HONEST Feedback on Florence, SC - Relocating for Job (Darlington: 2013, high school)
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when i see people on here talk about there being a bunch of racism, bigotry in Florence, or other SC cities, they never seem to provide any specific examples or anecdotes. Were there a bunch of white people saying the n word, etc. were white people beating up black people or insulting them?
how many people did you see engage in racist, homophobic behavior? 5, 10, 25, 100, 100 plus?
i get the impression many transplants have confirmaton bias, based on stereotypes of the south of yesteryear. i can't see too many white southerners who would make it known they are racist, even if they are in fact racist, and especially in the workplace because that could easily affect their employment. so it seems like you would need to be able to read minds to know if a person is racist.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 08-12-2016 at 02:49 PM..
when i see people on here talk about there being a bunch of racism, bigotry in Florence, or other SC cities, they never seem to provide any specific examples or anecdotes. Were there a bunch of white people saying the n word, etc. were white people beating up black people or insulting them?
how many people did you see engage in racist, homophobic behavior? 5, 10, 25, 100, 100 plus?
i get the impression many transplants have confirmaton bias, based on stereotypes of the south of yesteryear. i can't see too many white southerners who would make it known they are racist, even if they are in fact racist, and especially in the workplace because that could easily affect their employment. so it seems like you would need to be able to read minds to know if a person is racist.
Maybe, except my parents grew up down south and I lived there for multiple periods in my life from a child and up.
Specific examples that I heard or witnessed were probably a dozen at the least. I guess a better term would be segregated, or a divide between the groups. I would also say I have heard/seen several white people that were blatantly racist, including someone I was friends with who was running for mayor of one of the local towns.
i've been in SC for 32 years or so, i've never seen much racism. the two most racist people that i've met as an adult was a guy from Peru and a guy from Russia.
Ok, i don't know you mean by a 'divide'. that seems like an ambiguous concept.
i've been in SC for 32 years or so, i've never seen much racism. the two most racist people that i've met as an adult was a guy from Peru and a guy from Russia.
if you lived in Darlington, that is a good bit different from living in west Florence, i would think.
you said that Florence is boring. what is it that you wanted to do in Florence but you were not able to do.
Maybe, except my parents grew up down south and I lived there for multiple periods in my life from a child and up.
Specific examples that I heard or witnessed were probably a dozen at the least. I guess a better term would be segregated, or a divide between the groups. I would also say I have heard/seen several white people that were blatantly racist, including someone I was friends with who was running for mayor of one of the local towns.
I see racism all the time in SC. The more rural, the worse it gets. As an Uber driver, I've had a few riders make blatantly racist comments. I also see the flag a lot of places, but, to be honest, I saw it a lot in other parts of the country.
Finally, I've never lived in Florence, but have friends from there. Most are glad to be out. To each his/her own, I suppose. The pure crime data, as measured by the FBI, is horrendous.
crime is not an issue in the west florence area, as pointed out numerous times by several residents. it is mostly concentrated north and east of the downtown area.
The FBI stats are using per capita stats which generally make crime in smaller cities look worse than it is.
if you look at total number of crimes, it is nothing compared to a similarly sized area in Charleston and Columbia and other larger cities. it makes more sense to look at number of crimes per area, rather than number of crimes per resident. a larger number of residents will not shield a person from crime.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 08-16-2016 at 09:53 AM..
Ok, i don't know you mean by a 'divide'. that seems like an ambiguous concept.
i've been in SC for 32 years or so, i've never seen much racism. the two most racist people that i've met as an adult was a guy from Peru and a guy from Russia.
if you lived in Darlington, that is a good bit different from living in west Florence, i would think.
you said that Florence is boring. what is it that you wanted to do in Florence but you were not able to do.
You've been there 32 years, so, could it be that you are used to it? It may have been you or someone else in another response said something along the lines of "people come down wanting to see it to confirm their biases"... I can say on my end, that is so not true. I moved to the area by choice for a promotion.
I worked at one of the largest employers in the area.. There was certainly a "divide" between the whites and blacks in the site, so much so that corporate was involved in the past with it. And by divide, I mean the groups sort of segregated themselves.. There was a lot of us vs them mentality. A lot of blacks calling people "crackers" and white calling blacks the "n-word".
As an example.. using the person I mentioned before.. Has a couple of black gentleman working for him.. Has a huge Christmas party every year in Darlington.... went three years, anywhere from 75-100 people there.. not one black person. No hispanics. Nothing. Other events I attended around the area had a similar feel to them.
As far as things to do in the area.. I didn't really have any expectations, thankfully. It was slow and boring to us. Dining options.. we got to the point where we stopped dining out because it was the same couple of decent options. Shopping is awful there.. Which was good because we saved a ton of money. Grocery stores.. don't get me started. We found people also boring... it was hard to assimilate because most people have known each other for ever.. it was pulling teeth to try to get others to do things. The hobby in my area was to drink in your driveway.. which is fun once or twice.
Again, these are my opinions. If you don't agree, that doesn't make either of us wrong, but that we just have a different perspective. Coming from faster paced areas, it was hard to swallow some of the differences, which is why I like to give my perspective.
so you moved to a small town expecting it to be like a large city? I don't get it. Florence is like every other small city. it is obvlusy not going to have as much shopping and restaurants as large cities. I think that the shopping and restaurant scene is decent for a small city and will work for a majority of people who moved to a small city. Mrtyle Beach has a lot of outlet shops and a huge mall and that is 1 hour away.
many people live 'fast paced' busy active lives in small cites. they work, and taking their kids to various things, and engaged in hobbies like golf and tennis, go to movies or the pool, and hanging out with friends. There are several lakes nearby and the beach is only 1 hour away. i'm not sure what it is you can do in LA that you can't do in Florence SC as far as hobbies and daily activities go. more restaurants and shopping it is just more restaurants and shopping options.
i think that you could make a similar 'us vs them' case for southern california and LA. there is a Chinatown, for example. not sure how you can make it an 'us vs them' thing if everybody was invited and some of them decided not to go. people free to do what they want in their free time.
i believe that most of the black and hspanic people who work at companies luke Duke Power, Sonoco, Johnston Controls, etc down there probably show up for Christmas parties. i've worked in several cities in SC and black and other minorities showed up at after work gatherings.
there is nothing wrong with the Harris Teeter, the Piggly Wiggly at Florence mall, or the Bi-Los in Florence. the food lions aren't as nice.
i understand everybody has different perspectives. I'm sharing mine. I've also lived in larger cities than Florence. I don't currently live there.
Last edited by ClemVegas; 08-17-2016 at 02:54 PM..
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