Racism in Scottsdale/Phoenix (university, to live, design)

[gophins72]

Originally Posted by lekker

As a native of North Phoenix/Scottsdale, I think that Phoenix is a big city with a small town attitude. You obviously cannot classify an entire city as 'racist', but racist undertones exist all over the area.

Most people aren't admittedly racist, but ignorance usually correlates with racist attitudes. For example, asking an immigrant if they are an employee of a store in which they are shopping. Or people classifying neighborhoods as Mexican or White. AZ has always embraced being a 'right to work' state, which means no rights for low paid, ie: non-white, workers.

The local university, which is a microcosm of the larger society, is extremely segregated. It is very international, there are a lot of nationalities represented, but students are not taught to embrace the diversity. Especially local students. They are not trying to be racist, but their actions show ignorance.

I never realized the high level of general ignorance of Phoenix residents (and some of my own as well), however, in the last 10 years since high school I have lived in London, Amsterdam, Glasgow, and San Francisco and have witnessed other societies which are a bit more racially enlightened.

But the issue is much larger than just AZ.

i wanted to comment that i feel lekker's post is spot on with my experience of living here (since 1996).

[lyzzard]

Originally Posted by nwuguy23

Replace American with white, and that's what he really means.

No. He means that Americans have an expectation of those who immigrate into the USA, not just to AZ but to any state. The expectation is if you are going to come to our country do it legally, become a productive citizen, and learn the English language.

An example of a problem illegals help to create is the use of our welfare system. Welfare is given to people regardless of whether they are here legally or not (or it use to be, I don't know what it is now, but I doubt it has changed). Many people (illegal or not) take advantage of the system. Instead of using it to better their lives, they use it to provide for their lives without giving back. Giving back how? By becoming a productive citizen and paying taxes. Have you seen how much money is spent on welfare in various states? Sometimes it's 10 times more than is allotted to the schools (it's scary when you look at the costs). It's a drain on our tax dollars that could be put to better use.

Another example is our schools. The school system in "inner" Phoenix is an absolute joke. Many principals and administrators aren't out there for the children anymore, they are out there for themselves (careers) and the tests. There are principals whose only goal is to make the highest test scores and have a high graduation rate for specific grades (this is not just high school, this is elementary schools as well). They do this by telling the teachers that they are not allowed to give F's to children who deserve it, they can only give C's and above. If they do give out D's and F's, they run the risk of getting fired. Imagine a child getting an F, then suddenly the teacher must recant that grade.. That child is going to know they don't have to do any work and they will still pass.

The principals tell the teachers to do this because, unfortunately, our school system is inundated with children who barely speak English (not just Hispanic speaking children, there are many ethnic backgrounds involved). Most of them can not read/write English or Spanish. Many of the children aren't even in the class for the entire year. So, that means if these kids aren't given a free passing grade the true colors of our schools come out and the principals/administrators look bad to the other districts. You know why these test scores are getting better? Because the teachers aren't teaching languages, or math, or art, or any other subject, they are teaching how to take a test.

Some districts are addressing these issues, but the majority is not. Poorly educated children means poorly educated adults. Which makes us all poorer in the long run.

Illegal immigrant workers, another big mess. Many businesses hired them. They paid them much less than a legal worker. They showed record profits. It's much harder for those businesses to hire them now. They have to hire legal workers and pay legal wages. Those record profits are now sometimes record losses. One more thing to drag down our economy. The illegals who are still here can't get jobs. They turn to crime. I know that's a broad generalization right there, but in many cases it is true.


But let me get off my podium now...


And back on to the topic somewhat.... Scottsdale is becoming an older city. The buildings are older, the houses are older, and the people are getting older. The younger crowd (20's - 30's) is growing up and moving elsewhere. The newer scenes are moving in every other direction, and a lot of that money is following too.

People don't realize that not all of Scottsdale is made up of $500k+ homes (250k is probably the lowest though, even in these days). Snowbirds will always come to the Phoenix area as most of them have already made their money and the economic crunch is not as harsh on them.

[ArizonaBear]

Side note here: one can buy a $150K home here in S Scottsdale so the '$250K' barrier has been shattered.

[Jeff Jarrett]

Better a group of full blood 'brown' Mayans from Mexico who immigrate here legally vs. a group of White Argentines (of Swedish lineage) who come here illegally.

Most Argentines are of Spanish and or Italian ancestry. A significant minority also have Amerindian ancestry. Argentines who have Swedish ancestry is an extremely small drop in the bucket. Argentina did not receive a large number of Swedish immigrants like the United States did. There is no region of Argentina which has a Swedish/Scandinavian enclave, basically there is no Argentine version of Minnesota, South Dakota, or North Dakota for example where a large/majority of the population has Swedish/Scandinavian roots. Most Argentines are very much Mediterranean. Argentina is not some Nordic country in the heart of South America.

[pacifist79]

yes Scottsdale AZ is not a racist city, but there has been an incident where a legal immigrant was attacked during his stay there in year 2007.
So what I mean is that hatred and xenophobia are more than negligibly prevalent traits in all societies, it is up to individual's choice.

[OhioUberAlles]

Since the OP never made another post and she made references to "blue eyed blondies" in her thus far first and only post, I believe we can conclude she is a troll.

[shiphead]

Originally Posted by OhioUberAlles

Since the OP never made another post and she made references to "blue eyed blondies" in her thus far first and only post, I believe we can conclude she is a troll.

Ding you win the normal person award. I wish there were more people like you.

[MamaBea]

All of Arizona has racist tendencies. They lost millions of dollars for refusing to vote for a Martin Luther King holiday years ago.

Hispanics are pitted against Blacks, Whites are contemptous of both and snobby perfectionists like Rick Lee is the norm. Yes, you will be pre-judged by your race when seeking out work and many will deny you a job by simply ignoring your application because you are Black. That is one aspect of Arizona that isn't pleasant.

Some of the schools are average (K-12) but a child of color will face some hard knocks anywhere they go if they have no self discipline and a tough skin( as the saying goes). There are a few schools that are exceptional but they are in the upscale areas of Phx.

The other aspect of Arizona is that there are a few folk here of varied races who are civil, friendly, helpful and kind. You will have to really pay attention to SEE them but they are here. Ignore the jerks, racists, elitists, hate-mongerers, political and religious zealots anywhere in Arizona and do what you need to do for your family. You will be fine.

It would also be a good thing to research the demographics of the city or town you want to live in. Yes, they are somewhat out-of-date but it's better than having your writing and grammer criticized by some intolerant perfectionist who isn't perfect.

I wish you well.

[azriverfan.]

What's annoying about threads like this is you have some person who they are clever and chimes in with the " I lived in London, Paris, San Francisco and Cairo" and Phoenix is racist by comparison. Well no duh, most places would be racist by comparison because those are some of the most diverse cities in the world. I have seen true racism in the deep South and eastern Europe. I've been to soccer games in Europe were fans were chanting racial obscenities and holding up Nazi flags; we are talking 60K+ fans at a televised soccer game. The Europeans just did not care. With the exception of some of the bigotry toward illegals, Phoenix is pretty racially tolerant and I would not classify our city as being racist by any means. I can think of a lot of cities in the country that are more racist than Phoenix. I'm not going to list those cities because that would just start a lot of bitter feelings.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by MamaBea

All of Arizona has racist tendencies. They lost millions of dollars for refusing to vote for a Martin Luther King holiday years ago.

Yes, and that was nearly 19 years ago. Arizona has changed considerably since then. The population of Phoenix alone has grown by nearly 700K since then. A lot of people from the Midwest and California have moved here and the state continues to become more liberal each year. The voting statistics prove that. I wouldn't want to live in Arizona back then either. It was an extremely conservative state back then but times have changed and the Arizona that you see today is nothing like it was back then. Why do you think there are so many posts from long time natives who detest the growth and expansion of the city; it's because the city has changed and many people prefer the old Arizona: smaller and more conservative. For crying outloud, our former governor Janet Napolitano is rumored to be a Lesbian and she won despite that. Do you think someone like Napolitano would have won governor in 1990 especially when conservative whackjobs like Fyfe Symington was governor?

Hispanics are pitted against Blacks, Whites are contemptous of both and snobby perfectionists like Rick Lee is the norm. Yes, you will be pre-judged by your race when seeking out work and many will deny you a job by simply ignoring your application because you are Black.

How are they going to know you are Black by your application? I don't know many people who list their skin color on their resume? I work with many educated Blacks who had no trouble getting work here. Maybe those people had their resume dumped because they were not qualified.