Is Minneapolis Racist? (St. Paul, Welcome: violent crime, motel, house)
Minneapolis - St. PaulTwin Cities
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Location: An overgrown 350K person suburb of Saint Paul
383 posts, read 397,665 times
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Also, since this community is fractured amongst two big cities and many small suburbs, when you usually ask if "x in Minneapolis" or is "Minneapolis X", people will always assume you're talking about the city itself. It's sort of like living in the SF bay area, how SF always refers to the city itself since the area is so fractured.
Semantics aside, I can probably give you some better insight on this since I'm also a minority. So far, I've experienced some, but not a lot of racism in the City o' Lakes itself. A slight majority of that racism in fact came from African-Americans with crab in a pot syndrome, but other than that, there's not a real major race problem in the city of MPLS. You'd get some white suburban punk kid visiting Uptown faking an ethnic accent or two to try to rile a person up, but nothing major. Most of the people who actually lived and grew up here probably have a friend or 2 who's a minority, so it's no biggie.
Cops sometimes hassle you if you're driving while brown or if some rebellious white person you're hanging out with tries to pass the blame on you for something they did illegal, but the MPD can see through that very easily, although I did catch a few using racial slurs when I was getting a police escort ride after I was lost and my bike was broken.
Minneapolis is not more racist than most cities I've ever been to. There are a few people that will give you a dirty look or two because of your Hispanic heritage, but it's more because they read fear mongering news reports rather than get to know you on a personal level. Other than that, welcome to MPLS. If you want some Hispanic food or culture, depending on what Hispanic ethnicity you are, you can always find something at the Midtown Global Market located on Chicago ave and Lake Street East.
As a former Minneapolis resident, and a woman of color, I can advise you on race relations there. On the whole, it's not a racist city. Its overall reputation, is one of liberality. It's one of the better places to live in the Midwest, if you want to avoid the redneck element, that often plagues other Midwestern cities. This doesn't mean that Minneapolis is totally free of racism though. It's just that racism there isn't as overwhelming, as in many other parts of the country.
As a black woman, I did experience a form of racism in Minneapolis now and then, where I experienced a patronizing attitude, by some whites there. I can't say that this won't happen to you, but keep in mind, that it might. Overall though, there are much more racist cities, than Minneapolis.
When you move to Minneapolis, be prepared to cope with extreme weather conditions (especially the brutally cold winters). Also, you'll likely need to own a vehicle. That's because
for a city its size, Minneapolis has an inefficent public transit system. Also, despite its rep as a 'mellow' big city, Minneapolis has had problems with a rapidly increasing rate, of violent crimes (especially murder). Those are the reasons, that I left Minneapolis.
There's lots of fun things to do in Minneapolis, and its arts organizations, are well supported by the community. The Guthrie Theater especially, is the pride and joy, of Minneapolis. The University there, is of good quality. And it has lots of wonderful events there, that are open to the general public. As others have mentioned on this post, Minneapolis does have a decent-sized Hispanic community. Not as large as in Chicago, but its a good-sized part of the Minneapolis population.
Hope you do enjoy living in Minneapolis. It does have many good things to offer. As I mentioned, there are negative aspects to Minneapolis too. Racism though, is not a big problem there.
As a former Minneapolis resident, and a woman of color, I can advise you on race relations there. On the whole, it's not a racist city. Its overall reputation, is one of liberality. It's one of the better places to live in the Midwest, if you want to avoid the redneck element, that often plagues other Midwestern cities. This doesn't mean that Minneapolis is totally free of racism though. It's just that racism there isn't as overwhelming, as in many other parts of the country.
As a black woman, I did experience a form of racism in Minneapolis now and then, where I experienced a patronizing attitude, by some whites there. I can't say that this won't happen to you, but keep in mind, that it might. Overall though, there are much more racist cities, than Minneapolis.
When you move to Minneapolis, be prepared to cope with extreme weather conditions (especially the brutally cold winters). Also, you'll likely need to own a vehicle. That's because
for a city its size, Minneapolis has an inefficent public transit system. Also, despite its rep as a 'mellow' big city, Minneapolis has had problems with a rapidly increasing rate, of violent crimes (especially murder). Those are the reasons, that I left Minneapolis.
There's lots of fun things to do in Minneapolis, and its arts organizations, are well supported by the community. The Guthrie Theater especially, is the pride and joy, of Minneapolis. The University there, is of good quality. And it has lots of wonderful events there, that are open to the general public. As others have mentioned on this post, Minneapolis does have a decent-sized Hispanic community. Not as large as in Chicago, but its a good-sized part of the Minneapolis population.
Hope you do enjoy living in Minneapolis. It does have many good things to offer. As I mentioned, there are negative aspects to Minneapolis too. Racism though, is not a big problem there.
Peace,
Sonya.
---where I experienced a patronizing attitude by some whites----
Care to share what patronizing attitude it was that offended you and you percieved as racism?
I was travelling thru Illinois once and checked into a motel during a downpour. As I ran to the lobby door, I arrived the same time as a 30's black woman. As I held the door for her to enter first, she asked---" are you patronizing me cuz I'm black? "
I replied------" no ma'am. Just the way I was brought up "
To answer your question, I've experienced attitudes from whites, such as them automatically assuming that I'm lazy, ignorant, and irresponsible. I consider such attitudes, to be very patronizing, and demeaning. You'd have to be a minority, who has dealt with such attitudes from whites, to really get what I'm saying.
As for your experience with opening the door for the black woman, she probably wondered what your intentions were. She sounds like she wasn't used to being treated politely by whites, so she reacted with a ridiculous amount of suspicion. You didn't do anything wrong, so don't take that woman's reaction to your act of kindness, personally.
As a white male, I always feel like Minorities have some hidden agenda against me. Like they think I'm some biggoted redneck racisist ignorant fool, when that's not further from the truth. That's how I feel sometimes around minorities, and I think many white males, especially younger males feel the same...
It's a predicament, do we hold open the door and potentially be looked at like we're patronizing somebody? Or do we not hold the door and be looked at like a jerk?
I often get looks like, "Who's this whiteboy, he's probably some racist punk"
I live next door to a house with 2 african american families. Have they ever said ''hi'' to me? No. Have they ever nodded or stopped over to welcome themselves? No. But when I walked by after parking my car after work and I said "Hey guys how's it going, I'm your neighbor".. The 3 little kids started laughing hysterically at me, and the 'adults' responded with "Yeah, we know, what's your name?", I replied and they said "Oh yeah ______, good to meet you" and then pretty much blew me off, like "Yeah, yeah white boy, move along"
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