Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I went to SC (Charleston) for work about ten years ago and I would never go back. Charleston is a beautiful city, but I couldn't get past the bigotry. The city was so segregated, and I was shocked to here both a cab driver and a gay man in a gay bar use the "N" word.
At the time, I think there were only two gay bars in Charleston. I went with a friend from college who was working there for a while. What I found shocking was that there was no sign for the bar (club really) and you had to enter through an unmarked door in back in the alley. I was talking to some of the "natives" in the bar and asked why, in a city with a sizeable black population, were there only white guys in this bar. I was shocked to hear gay men being so openly prejudice against black people. And then the irony - that they were prejudice against black people, yet they had to sneak into a gay bar through the alley because everyone was prejudice against them! Plus they told me that in order to get a cab back to my hotel, I'd have to walk several blocks away from this bar because cab drivers wouldn't pick up anyone near there after the bars closed - meaning cabbies discriminated against gay men.
"Great Places. Smiling Faces". Maybe if your heterosexual, white, and Baptist. Why would gay people go to this state on purpose?
Yea, well many of those same fundamentalist churches also thought black people were inferior and that intermarriage between people of different races was a sin as well.
Even apart from that though, Hindus don't eat meat. Muslims don't drink alcohol. But you don't see them running around trying to press their views on the rest of society.
If a bunch of fundamentalist Christian bigots want to think gay people are "sinners" or the Anti-Christ, I could care less. That is their right to do that. What I find absolutely shocking is that they are pressing their homophobic beliefs on an entire state. In fact, as the article makes clear, you are actually allowed to overtly discriminate against gay people in South Carolina.
This is occurring in the US, a country that claims to be about "freedom." What a joke.
-------------
Though I agree with most of what you say. This has to be a joke-
"Muslims don't drink alcohol. But you don't see them running around trying to press their views on the rest of society."
I went to SC (Charleston) for work about ten years ago and I would never go back. Charleston is a beautiful city, but I couldn't get past the bigotry. The city was so segregated, and I was shocked to here both a cab driver and a gay man in a gay bar use the "N" word.
At the time, I think there were only two gay bars in Charleston. I went with a friend from college who was working there for a while. What I found shocking was that there was no sign for the bar (club really) and you had to enter through an unmarked door in back in the alley. I was talking to some of the "natives" in the bar and asked why, in a city with a sizeable black population, were there only white guys in this bar. I was shocked to hear gay men being so openly prejudice against black people. And then the irony - that they were prejudice against black people, yet they had to sneak into a gay bar through the alley because everyone was prejudice against them! Plus they told me that in order to get a cab back to my hotel, I'd have to walk several blocks away from this bar because cab drivers wouldn't pick up anyone near there after the bars closed - meaning cabbies discriminated against gay men.
"Great Places. Smiling Faces". Maybe if your heterosexual, white, and Baptist. Why would gay people go to this state on purpose?
I lived in Denver for a while and found it to be fairly segregated as well. It seemed that one side of town was black, the opposite was Mexican, and the white population had the middle and southern part.
Downtown Charleston is largely segregated based on economics. The suburbs less so.
I'm not sure of the specific place you mention, but for many years, there was a gay bar in Charleston that sat prominently right in the middle of things. You may also want to consider that Charleston is much smaller than a city like Denver, and the gay population is not that large in number to support very many places. I will not say Charleston is as open as some other cities, but I also think it gets a bad rap sometimes.
I lived in Denver for a while and found it to be fairly segregated as well. It seemed that one side of town was black, the opposite was Mexican, and the white population had the middle and southern part.
Downtown Charleston is largely segregated based on economics. The suburbs less so.
I'm not sure of the specific place you mention, but for many years, there was a gay bar in Charleston that sat prominently right in the middle of things. You may also want to consider that Charleston is much smaller than a city like Denver, and the gay population is not that large in number to support very many places. I will not say Charleston is as open as some other cities, but I also think it gets a bad rap sometimes.
Overall Denver is considered fairly integrated. There is a traditional "black part of town", but it's not a rund down area as I saw in Charleston, and is becoming more integrated. The only area of Denver I know that's predominantly Hispanic (meaning recent immigrants) is SW Denver, but again, it's not a deal where nobody crosses a certain street if you're a certain race type of situation.
Probably the main difference between here and the South is that this was never a slave state and never had a huge population of impoverished black people. Completely different history than in SC, but I was still shocked by the racial remarks I heard there. Of course I'm not labeling everyone in SC as an anti-gay racist either.
Overall Denver is considered fairly integrated. There is a traditional "black part of town", but it's not a rund down area as I saw in Charleston, and is becoming more integrated. The only area of Denver I know that's predominantly Hispanic (meaning recent immigrants) is SW Denver, but again, it's not a deal where nobody crosses a certain street if you're a certain race type of situation.
The area in Charleston that you saw, I'm sure, is very poor and where projects are located. Many cities have sections like that. I wouldn't say Charleston is a place where people don't cross streets based on race. They tend not to go into certain areas based on safety. Again, most cities have areas like that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by denverian
Probably the main difference between here and the South is that this was never a slave state and never had a huge population of impoverished black people. Completely different history than in SC, but I was still shocked by the racial remarks I heard there. Of course I'm not labeling everyone in SC as an anti-gay racist either.
I think the history of the South does play a role both in the demographics as well as how it's perceived. I would say racial remarks by anyone are bad. I've lived in several parts of the US and heard racial remarks, by and targeted to people of various races. I don't like that either. I don't disagree with you that it shouldn't happen, and I think some places are more readily labeled that way than others. For example, I lived in California. I heard many racial remarks toward a couple of different groups by people that considered themselves open-minded yet wouldn't be surrpised if SC still had all dirt roads and Klan rallies. (By the way, I'm not saying you're like that.)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
