How Progressive is Southwest Virginia? (Roanoke, Blacksburg: house, live, suburbs)

[NYTransplant]

I don't mean to be ignorant, but how open-minded is Virginia - really?

I spent some time in the northern Virginia area near D.C., but was wondering what southwest virginia is really like.

I am east indian and my fiance is half-korean, half-norwegian. There may be a job offer there for me and I wanted to know if we're going to have trouble w racism, etc.

Thank You.

[seanpecor]

There are east indian folks all throughout Blacksburg, many of them are professors at Virginia Tech. I lived in Blacksburg in '04 and '05, I bought my house from an east indian fellow, and sold my house to another east indian fellow. I took a blacksmithing class and met a great guy named Vinod who directs economic development projects for Tech. What I'm saying is that in Blacksburg, if that's where your job offer is, you should have no worries. In Roanoke, the metro where we currently live, there are fewer east indians per capita but they're well represented and I know of no issues with racism.

Where in SWVA might you be heading? I can be more helpful if know what county/city you're looking into.

Sean (half north american indian btw, haha)

[dullnboring]

As seanpecor stated, it should be no problem in Blacksburg which has a fairly diverse population, including a sizable Indian population; Korean less so, but they're there as well as Tech tends to draw a heavy number of students from the multicultural DC suburbs. Roanoke has a much smaller Asian population (it's largely white/black) but is a pretty open-minded and tolerant place and I can't foresee many problems there really. Elsewhere, it may be more of an issue.