like that in Wisconsin. We loved Wisconsin but ironically experienced more racism up there and it was much more openly displayed than here. Just my experience.I think if you come with a positive attitude and open mind you will find a wonderful place to live with many opportunities.

[mm42]

Certainly racism stills exists, but I feel more "racial tension in the air" in big cities like DC and Boston than I ever experienced around here.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by jayman1981

I have a simple question.

I would like to know how race relations in Huntsville were?
Do hate crimes happen often and is it really a friendly town?
Does there still residue of hate and animosity towards African americans.

I have a simple question.

I wonder what a complicated question reads like.

[jayman1981]

Thanks for answering my question. I pretty much have a good grasp of what people are feeling. Charles your too funny. Guess it wasn't that simple after all. LOL.... Anyway I appreciate everyone's point of view sounds like a great place.

[flstatenolefan]

Here is my perspective. Huntsville has a huge military/government presence. A lot of the people in that workforce came from a military background. Races are more evenly represented in the military, IMO, and the ability to advance and learn the job skills necessary to work in Huntsville is probably more readily available to minorities in the military than in the civilian world. So, when someone leaves the military and is looking for a place to use those job skills, Huntsville is a natural choice. And, many of those jobs are quite lucrative, therefore there are more minorities in all socioeconomic strata here.

That's just my theory, anyway.

[cpg35223]

I have to say this, living in Birmingham.

I've lived in San Diego, Chicago, Cleveland, and Baltimore. Now, mind you, I'm a white guy, but one of the things we noted about Alabama was how little racial tension we found here, particularly compared to the North and the East.

I don't know. Maybe it was because we worried about encountering something out of In The Heat Of The Night. But to our surprise, we didn't witness Klan rallies on street corners, we haven't heard the N-Word more than once (And that was from some crusty old fart who is long dead), and we haven't seen any overt racism of any kind. In fact, I heard more racism in Cleveland, Ohio, last Thanksgiving than I've heard in fifteen years in Alabama.

Hey, maybe I'm Pollyanna here. But it seems that there's pretty good harmony where it counts: The office, the restaurants, the playgrounds, and the checkout lines at the grocery stores. In that sense, I think the South has come a lot further than the rest of the country. For some reason I can't define, interaction between the races is a lot more casual and friendly here than elsewhere. Maybe it's because the South values civility above all things. And maybe it had a lot farther to come, but progress is still a pretty great thing, wouldn't you agree?

[hindsight2020]

flstatenolefan, Bingo. I'm in the military and that assessment is spot on compared to non-military based social constructs. The fact of the matter is that Huntsville is a socioeconomic statistical outlier of Alabama, good bad or indifferent. And even in a social dynamic dominated by a higher-than-median education and income level demographics, you STILL see the "white area/black area" partitions, so what does that tell you about the rest of Alabama?

If you're a black professional you have two options in my opinion.

1) Accept the present day flavor of southern racism, which is called "Have a good day Racism" (more of that in a second), which is not to be confused for " Money Racism" which is attributable to the New England and West Coast populace (for someone in HSV to argue that there is money racism going on there is frankly laughable, you have to live in a high cost of living area to begin with to even qualify for such label, HSV isn't close to that) or ..

2) forego AL altogether. It's that simple.

People get hung up (no pun intended) on pictures of the past, Jim Crow ad naseum. These stereotypes are easy to argue against because it is accurate that they don't exist anymore in most of Alabama. The problem with that though is that instead of being genuine and finishing the story, most people stop there and don't address "have a good day racism", which is widespread and not isolated like most folks would like you to believe. How do I know? Because I attended the University of Alabama and even as a WHITE Hispanic, I experienced have a good day racism.

It's an insidious form of racism, in that it allows those who are discriminated against to believe that they are generally tolerated when in reality they just want the target to simply not aspire to interact or obtain any of the desirable "traits" that they hold as valuable (the house in the "good" neighborhood, the social gatherings, buying into it by marrying up (white) etc). They'll let you coexist and "enjoy" what the area has to offer so long as you don't aspire to anything and most certainly not intend to marry into it. Don't cross the line and they'll wave at you and smile while saying "have a good day" as they cross you at the Lowe's checkout line. Don't like having to spend time having to be cognizant of have a good day racism on a daily basis? Yeah AL as a non-white is not for you. Again, I was white for all intents and purposes (until they saw my driver's licenses or picked up an accent) and even I had a tough time breaking out of the token status among my peers at UA. Back then I tolerated it because I was getting a good education cheap and easy, nowadays I'm in a position where I don't need to acknowledge their social construct.

So yeah I don't think you'll have " problems" working in HSV, but if being cognizant of your " status" in the area is something you're not interested in, then yeah I'd punt and stay in DC, since we're taking govt jobs and such. Or move to other metropolitan areas where govt jobs could be a possibility and your race won't be a target of have a good day racism by virtue of population density. Good luck.