Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I currently live in Manhattan and sometimes LA but I lived in Garden City until I was 19 and is it just me or is Long Island racist? Everywhere I would go the people in Garden City who obviously were white would give me strange looks like I did not belong and I once went to a restaurant and my friend (who is dominican like me) were served last even though we came before most people and all the people were white except for my friend and I and and an Asian family. Also, Long Island seems to very segregated like Garden City is all white, while Hempstead is all black, etc. Do you think Nassau and Suffolk county are equally racist? I've talked to this black girl who lived in Garden City and she agreed with me about it being racist. Why is this?
I currently live in Manhattan and sometimes LA but I lived in Garden City until I was 19 and is it just me or is Long Island racist? Everywhere I would go the people in Garden City who obviously were white would give me strange looks like I did not belong and I once went to a restaurant and my friend (who is dominican like me) were served last even though we came before most people and all the people were white except for my friend and I and and an Asian family. Also, Long Island seems to very segregated like Garden City is all white, while Hempstead is all black, etc. Do you think Nassau and Suffolk county are equally racist? I've talked to this black girl who lived in Garden City and she agreed with me about it being racist. Why is this?
Yes, to a degree, but it's more subtle, (it's not blatant racism like some other parts of the country), Long Island was developed and built partly due to racism and the fear of integration, it's ingrained in LI's history.
But on the bright side most people [who are racist] are not open about their racist beliefs so you probably wouldn't notice it unless you got very involved in the social lives of people of other races. I'm a minority and I have friends of other races and sometimes racial things just slip out from them! and you can tell they don't even know they're doing it so a lot of it is sub-conscious and I guarantee that i'm not even the type that looks for racism.
I've never experienced direct/blatant racism though, like any insults or rude racial-based comments though. I haven't noticed any weird stares but maybe I get them and haven't noticed? But then again, i'm rarely the only one of my racial group in a setting so maybe some people who live in communities where they are in the extreme minority experience that more.
+ (By the way, yes, I know that there were communities on LI before suburbanization/development but the vast majority of development took place from the 1950's+.)
+ (I'd also like to add that, Hempstead is not even near all Black anymore, it's almost an even mix of Black and Hispanic nowadays)
+ (And I would like to add that not all Islanders are racist.. or at least openly racist)
+ (Yes, this reply was edited because it was a little over-exaggerated)
Last edited by LongIslandPerson; 08-02-2011 at 08:37 PM..
Long Island was built and developed due to racism?...where did you find that gem?
Long Islands biggest point of development was right after WW2 to provide housing for returning servicemen and their families. Guess in your book they were all racists.
Long Island was built and developed due to racism?...where did you find that gem?
Long Islands biggest point of development was right after WW2 to provide housing for returning servicemen and their families. Guess in your book they were all racists.
I grew up in Garden City in the '70s and '80s and returned recently. I don't have a lot of close contacts here, other than family, so I don't see what goes on beneath the surface, but it certainly appears that things are a bit better than they used to be. I notice less overt racial hostility and more integration in public places.
Of course, many of our residential areas are still segregated, and we've got residents like the poster in this thread who supports "thinking your race is 'the best'," so we've still got work to do.
I'm not saying that White Flight was the SOLE REASON why LI was developed; obviously there was WW2, etc, but you can't deny that integration was at least a notable contributing factor.
"Using the separate politica l institutions of the newly forming suburban communities, whites were able to escape the rising tide of integration and establish their own schools, libraries, police, and parks."
Reference: White Flight (http://eh.net/Clio/Publications/flight.shtml - broken link)
To add on to that:
Evidence of this is due to the fact of many developers not selling plots to minority groups; yes, you can try to debate and justify it but the main point is that race had to be on the minds of people if housing discrimination on this huge of a scale was such a common practice.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
