Minneapolis vs. St. Cloud (Duluth, Rochester: college, live in, shop)

[marmac]

Regarding the St Cloud Times--------a few years back, SCSU elected a male homecoming queen.

Many letters and posters ridiculed the selection.

The Times and the SCSU president defended it by stating the title--" Queen"-- has nothing to do about gender.

Yup, the liberal old St Cloud Times.

[marmac]

Originally Posted by west336

I think there are WAY too many people who are naive to everyday prejudices in our society. This is not a local phenomenon by any means, and it's probably better here than in many places. From my experiences with people, prejudiced or not, almost EVERYONE has made a comment that could easily be interpreted as racism or prejudice to others, and to tell someone what they felt was wrong is maybe the stupidest thing I've ever heard. This kind of behavior is not exclusive to prejudice either (at least not the primary prejudices that exist today), it can happen anywhere to anybody. It's not a one-way street either, "reverse prejudice" is just as real and victims can be of majority or minority status.

A poster gave an example of an incident of a black being attacked by whites in St Cloud.

That was an isolated incident as there are more incidents of whites being attacked by blacks despite blacks making up a very small percentage of St Cloud's population.

In fact , American born blacks do make the news in St Cloud for committing far more percentage wise.

The majority of blacks in St Cloud are Somalians and they are law abiding.

[west336]

Regardless, I think too many people still think prejudice doesn't exist or that it's a small % of the population, so as far as whether or not St. Cloud is prejudiced is a moot point because of course it does. It doesn't help when the minority % is THAT small either because you already feel "outside". My whole problem with some of the responders is that I get the feeling that they feel offended that someone could feel victimized by a city they happen to support. Trying to deny their perception by throwing statistics at them is just unnecessary, and like someone had already said, this was an OPINION piece and it's not something that can be objectively measured.

[ozzie679]

Originally Posted by marmac

False.
The Times is the most liberal slanted newspaper in Minnesota and suggesting they --" promote negativity to minorities"--- is laughable.

The Times were the ones who kept that nazi graffitti in the news everyday despite the Sheriff's office stating it was getting overblown.

The Times even wrote an editorial that the Nazi graffitti had the same effect on people as being raped does to a woman.

Saying the Times displays negativity to minorities is an outright fabrication that even the most liberal at SCSU would disagree with.

This is one of the few times I'll actually agree with you.

The Times has a very liberal editorial board and they not at all harsh toward minorities. The coverage of the "SCSU Swastika Bandit" was overblown and it turned out to be embarrassing for the media when the truth came out.

SCSU is the most liberal and PC university in MNSCU. I agree that even the most liberal professor at SCSU would see the Times as an advocate for minorities.

As a minority who has lived here for 20 years, I don't feel that St Cloud isn't anymore racist than other mid-sized cities in MN. The word "Racist" is thrown around way too much.

[avmann11011]

ozzie679- I had lived in many places before SC and have to disagree that SC isn't any more racist than similar sized cities. I lived in Iowa for 3 years without incident. Living in N. Dakota was the same. Every place that I've lived other than SC has been further advanced in terms of racial social issues. I'm glad that you have been a minority living there for 20 years without issue. That does not mean that SC doesn't have serious issues with race relations.


Attack my opinions as much as you need to. I lived there till quite recently so I'm used to the denial, accusations, and subject changing. Using those very familiar "tools of the trade" the majority of SC has been pretty successful in convincing themselves that there is no problem. That it's just a few isolated events. That it's only some "bad apples" or that if you ignore it even when it's right in your face it will go away.

I hope the OP reads and learns this fine dance of denial and blame pushing. If she decides to stay here I'm positive she will see it first hand.

[ozzie679]

Sorry, but it's media driven. I love the university...I am an Almnus, and I'm still involved with SCSU. But there are some very vocal opponents of the city that work for the university. They will make sure every incident they wind of, hits the papers and the Twin Cities TV stations.

[knke0204]

The only reason that swastika crap got out of control was because of the media. I was a student during the thick of it, and if the media had just shut up, the person(s) probably would have stopped, the Times just kept fueling the fire.

[knke0204]

They sure didn't put anything in the paper when Somali students @ Tech coordinating a group that would tell white students "this is our School, it's becoming our city, and will be our country"

Don't remember it? Probably because they didn't make a big deal of it.

Anyone dare to call me out? Do it, as I know 3 people on the Tech staff that have told me multiple stories about the same kind of ordeal.

I'm just saying...

[avmann11011]

They didn't just target the white students. Or did YOU not know about the tensions between black and Somali students because of similar actions? In recent years there have been rising tensions between Somali students and pretty much everyone else at both Tech and Apollo.

But I suppose telling the full story doesn't really further your agenda.

I'm just saying....

[Radical_Car]

I have lived in St. Cloud for about 2 years and before that the rest of my life I lived about 40 minutes from it, and yes, it IS terrible, go to Minneapolis instead! Yes, people are racist. I am a white and am sick when people blame all their problems on somalians, they never did anything to you. People here also have big egos and act like SCSU is like, on par with Harvard and they act like St. Cloud is a really big city and on par with New York City. Makes me sick.