S. Central PA, is it really so intolerant?? (Pittsburgh, Lancaster: fit in, townhouses)
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My partner and I moved here one year ago. So far we have found wonderful friends and acceptance. He is Asian and I am black. We live in Mechanicsburg and go dancing at Stallions club in Harrisburg every Saturday night.
I guess taking advice from strangers without knowing anything about them is always taking a risk, so my advice would be to take everything you read with a grain of salt.. I will only add this to the conversation. I am bi-racial and grew up in South Central PA and have never had an issue or encounters situations that effect my daily life. Sure there are some down points to the area, but no more so then any other area in the country. I have lived in a good many states but I have returned and am happily raising my family here and would confidently recommend the area to anyone regardless of ethnicity. (Unless of course you are looking for an area with a ton of great ethnic restaurants )
My partner and I moved here one year ago. So far we have found wonderful friends and acceptance. He is Asian and I am black. We live in Mechanicsburg and go dancing at Stallions club in Harrisburg every Saturday night.
HAHAHAHAHA... omg, what is WRONG with you? If you consider Stallions to be representative of South Central PA you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. For those of you who don't know Stallions is a gay club in the city of Harrisburg. Why don't you try driving south of Mechanicsburg for about 25-30 minutes and stopping in a local bar and see how easily you make friends....
Just a couple of things to say here. Mostly, welcome to PA.
Next, I am southern, transplanted to PA, and the rebel flag is a relection of my heritage. It is in no way, shape or form a hate symbol. I count many blacks as a good friend.
As for hispanics, no problem, as long as you are here legally. If not, then you should be shown the door.
If you want a taste of Central PA... look no further. This person's comments totally sum it up. It's not overtly hateful, just horribly, tragically ignorant.
Browsing this thread I keep seeing the words "no worse than anywhere else in the country". Having grown up (mostly) in Adams County until 2001 - and having lived in MA, NC, DC, and Philly since then - I can say that this is horribly misguided and downright FALSE. It just goes to show how the region is totally ignorant of the world outside itself. People keep taking issue with bold assertions and implying an "all or nothing" sense to what people are asking about tolerance. Just because there are tolerant, accepting people in the region doesn't make it tolerant. The fact is unless you are white of German/Irish background, blue collar, politically conservative, interested in Country-Western music, NFL, and NASCAR you will NOT ever feel truly assimilated. Sure there are little urban-esque bubbles of culture; Gettysburg (the borough, NOT the surrounding areas), a few sections of York, Harrisburg and its small suburbs... the truth is I would NEVER EVER EVER recommend the area to ANYONE looking to relocate. If you're looking for a rural-esque feel with low housing costs/cost of living I would recommend Chatham County, NC. It's close to Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill but it's still pretty undeveloped and housing is pretty cheap. As an added bonus you're 3 hours from the Appalachian Mts. in Western NC and 3 hours from the Outer Banks . HEED MY WARNING!!! STAY OUT OF CENTRAL PA!!!!
Welcome to PA also! We recently moved here in March and we love it. It puts me closer to my family in Ohio.
Re the Rebel Flag---my dad is from New Orleans, so although I was raised in Ohio, I spend a ton of time in the deep south. I do not see the flag as a hate symbol either, just a relic from the past that has been misused by the KKK and therefore now has a bad rep. Remember that the swastika was an American Indian, specifically Navajo, symbol for good luck before Hitler started to use it? It was found in other cultures also but never had the negative connotation until Hitler.
Same regarding Hispanics...live honestly and respect your new country, and you're fine with me.
OK, First of all, are you suggesting it would be appropriate to start flying Nazi flags from the back of pick-up trucks and flag poles just because you mean it in the "Native American way" not the "Nazi way"? Hardly. Secondly, it's NOT the same thing because the symbol used was altered and placed on a red flag. The fact is, regardless of YOUR'S (or anybody else's) intentions flying the "rebel flag" is DISRESPECTFUL. Flying the flag of the confederacy, an organization that attempted to secede from the U.S. in attempt to allow individual states to nullify sections of Federal Law and promote chattle slavery is a slap in the face to everyone ESPECIALLY African-Americans. You can't seperate the symbol from its tumultous past just because you want a symbol that represents the culture of the south-eastern U.S.
There are so many other - much more positive - ways to be proud of your heritage that don't involve intimidating people of a DIFFERENT heritage. This total disregard for how YOUR symbol makes others feel is the very definition of intolerance. So I think it's a totally appropriate response in a thread asking about tolerance in Central PA. Tolerance isn't "Hey, we're nice to the colored folk around these parts!" It's understanding, accepting, and respecting another culture.
Answer honestly, do you think a family flying an Islamic flag would be well-received in central PA?
Browsing this thread I keep seeing the words "no worse than anywhere else in the country". Having grown up (mostly) in Adams County until 2001 - and having lived in MA, NC, DC, and Philly since then - I can say that this is horribly misguided and downright FALSE. It just goes to show how the region is totally ignorant of the world outside itself. People keep taking issue with bold assertions and implying an "all or nothing" sense to what people are asking about tolerance. Just because there are tolerant, accepting people in the region doesn't make it tolerant. The fact is unless you are white of German/Irish background, blue collar, politically conservative, interested in Country-Western music, NFL, and NASCAR you will NOT ever feel truly assimilated. Sure there are little urban-esque bubbles of culture; Gettysburg (the borough, NOT the surrounding areas), a few sections of York, Harrisburg and its small suburbs... the truth is I would NEVER EVER EVER recommend the area to ANYONE looking to relocate. If you're looking for a rural-esque feel with low housing costs/cost of living I would recommend Chatham County, NC. It's close to Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill but it's still pretty undeveloped and housing is pretty cheap. As an added bonus you're 3 hours from the Appalachian Mts. in Western NC and 3 hours from the Outer Banks . HEED MY WARNING!!! STAY OUT OF CENTRAL PA!!!!
*yawn* There are always people who grow up, move out of the area and think they are so cultured and high and mighty since they have lived in big cities. Well guess what? I've lived here and in other areas and wherever you live is what you make of it. Sure, overall if you are outside of the metropolitan areas of York and Harrisburg it is a mostly conservative, Republican culture. Adams county is pretty bad in that regard and I certainly wouldn't live there. But there are places around here that aren't so bad, such as my neighborhood. Migration is changing south central PA, we had one of the largest shifts towards Obama in the whole country (with Dauphin county voting for a Democrat for President for the first time in over 40 years).
North Carolina? Sure, if you want to live in an exurban, foreclosure nightmare you can certainly live there -- but no thanks. I'll take Pennsylvania's authentic cities over any fake "new urbanist" city any day.
By the way, I don't like a lot of those things you mentioned like NASCAR and country music and neither do my friends....no doubt if I lived in Adams county it would be difficult to find people who didn't like those things, but I'm sure even Adams county is changing slowly but surely.
OK, First of all, are you suggesting it would be appropriate to start flying Nazi flags from the back of pick-up trucks and flag poles just because you mean it in the "Native American way" not the "Nazi way"? Hardly. Secondly, it's NOT the same thing because the symbol used was altered and placed on a red flag. The fact is, regardless of YOUR'S (or anybody else's) intentions flying the "rebel flag" is DISRESPECTFUL. Flying the flag of the confederacy, an organization that attempted to secede from the U.S. in attempt to allow individual states to nullify sections of Federal Law and promote chattle slavery is a slap in the face to everyone ESPECIALLY African-Americans. You can't seperate the symbol from its tumultous past just because you want a symbol that represents the culture of the south-eastern U.S.
There are so many other - much more positive - ways to be proud of your heritage that don't involve intimidating people of a DIFFERENT heritage. This total disregard for how YOUR symbol makes others feel is the very definition of intolerance. So I think it's a totally appropriate response in a thread asking about tolerance in Central PA. Tolerance isn't "Hey, we're nice to the colored folk around these parts!" It's understanding, accepting, and respecting another culture.
Answer honestly, do you think a family flying an Islamic flag would be well-received in central PA?
You haven't been in Central PA lately...there is a very large Indian/Arab population now in the Mechanicsburg/Camp Hill area and several mosque's in the Harrisburg metro.
These are good people. They have done a lot and continune to do a lot for the area. They are building an Aloft hotel downtown this spring on the old Belco site.
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. HEED MY WARNING!!! STAY OUT OF CENTRAL PA!!!!
