There is a racial element in Phoenix and the surrounding area (Tolleson: school, live)

[LovingSAT]

Originally Posted by rickers

I think the OP needs to grow up and deal with the little bit of bit of racism that will be found everywhere. I am a white guy and when I worked for ten years in a Hispanic and Black area of San Diego I was the victim of racism every freaking day. Buck up and ignore it, there are racists everywhere. I even experience a bit of racism when I pass through or stop for business on the Blackfeet Reservation. There will always be a few racist attitudes to be found everywhere.

Surely you jest.

[LovingSAT]

Originally Posted by fcorrales80

Why was he pulled over? Speeding, following too closely, running a light.

Arizona adopted the holiday in 1992 and it was first enacted in 1986. The last state to enact the holiday was New Hampshire in 1999; a "bastion" of liberalism. Too fast to rush to judgement. We'd be better off with people who don't rush to conclusions.

Is this not rushing to conclusions?

Why was he pulled over? Speeding, following too closely, running a light.

If he was pulled over for valid reasons the poster would have probably not posted. Being that the post was made one could infer that being pulled over was unecessary on the part of the police.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by Hakeem989

.. The whole Phoenix area is populated with Caucasian people and at times it overwhelms me.

I had a young male patient, raised in Arizona who was white and a recovering meth addict. He told me after graduation from high school, he decided to move to Washington DC because he wanted to work for the government. When he arrived it was a culture shock to him. He saw people from many different ethnic backgrounds, especially black men and women. He told me growing up he thought black men and women grew up to be criminals, athletes or entertainers. He thought they were supposed to be loud and dangerous. He was surprised to see many professional black men and women, who were managing restaurants, and opening there own businesses. He also saw the many employees working near the capital building who were not white, and he also mentioned being evaluated by a black doctor too. He ended up going back to Arizona because he could not handle the competition...and because of income. I asked him "where did you learn all of those stereotypes about black people" he responded like this "I really have not met a black person, until I went to DC, I guess I learned all of it by watching TV".

I've experienced a fair amount of ignorance about life in Arizona from people back east. We don't still ride stage coaches, the guy who brought the AR-15 to the Obama speech was not a white racist, there aren't scorpions crawling over everything in sight. Well, not in most places. And no, the whole Phoenix area is not "populated with Caucasian people". You should probably get out more.

It is a trap, because basically if you raise your child in the Phoenix area, there is a high probability the only place that they will feel completely comfortable would be the Phoenix Area. This place is one of a kind, hot weather 360 days in the year, mixed in with many people who have that "I don't care mentality". Most youth would not be able to adjust to any other surroundings, and by the time they are 6 or 18 years old it would be too late.

There minds are already filled without knowledge of the arts, different cultures, and diversity, because as one person pointed out, this place feels like a different world sometimes.

It sounds like you're experiencing a little culture shock, Hakeem989. That's not unusual when you move to a new area and experience new lifestyles. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Phoenix area and the different neighborhoods, as you seem to be stereotyping all neighborhoods as all Caucasian. You might want to get out and drive around a bit and see how many neighborhoods in the Valley are of mixed ethnicity. I grew up in an area here where I was one of the few non-Hispanic or black kids. We differ from a lot of places back east in that we have fewer neighborhoods that are predominately ethnic - you'll find varying mixes of ethnic groups living everywhere. I grew up and lived here until I was 21, and far from being unable to adjust to any other surroundings, I've lived all over the U.S., Europe, and Asia, speak 3 other languages (including a degree in one), and relate pretty well to most people and cultures.

We have a smaller black population because a) we were not a slave-owning state, and b) we weren't part of the industrial explosion in the north that attracted a lot of black families to the northern states. Arizona did have black settlers in the old west, including many black cowboys who settled here after demobilizing from the buffalo soldier cavalry units, so we've had black communities in the valley for years. One, a medal of honor winner, is buried a couple of blocks from where I grew up. Our major industries in Arizona were the 4 C's - Cotton, Cattle, Copper, Citrus. And now, Codgers - that is, retirees. We were always a small city until the 1950s, when the the widespread availability of air-conditioning and the explosion of the aerospace industry began attracting easterners. So we haven't had the time to develop some of the huge museums of art, science, technology, and natural history that older industrial cities have developed. We have a lot of great smaller museums, though.

If a white kid was raised here, all of the possibilities of having an opportunity to be exposed to different people from other racial backgrounds is mute for many of the youth who live here.

Jeez, I doubt that. My kids live in an upper middle-class part of Scottsdale and they pal around with kids from all sorts of ethnicities - African-American, Chinese, (east) Indian, (American) Indian, Indonesian, Brazilian, Mexican-American. My backyard feels like a mini-United Nations.

The whole area is practically Caucasian. Quite frankly, I wonder how children here stimulate there minds outside of school? The whole Phoenix area is seriously lacking any culture.

I think you don't give Native American and Mexican-American culture much respect. "Culture" springs from many roots. Go to the Hopi tribal lands, check out the Pueblo Grande Museum, go to Montezuma's Castle, check out the Heard, check out Tuzigoot.

There are no major attractions, no great museums, no great institutes of higher learning.

The Phoenix Art Museum, the Heard Museum, the Phoenix Zoo, the Desert Botanical Garden, Taliesin West (or any of Frank Lloyd Wright's many designs here), the Sonora Desert Museum, Cosanti and Arcosanti, are all world-class institutions and attract visitors from all over the world. We have the largest city park in the United States, bigger than Central Park. We have some world-class medical centers (like the Mayo). I'd like to see better colleges and universities - I'm staying in Virginia right now, and the number of quality colleges and universities in the area is staggering - but they've been here much longer than we've been a major population center.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by LovingSAT

Surely you jest.

Sure you jest; as if only so-called 'minorities' have experienced prejudice or outright racism.

Not so terribly long ago in the USA: there was quite a bit of prejudice against Eastern Euros, Irish Catholics, Italians as well as Jews------------never mind that virtually all of 'em are counted as Anglo Whites here in Arizona.

[fcorrales80]

Originally Posted by LovingSAT

Is this not rushing to conclusions?

Why was he pulled over? Speeding, following too closely, running a light.

If he was pulled over for valid reasons the poster would have probably not posted. Being that the post was made one could infer that being pulled over was unecessary on the part of the police.

I just don't buy that someone was pulled over for being black or minority in Phoenix. Sorry, I look hispanic and drive a nice car and I don't get pulled over for driving while minority. I think that is a response to having been pulled over for something legit and it was embarrassing. This reaction, racism, isn't challenged because of the "race card" issue but I don't mind calling people's bluffs. I've even had friends that say that, black/hispanic, in front of me and my bf (cop) and we challenge them until they buck up and say they were driving too fast, were texting and hence swerving some, etc etc.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Sure you jest; as if only so-called 'minorities' have experienced prejudice or outright racism.

Not so terribly long ago in the USA: there was quite a bit of prejudice against Eastern Euros, Irish Catholics, Italians as well as Jews------------never mind that virtually all of 'em are counted as Anglo Whites here in Arizona.

Others may call Irish-Americans "Anglo"...but it's not a good idea to say it to an Irish guy's face.

[fcorrales80]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

Others may call Irish-Americans "Anglo"...but it's not a good idea to say it to an Irish guy's face.

LOL true! Anglo is generally of English descent but I've heard lots of people group everyone from the UK as Anglo. People can say Anglo-Celtic instead of Anglo or Anglo-Saxon but that is much too "scientific" and isn't something that would pass in conversation LOL!

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by fcorrales80

LOL true! Anglo is generally of English decent but I've heard lots of people group everyone from the UK as Anglo. People can say Anglo-Celtic instead of Anglo or Anglo-Saxon but that is much too "scientific" and isn't something that would pass in conversation LOL!

"Anglo" (from the "Angle" tribes of Germany, who colonized the British isles, and the Celts, back around 500 A.D.) is used as shorthand by a lot of Mexican-Americans (and others) for someone of European descent. The British aristocracy is of Anglo-Saxon origin, but not all peoples of the British Isles are. I grew up hearing it here in Arizona and it's not usually meant as a derogatory or insulting term, but it's kind of like calling an Armenian a Turk. Very different ethnic groups, and ones who had a lot of bad blood historically. Some Irish take offense to use of the term, as well as Scots, Manxmen, and others.

But you're right, it's used a lot as verbal shorthand by people who don't mean to be disparaging. And the Irish and the Mexicans have had some interesting interrelationships over the years in the American southwest as co-religionists, as in the great Clifton, Arizona Irish Orphan Abduction:

The Irish Orphan Abduction | Feature | Tucson Weekly

Or the San Patricio Battalion:

Saint Patrick's Battalion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[fcorrales80]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

"Anglo" (from the "Angle" tribes of Germany, who colonized the British isles, and the Celts, back around 500 A.D.) is used as shorthand by a lot of Mexican-Americans (and others) for someone of European descent. The British aristocracy is of Anglo-Saxon origin, but not all peoples of the British Isles are. I grew up hearing it here in Arizona and it's not usually meant as a derogatory or insulting term, but it's kind of like calling an Armenian a Turk. Very different ethnic groups, and ones who had a lot of bad blood historically. Some Irish take offense to use of the term, as well as Scots, Manxmen, and others.

But you're right, it's used a lot as verbal shorthand by people who don't mean to be disparaging. And the Irish and the Mexicans have had some interesting interrelationships over the years in the American southwest as co-religionists, as in the great Clifton, Arizona Irish Orphan Abduction:

The Irish Orphan Abduction | Feature | Tucson Weekly

Or the San Patricio Battalion:

Saint Patrick's Battalion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mexicans/we of Mexican descent, LOL, seem to have drawn almost every European country LOL! There were the French (where Mariachi is derived from), The Germans, Poles, Swiss (this is how SOME Mexican music turns out to sound polka-ish), Irish (Mexican beer started this way, go figure), etc.

You know, my family is native to Arizona and I don't ever remember Anglo being part of our vernacular. Pardon my "french" but I do know of gringo, Americano, blancillo (white boy), desgraciado (disgraced; as in of "fake" protestant religion), or quite often guapo (handsome;especially blonde, blue eyed cuties) LOL , etc but never anglo.

I learned about the Anglo-Celtic thing in Cultural Anthropology long ago. It deals with the diasporas of the British Isles and Ireland who settled or were forced to settle in places like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, U.S., etc.

[rickers]

Originally Posted by LovingSAT

Surely you jest.

I am not joking one bit. Why would you think that I am jesting as you put it ?