Considering move to Louisville

[matthewf]

i'm white and have had both black and asian long-term girlfriends. never had any problem at all save a few basically ignorant people who didn't really have any ill intent, they just weren't used to seeing a white guy with a black girlfriend and had to take a few moments to process it.

louisville is an island of diversity and culture in a sea of midwestern/southern homogeny. it's the cheapest city in the country that has this kind of cultural benefit.

basically, if you're cool, everyone else will be, too. if you're looking for something to get angry about, you'll probably find it, eventually.

[atlantagreg30127]

Originally Posted by rppipa01

Perhaps the best way to describe it is "the souths most northern city and the north's most southern city". .

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Um, actually, that "slogan" has been used in Charleston, WV for a good number of years - you all can't have it.

Ok I won't copy/paste an encyclopedia about it, I promise.

I only know one person who lives in that area, and have only visited twice. I called her up on my cell when I read this thread (yes, I'm bored at work) and asked her for her opinion on this topic 'in her own words' (so I can't be blamed for anything - I'm repeating her stuff).

She says overall she sees no racial tention in the area on a day-to-day basis. In her line of work (accounting) she has had white customers who have said some negative black comments but also black customer who have said some pretty dicey things about whites, too... so racism does exist of course like it does on all sides everywhere, but generally you don't see much of it and she said those types of comments are not everyday things. She said the only "tension" is that during the Durby once a year, a tradition has started where the Hip-Hop and Rap crowds will line up and cruise one of the main drags during the Durby - police have stepped in and there are some heavy threats going on due to it, so that is the one thing where there is some tension (we had a thing here in Atlanta called Freaknick a while back - apparently this is similar).

In terms of mixed couples, she told me she knows and works for a number of them and has never heard of any troubles. Apparently, much like here actually, a black woman with a white man doesn't raise much more than a "surprised" look on people's faces, because it's 1000 times more common to see a black man with a white woman. Either way, she said there does not seem to be a problem there with it.

[289leet]

Any tension is mind over matter if you don’t mind it doesn't matter. Louisville can't make up its mind if its southern or northern in mind set, I prefer southern.
I am a white skin man and have a tan skin wife,
I would probably look too but with good intentions
I have had black girlfriends before; I'm going to vote yes its ok to move here you will be fine. I like nature too and might move to bullet county, I think you find more intolerance when its a white woman with a black man, fewer people care who a white man marries

[hairmetal4ever]

Originally Posted by rppipa01

Louisville is "the North's most southern city and the South's most northern city".

I've heard the same thing said about Cincinnati.

Originally Posted by rppipa01

The reason I put that in the post is because most of the people I have met here have pronounced it ''Lou-uh-vull''.

There is a Louisville, Ohio (suburb of Canton) that IS pronounced "Lewisville" but everyone here says "Lou-a-ville" when referring to the city in KY.

[heider123]

I wouldn't move here if I were an interracial couple. A common but quiet phrase I heard when I was a kid and now again lately is "once they go black they're not welcome back" kind of like walking off a cliff. I know many people who see race mixing as coming from the same sort of culture that brings us hookers, Brats dolls, STDs, Fast and the Furious, Lower back tattoos, and Meth labs. So no, not a good idea here really.

Louisville doesn't have the big awkward gated communities like Saint Louis, or other cities, but there is a racial divide. Kentucky in general is not a mix-race friendly state even though Lincoln is from here. I don't know if it will be comfortable here or not, but I would think not. Maybe some part of California would be good, I don't know. If you go to a business event downtown, odds are that 99% of those sitting at the tables will be white and 99% of the waiters will be black. There are black folks in the local business world, and I have heard no comments about that in white conversation and when interacting in business race and religion doesn't seem to matter as much, but I know that race-mixing (as in more than in friendship) seems to be less and less popular here based on conversations. For better or worse depending on who you are, that seems to be the case. As for real physical hate problems, I don't see much of that, I do see division that seems desired from black & white although no one ever talks about it except in private. People here are currently, and have been in the past, tolerant of things that they don't personally agree with or like and there is a "to each his own" sort of mentality. (We were neutral even during the civil war, and there are plenty of Jewish, Catholics, Baptists, Hindu, and others living right next to each other with very little problem -except when we were overloaded by too many Germans at once. There are also openly gay men and women with no problems. Actually, I would say that gay couples may currently be more accepted than mixed-race couples in Louisville.) We accept some things (differing religions for instance) and tolerate others (mixed couples for instance.)

I think that in general mixed-race people and couples are not appreciated here and are less liked everyday, but it is unlikely that anyone will say anything to you about it, but may to their close friends. I would actually expect violence to start-up around here before conversation, because so many have been trained not to talk about it in public from a very early age. Their dislike of mixing is mostly from a fear of loosing their own race by a sort of legalized form of genocide, not so much as a hatred of other races. I have talked about this with Indian, and Jewish friends and this seems to be a good general view on the issue here - mostly the higher educated business owner and professional types anyway, surprisingly those with lower education now seem to care less, but it used to be the other way around when I was a kid.

This issue has pushed white people here into suburbia over the years and now has been devastating our very important public education system and pushing people into private schools and homeschools (usually under some false religious claims.) White women are coming out of the workforce just to make sure that their grandchildren stay white as well. It's terrible for our society (not terrible that people don't accept miscegenation, but terrible because of the results of the failing attempt to force miscegenation on society), but these feelings have been that way for many thousands of years, and its hard to change. So think about this the next time you see how many lives and how much money we spend on a wars for oil that are needed mainly to support our suburban white-flight lifestyle.

These are the cold, hard, current first-hand facts from Louisville, KY.

[Peter1948]

^^^ none of what you posted is fact at all. That is your opinion, which likely differes from almost anyone else, so don't try to make it a fact.

[doughy]

Daisy,

I'm new to the area and an open minded guy. I will that the area has a vary large africian american population. They are varying degrees of how dark a person is as well. It also has a very large hispanic community, as well alot of native americans. It's not uncommon on a day out to see an interracial couple, if not 10. I think, if you moved in/near louisville nothing more would happen than a few glances.