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I have been throughout the South east, parts of the south west, the north east and midwest...never been to the mountain states or the west coast yet. I have to say, as a black guy (well half black...but we all know about the "one drop rule") that Oklahoma is the most racist state I have ever been to.
I was pulled over and the cop looked at my drivers license I asked him why I was being pulled over and he came right out and said "because your on the wrong side of time" And the people...they were so mean!
Texas, on the entire was a different story, especially Austin. I was told that the real racist Texans were on the border of Lousiana and in the pan handle.
I would have to say that the least racist states I have been to were Wisconsin, Iowa and Vermont. It just feels different there. My current home of Jersey is not the most racist place, but still, there is a difference between those states and Jersey. I have heard, however, from multiple blacks that Washington state, especially the east, is the least racist place in America...and I have also heard and seen that blacks in South Carolina and Georgia tend to be on this "I hate whitey!" black racism kick that makes me sick.
Location: Originally Fayetteville, Arkansas/ now Seattle, Washington!
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Originally Posted by victorianpunk
I have been throughout the South east, parts of the south west, the north east and midwest...never been to the mountain states or the west coast yet. I have to say, as a black guy (well half black...but we all know about the "one drop rule") that Oklahoma is the most racist state I have ever been to.
I was pulled over and the cop looked at my drivers license I asked him why I was being pulled over and he came right out and said "because your on the wrong side of time" And the people...they were so mean!
Texas, on the entire was a different story, especially Austin. I was told that the real racist Texans were on the border of Lousiana and in the pan handle.
I would have to say that the least racist states I have been to were Wisconsin, Iowa and Vermont. It just feels different there. My current home of Jersey is not the most racist place, but still, there is a difference between those states and Jersey. I have heard, however, from multiple blacks that Washington state, especially the east, is the least racist place in America...and I have also heard and seen that blacks in South Carolina and Georgia tend to be on this "I hate whitey!" black racism kick that makes me sick.
What say you?
The place where i have experienced the most racism personally(I am White) is South Florida hands down. You'd think with all that beautiful sunshine people could get along better I'm sorry you found some bad people in Oklahoma, but I love OK and most of the people I have found to be so nice! A lot of my family is from OKC and Tulsa, and I never saw anything bad....what part of Oklahoma were you in? I'm a metaler(Leather pants, death metal shirts, Hair down to my belt, etc) so i get a lot of weird looks and sometimes rude people in rural Oklahoma(but hey, i've even experienced that stuff here in Seattle lol, so it happens everywhere) but in OKC and Tulsa i've always found people to be quite pleasant.
The place where i have experienced the most racism personally(I am White) is South Florida hands down. You'd think with all that beautiful sunshine people could get along better I'm sorry you found some bad people in Oklahoma, but I love OK and most of the people I have found to be so nice! A lot of my family is from OKC and Tulsa, and I never saw anything bad....what part of Oklahoma were you in? I'm a metaler(Leather pants, death metal shirts, Hair down to my belt, etc) so i get a lot of weird looks and sometimes rude people in rural Oklahoma(but hey, i've even experienced that stuff here in Seattle lol, so it happens everywhere) but in OKC and Tulsa i've always found people to be quite pleasant.
I was in Moore, with a highschool friend of mine who's aunt was from there. Oklahoma city was alright, but I didn't see Tulsa...we went up to see his step dad one day in Elk city, and I felt like I was about to be lynched the way people were looking at me.
South Carolina had problems with not racist and corrupt highway patrol recently. These are not representative of all cops in this state though. Also recently, a black newswoman was beat up and called racial slurs all on tape.
This is not to say the entire state is racist though. Most of what I've heard isn't so blatant either, it's more closeted.
Racism is within most of mankind, as people notice the differences of different groups of people, and given that they feel most comfortable around those that look like themselves, they act accordingly. Hence racial transition.
That some of you can't comprehend this fact, and realize that pretty much every place is the same, in terms of the way people react (for example, a less diverse area suddenly had a diverse population, the true thoughts of the residents would come out). Only lack of exposure to other people groups generally lends one to have a "We are the World" attitude.
Utah? The Mormon church, headquartered there, believed until some time in the 1970s that blacks were meant to be the servants of whites. In addition, there are not a lot of blacks there. That does not mean that any individual Mormon is automatically a racist, of course.
Utah? The Mormon church, headquartered there, believed until some time in the 1970s that blacks were meant to be the servants of whites.
This is not correct.
And I happen to think the reason why so many Utahns are a bit more cosmopolitan in their outlook on race is because so many of the US born whites in Utah have lived in foreign countries as missionaries.
A person tends to lose all previous notions when they actually experience up close and personal life in another country as intimately as missionaries do-among the people in their homes, their churches, their communities.
This is why Utah is one of the most immigrant friendly states in the country-an anomoly among interior states in that respect.
A lot of states get a free ride due to demographics. It is the proverbial "if a tree falls in the wood but nobody is there to hear it, did it make a sound?" argument. We live in Louisiana where racial tensions are overt and white people make colloquial use of racial derrogatives in family settings, regardless of education and income. I lived in Indiana where I met my fiancé and there is a considerably lighter density of black people in that state, therefore racial tensions are not a major signature of daily life. My fiancé noticed this difference shortly after moving here with me. The conclusion was that it's not that people are not racist in Indiana, but that they are perceived not to be by proxy, essentially because their sentiments haven't been challenged.
I will go further and suggest southern white people are generally more adept at race relations, in spite of the general use of racial derrogratives which I do not find constructive for moving ahead, than your average New Englander or Midwestern white. We've had acquaintances in Indiana straight up share privately that they'd move somewhere with our Louisiana weather in a hearbeat and forego the Indiana winter, but the opportunity cost of living in a [still] predominantly racially homogeneous place like Indiana makes it more desirable than giving it up for our better weather. And I buy every cent of that argument as genuine.
I particularly dislike places like Maine with their 98% white makeup for the purposes of the discussion at hand. How can anybody possibly argue race issues where there is NO race issue? I bet you my bottom dollar you start shaking those ol' money colonial communities up in the Pine Tree state and you'll see racial outlashes the magnitude that'd make a white Georgian blush. My best friend is a sociologist born and raised in Boston (and of Haitian ethincity) and he doesn't hold in very high regards the notion that New England in general is less racist than the South. And he and I went to college in Atlanta, so he definitively was a witness to racial difficulties in the South as a comparative point, even in the ATL.
For this reason I believe the question doesn't have an adequate control group to be answered objectively or with any kind of relevance. For whites, it's just a simple question of opportunity cost, the more homogeneous the community the less bothered they will be with "race issues", if that's of value to them. For blacks this is a little more complicated, as gravitating towards mostly black communities may not neccessary equate to no race issues, as some posters have already alluded to, the "hate whitey" syndrome may still surround them in a racially uneasy place in spite of race homogenity. For us, Lousiana offers nice weather, a lifestyle we enjoy and cost of living that suits us. We take race tensions as part of the price of living in louisiana, and when that becomes a more driving factor to our QOL (unlikely) maybe then we would seriously consider going back to freezing our asses off for 9 months to have white neighbors. TC To each their own.
Last edited by hindsight2020; 05-05-2008 at 01:33 PM..
And I happen to think the reason why so many Utahns are a bit more cosmopolitan in their outlook on race is because so many of the US born whites in Utah have lived in foreign countries as missionaries.
A person tends to lose all previous notions when they actually experience up close and personal life in another country as intimately as missionaries do-among the people in their homes, their churches, their communities.
This is why Utah is one of the most immigrant friendly states in the country-an anomoly among interior states in that respect.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 05-05-2008 at 01:42 PM..
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) that Oklahoma is the most racist state I have ever been to. 
And the people...they were so mean!
