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In a big way, what you have to say reminds me of my upbringing.
I grew up Protestant. The AME Church and a Baptist Church. I never had any problems with Catholics. I just thought the Catholic Church was rather strict. I have lived in several states. However, middle school and high school, I lived in a small, exurban/suburban area 30-34 miles west of Atlanta. It was a conservative, southern, Bible Belt kind of place. Most people were either Baptist or Methodist. I grew attending a Black Baptist church (in earlier years I went to an AME church).
I was never taught to see the Catholic faith as a bad thing when I was a kid. It was just viewed by many as "weird" and some people would say ignorant things about the Catholic Church.
Growing up in Georgia, most of the "ethnic Whites" (Italians, Polish, etc) were in the city of Atlanta and some of the inner ring counties (Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb). The outer ring counties (Paulding, Bartow, Carroll, Coweta, Walton, etc), the White population was often of Scots-Irish and English descent. One thing I have considered was the Protestant/Catholic divide that was very prevalent in the British Isles. I think that manifested itself in America.
I have never heard anything like that said of Italians. Then again, there weren't many Italians where I lived. My father (who is from the urban Midwest, where there are sizable Italian populations) never said anything like that about Italians. One thing that did shock me was watching the movies Jungle Fever and Do The Right Thing. I never knew until I was 18 that there were alot of tensions between Blacks and Italians, in New York City (and Philadelphia). Most of the Italian-Americans I've met, I met them in college, and through church. College opened me up to a different world, and I was able to meet all kinds of people.
I never knew the Catholic Church was banned in The Netherlands. It sounds rather ironic. Pope Adrian was from The Netherlands. And I never heard of The Netherlands being intolerant towards religions.
I converted to the Catholic faith just short of my 20th birthday. I was in college and found alot of Catholics around me. In my case, I'm a minority within a minority. Black American and Catholic.
Yup, most of the American Black people (meaning not people from the Caribbean, who are often either Catholic or Anglican/Episcopal like me) I ever worked with were AME or Baptist with the exception of a Catholic woman who was from Louisiana.
Interesting that you use the term "ethnic whites", because I almost did in my first post. That is how we saw them. Polish, Italians, Irish, etc., basically traditionally Catholic white people were not considered quite as white as the English, Dutch, Scandinavians, etc.--basically, the earlier Protestant settlers of the NY/NJ area.
Regarding prejudices against the Italians, they were not considered white people by many white people, especially the darker-skinned/eyes and hair southern Italians and Sicilians, many of whom do carry some African blood by virtue of their location and trade routes in the Mediterranean.
Even my late father, who made an effort to not embrace prejudices, was caught off guard one day when we had a conversation about the word, "pasta". I pointed out that until the 1980s, people rarely used that term. Only when different types of macaroni with a wide array of sauces became trendy restaurant fare in the mainstream outside of places like Little Italy did the word pasta become commonplace.
My father said, "Yes, you're right. When I was a kid growing up, white people only ever said spaghetti or noodles or macaroni." I said, "Um...white people, Dad?" He looked sheepish and laughed at himself and said, "When I was growing up in the 1920s and 30s, Italians weren't considered white people. They lived in the neighborhood in Paterson known as the Italian and Negro section." He said that seemed to change after WWII.
We certainly are a species that likes to divide itself into all sorts of Usses and Thems.
Everyone needs to know how terrible both states are.
Well, I disagree. I think you just said that to be spiteful. New York isn't for me. However, I think your comment was made out of spite. And with the topic "general diversity vs minority friendly", I think about this. Many people are going to look to certain states that they might think could be minority-friendly. Not talking about New York in particular. However, spiteful comments aren't helpful.
Really? Then what's with the "what's in it for me attitude"? What's with the claim that illegal aliens don't impact black employment, etc. attitude when cleary they do? Do they only have to only impact blacks in order for you to care? What's with the Republicans don't do anything for me and my race attitude? What do the Democrats do for you and your race and why should either party pander to any particular race? Why do the Democrats mostly pander to minorities Is that ok with you since you say you don't have a tribal mentality?
I've been on this forum for 15 years. It started with me considering different places to live. When I looked at the demographics of some places and saw that very few Blacks lived in certain places, and weren't going there in large numbers, I started asking myself some questions. I started wondering "Are Black people avoiding these cities/states? Does this mean that if I move here, I'll have a bad time?"
I’m sure you know by now there is a lot of segregation in cities and states all over the United States. Everybody seems to know this and yet hardly anybody talks about it publicly.
I’m sure you know by now there is a lot of segregation in cities and states all over the United States. Everybody seems to know this and yet hardly anybody talks about it publicly.
Why do you think that is?
That isn't the point. My point is about being at peace. Being able to live somewhere and not worry about how you might be perceived. It's about wanting to be able to move anywhere you want and be accepted based on your personal merit. How hard is that to understand?
And by the way, I think many people don't want to talk about segregation in cities all over America. Opens up a can of worms. The idea being "keep your mouth shut, keep the peace".
When I was a sailor we lived and worked together, we slept 16 to a room, no problem. When we went ashore on liberty there was no discussion, we self segregated. We went with those that we were most comfortable.with.
Hmm. When I was active duty Air Force and we went out off duty, we hung with members of our unit, rather than with members of our race.
You think there arent white people at BET or the Black News Channel ?????
both have plenty of white people, and basically mean black as in culture, not color.
the black beaty pageant is different, thats just the equivalent of an HBCU, it exists because black people werent allowed to be in white pageants .
Speaking as a black man, certain things don't need to exist anymore. The baseball negro leagues closed after major league baseball was integrated. Black beauty pageants at this point--and "this point" is really only very recently, that a black woman can win without looking like a "white woman dipped in chocolate"--can probably fade away. There isn't any real difference of "culture" between black baseball play and black beauty pageant competition and their white counterparts.
HBCUs accept white students, and because they are historical entities, should remain as long as each school is financially viable, just as aggie schools do even if they are no longer strictly agricultural.
Last edited by Ralph_Kirk; 08-07-2022 at 08:09 PM..
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