Cleaning Up My Image: Can Tulsa Help? (Cherokee, May: appointed, crime)

[LOUISIANA'SLEGEND]

I am a young black male who carefully chose Oklahoma to help awake the humanly assets thats I seem to lack due to living most of my life in what most of you may call as "da hood". I didnt want to necesserily leave the south, but would if i can be close. I know pretty much of the rest of the states in the south and the all are the same. I wanted to go outside of my element to grow in areas that i can never grow in Louisiana. So i chose, Tulsa over OKC cuz I feel like we here to much about OKC, and plus our schools play Tulsa all the time!!! I wanted to know whats the atmosphere there, yall gone let me grow, take me in tulsa, i have alot to bring to tulsa, and i am very talented. An artist, a marketer, promoter, and take love to contribute to big things. I will take pride in the city, tell the south all about tulsa and make sure tulsa gets talked about as the same regards as any other deserving city!!! So...............first and far most, as a black man, i gotta speak on racism, i just found out about the black wallstreet, and the race riot, so amongst other things, please speak on the level of racism, while trying to convince me that im making a good decision

[Jammie]

I don't live in Tulsa, but I think you're making a very good decision. Before this forum was ever created, I belonged to a forum with Tulsans and they are some of the nicest people you'll meet. I don't believe that most of them have a racist bone in their body. I'm white so I can't tell you first hand how it would be, but I didn't see a bit of discrimination of any kind in OK.

You sound like you have a positive attitude about the city and that you have a lot to offer, too. IMHO you'll be received well there.

[Synopsis]

What Jammie said LL. Have you visited the city? Go there for a visit and see a lot of different areas. There was another black person on here (TulsaVegan or TulsaVeganWriter, or something) that had those same concerns. He moved to Tulsa and likes it very much. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by Tulsa. You sound like you would be a great addition to the city!

[ICvegan]

Nope, not me...fishbelly white here. As a fishbelly white person, I have never experienced racism, but I have seen it. Co-workers that I had at my previous job often spoke of it. Customers I dealt with sometimes spoke of it. I know what it's like as I had it every single day that I lived in Korea (talk about being a minority!), but here? I'm in the majority, so I'm sure that I don't even see it a lot of the time.

[Synopsis]

Unfortunately it does exist everywhere and it goes both ways. I was in Atlanta working on a project during the Olympics and was always working the night shift. It was around midnight the first night I was there and I decided I would drive out for something to eat. I stopped at an I-HOP near downtown (downtown was where I was working) and went inside and took a seat. I've never been a person who really viewed color, and so as I took my seat I didn't realize that I was one of two white people in the place (out of about 20).

The only time I began to notice this was after about 30 minutes and the waitress wasn't coming by to take my order. I wondered what was up and then noticed that the only other white person in the restaurant was in the booth in front of me (facing away from me). He had been there almost as long as me and after awhile I asked the waitress if she would take my order. She just looked at me and walked away. The other guy turned around and said, "I guess we're not the right color." I got up and walked out and he soon followed.

I've never been treated like that anywhere else in the world. Maybe it was a good thing, to get just a small taste of how blacks were treated on a daily basis (and treated MUCH worse) for decade after decade (and still are in some cases) . I didn't feel humiliated or anything, but it did offer me food for thought.

Having said that, Atlanta must have a real racial divide there that needs to be addressed.

[peggydavis]

I will say that you sound like a real asset that Tulsa would welcome, Louisiana'sLegend.

I am white too. I don't think we can understand unless we have been in the minority. Some years ago I joined a business group in OKC with my friend who was black. When I showed up for my first meeting, everyone else in the room was black, and my friend wasn't there. They were really nice to me, but it did make me feel strange. I went to more meetings before quitting because it was not a good business opportunity, and it was a good experience. It made me think more about how someone in the minority feels in a room full of white people.

The race riot and destruction of the Black Wall Street happened about 80 years ago. That was a black mark on Oklahoma history, but maybe we learned something from that. During the unrest of the 60s-present, we have not had anything like the riots and fire hoses and police dogs and general cruelty towards minorities seen on TV in other areas.

Synopsis, I think that was VeganWriter you were thinking of.

[Synopsis]

Thank You peggy. Yes, VeganWriter. I hope he is still around. He offered an objective, good and sometimes not so good portrayal of Tulsa from a black person's perspective; something that I cannot offer. I like his take on things and hope that he is doing well in his new home in Tulsa.

[Goodpasture]

I have a couple of comments......probably shouldn't cause I don't want to step on anyone's toes.........

For the most part, you won't find a lot of folks that react to your being black. We tend to react to attitudes. If you are competent, or willing to work to be competent you will find doors opening wide. If you use being black as an excuse for a negative reaction because you are incompetent, you will find doors shutting in your face. This applies even if you are going against mainstream society.

A good example of competency but "walking to the beat of your own drum" is Carlton Pearson. A pastor of one of Tulsa's largest and fastest growing churches, a member of the Board of Trustees at ORU, his ministry reached across races and ages and cultures. He came out with a non-traditional theology, and lost his church, lost his position at ORU, lost the support of his peers. He began anew, in a borrowed sanctuary and is now growing a newer and better and stronger church than ever.

When he first began growing his church, it didn't grow because of his race. It grew because he did thing right. When he lost his church and affiliations, it wasn't because he was black. Now that he is growing his church again, it isn't because he is black. It is because he is providing a message that meets the needs of his congregation. being black has nothing to do with it.

If you are competent, can look a problem in the face, get the help you need and get the job done, you will have all the friends and opportunities you can handle. If you walk out of a meeting thinking "they won't give me a chance because I am black, those racist so and so's" you will have a pretty miserable life here. Remember, although most of us look white, we are mixed blood as well. I look like my scottish and swiss ancestors. I think more like my Cherokee and Polynesian ancestors. If you sit at any board meeting in Tulsa and took census you would find that there are at least 10 tribes represented in any group of 12 people. Some tribes integrated with blacks back in the 1800's so when you claim that a white guy discriminated against you because you are black, remember, that white guy has a real good chance of having a black as a great grandmother.

Bottom line, you will not find doors opening or closing because you are black. You WILL find them opening and closing because of your talent, your integrity, your competency and your attitude. That being said, let me be one of the first to welcome you as a contributing part of a very diverse and tolerant society.......we all look forward to hearing great things about you.

[Synopsis]

Goodpasture, that was one of the finest posts I have seen on City-Data. Thank you so much. I don't think you are stepping on anyone's toes. Once again, thanks.

[LOUISIANA'SLEGEND]

Wow, This Is Better Than Myspace!!!! Lol. I had no idea i would get this type of feedback. As a young man born amongst crime and pain, i have learn to seek wisdom in this world, and walk as a wise to see as good as the eyes of the wise. You guys seem like very stand up people, and have been very enlighting on this subject. Let me direct your attention on the significance of this move.
You have to have been hidden from socitey near a cave close to Osama bin laden, to not have known the great racism in the deep south. Now im from Louisiana so let me speak us. Louisiana is one of the worst states to live in if you are an African American. It has been a fact, or still is a fact(This was the fact in 2006)that 85% of the Black Population of men have been, will be, and are incarcerated in the State of Louisiana. Maybe this maybe because, Louisiana has one of the lowest educational systems in the country. Ever heard of Hurricane Katrina, notice how most of those people unable to evacuate was people of color. Dont forget about Jena 6. Now to stepping away from race, let me tell u first Louisiana was all i known, the good and the bad. After stepping outside of my state i was so shock how different we were compared to other states. When people come down here, many of us would always say, "u tryna be white"(which usually means, u use correct grammar). Funny to say, the whites would say something similar, "...urr tryna to be proper". I have traveled alot and I was so amazed at how many people talked "proper" in every state i visited. Im from the streets and i am use to using slang but, my god, some people on the streets outside of Louisiana talked so much better than the so called "highly educated" people in Louisiana. Thats when i became concerned. I kept researching, and traveling to compare, and each time I was disappointed. So many things about louisiana are associated with bad things and to try to protect the damaged image of us, I wont share all the statistics.

Louisiana's people lack pride, as a whole we do not love our state at all. Everyone life long dream is to leave louisiana and never come back. The Katrina victims who left, all have the same thought and make statements similar to these "I have never experienced life this good living amongst people outside of my race ", "I was a lawyer for 10 years in New Orleans, and was living a great in my eyes, but now living in _______ I have never felt so good, people I can actually be proud about who they are." "I was on welfare all my life, but now that I left the negative strong hold of Louisiana, I actual feel like someone cares". I can go on and on, but my point is, I have been living in a world of FALSE HOPE, OLD SOUTHERN WAYS, and a LAND OF THE UNFORGIVEN, and it hurts my heart so much i can cry.

I dont want to fall in line of all my ancestors, i dont want to live in a world of deadends, why live in an environment where i have to fight so hard to only go so far when I can go to a state like South Dakota where racism still lives, but I have a way better shot as a poor man there than a wealthy man in Louisiana. I want to learn how to be proud of something thats mine no matter how bad things are, I want to be the one who stays here in Louisiana and provide it with a worldly sense, a sense of a life beyond white and black but a world of belief and the revalence of individality and character. I want to dedicate my life to changing the image of the endanger species known as Louisiana. I can not do this being in Louisiana, I have to go outside myself to see myself, and learn what exactly it is why a Louisianan isnt on par with other states. Whatever that is I want to absorb it, learn it and bring it back to my state and make it at least.....better and spark the road of hope.

So then i see at Tulsa....quiet, minds its own business, but creeping toward eliteness.....how? Im thinking a city cant possibly progress with such issues as Louisiana. So with my heart wide open, and great ethusiasm, i am reaching out to the state of Oklahoma to contribute to me becoming, what my name states, a Louisiana legend.

Now im not trying to be a humanitarian, but one day when i have kids, or even the people who I grew with(I actually have small communties who looks at me as a hero now, as hope) I just want to be something that people dont believe in anymore..........hopeful.