Austin Revealed: Civil Rights Stories (Anderson: high school, closing, racist)

[cBach]

Originally Posted by Neo45

of course its more segregated. i could of told you that after progressives and liberals from out that way go on and on about diversity when their entire side of town is white

Yet we are progressive enough to be the only southern city selecting an African American for a major football head coach position. LSU and Alabama would never do so.

Sorry that doesn't fit in with your theory...

[cBach]

Originally Posted by capcat

I helped a family that had moved to Austin after Katrina, and they couldn't wait to get out and move to Alabama. They said that people here go into their apartments after work and don't come out until the next morning in time to go to work, unlike the AA people who were outside greeting each other and stopping to talk. I find that people here keep to themselves more so than in other areas as well. They might do little things, like holding the door open for you, but it doesn't have what I consider a southern friendliness vibe. I'm not denying other things in the AA experience, but it feels like a cultural divide whether you're black or white if you're from another area or state, or simply used to another way of being.

Also, I talked to another AA lady from Michigan who was very uncomfortable because people here dressed so casually everywhere they went, including work. She was accustomed to dressing up for work, church, etc. and was very bothered by the informality vibe in Austin, found it sloppy.

.

I would say the things that you mention here are not racist but instead cultural differences.

Cities like Atlanta simply offer more to AA people than Austin. It's not good or bad, it just is. Just like cities like Portland or Austin offer more to white hipsters than Atlanta.

You must separate racism from culture. Those are two very different things. Most people in Austin don't have a racist bone in their body.

[ppp38]

Originally Posted by cBach

Yet we are progressive enough to be the only southern city selecting an African American for a major football head coach position. LSU and Alabama would never do so.

Sorry that doesn't fit in with your theory...

Im sorry what? Did you forget about Kevin Sumlin and the Texas Aggies. Additionally, your post boils down to the "I have black friends" defense.

This city is highly segregated, look at what happens during Texas Relays.

[verybadgnome]

Most of the segregation I see these days is more socioeconomic rather than-race based. You can either afford to live in X neighborhood or you can't. Reality is that only the top 1% can live anywhere they want while the rest of us have to make compromises.

Secondly a lot of segregation is self-imposed in which case I have to ask is that a good or a bad thing. If someone from Dehli comes on here asking for a neighborhood with lots of Indians are they participating in their own segregation? Should they be steered to neighborhoods with white, AAs and Hispanics instead?

Third, I know the AA percentage is going down but I thought the Hispanic and Asian numbers were going up so I'm thinking Austin is more diverse, just not more diverse as related to AAs.

Fourth, the prime factor of whether a neighborhood is desirable to me is not driven but the amount of diversity. If that were so then Pflugerville with 1/3 shares each of white, Hispanic and black would be the ideal place (it's not). Quality of institutions, amenities, recreation, infrastructure, safety, proximity to work etc. are all more important to me. My neighborhood, Holly, was something like 90/10 Hispanic and White not long ago and now it is headed to being the reverse of that. Mathematically it is no less diverse, but I am sure some people will find no comfort in that preferring the old Austin they grew up with.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by cBach

Yet we are progressive enough to be the only southern city selecting an African American for a major football head coach position. LSU and Alabama would never do so.

Sorry that doesn't fit in with your theory...

You know for a fact what people will or won't do?

And as far as "only", James Franklin was hired at Vanderbilt in 2011, and Vanderbilt just replaced him with another AA. Willie Taggart was hired at USF last year, and joined Ruffin McNeil at ECU, Mike London at UVa (who came there from Richmond), Curtis Johnson at Tulane, and Garrick McGee at UAB as AA coaches at FBS coaches in the South. And if you consider Kentucky as southern, then Charlie Strong was already at UL.

So perhaps the self congratulations are a little midplaced.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by ppp38

Im sorry what? Did you forget about Kevin Sumlin and the Texas Aggies. Additionally, your post boils down to the "I have black friends" defense..

No it doesn't. To be able to select a black UT head coach says a lot about the Austin community. Charlie Strong wasn't welcomed at Auburn because "he had a white wife and the community wouldn't be comfortable with a head coach with a mixed marriage."

Why The Race Of The New Football Coach At University Of Texas Matters : NPR

Why The Race Of The New Football Coach At University Of Texas Matters : NPR

The fact that UT hired Charlie Strong says a whole lot about the people that run UT and the whole Austin progressive vibe.

Austin may not have a lot of blacks, but it is progressive and non-racist. People assume that because it has a low percentage AA's that it is racist, but that is not the case. It just historically never had the percentages that other Southern cities had. There were never any reasons for AA's to move here in the past. It was a sleepy town for most of its existence, until the early 1990's really. By then it was attracting a lot of white people because of its hipster/alternative/slacker image. That lifestyle never really appealed to AA's.

Like I said before, it was entirely cultural, nothing to do with racism at all...

[cBach]

Originally Posted by scm53

You know for a fact what people will or won't do?

And as far as "only", James Franklin was hired at Vanderbilt in 2011, and Vanderbilt just replaced him with another AA. Willie Taggart was hired at USF last year, and joined Ruffin McNeil at ECU, Mike London at UVa (who came there from Richmond), Curtis Johnson at Tulane, and Garrick McGee at UAB as AA coaches at FBS coaches in the South. And if you consider Kentucky as southern, then Charlie Strong was already at UL.

So perhaps the self congratulations are a little midplaced.

I should have clarified with major football programs in the deep south (i.e. SEC and the like). Please read this.

Why The Race Of The New Football Coach At University Of Texas Matters : NPR

[ppp38]

Originally Posted by cBach

I should have clarified with major football programs in the deep south (i.e. SEC and the like). Please read this.

Why The Race Of The New Football Coach At University Of Texas Matters : NPR

And again you would be wrong, since Texas A&M has Sumlin (and they are a major program in the SEC), and nobody could make the claim that C-Stat is some sort of progressive city. Your argument just doesn't hold any water.

[CptnRn]

Growing up in Wyoming there were very few black families in any of the communities. I can only recall one in the town where I graduated from high school, 1969, a man who worked for the post office, he had a wife and daughter. We were kind of courious what all the fuss was about when we heard about blacks rioting in southern cities. I recall one good old boy in the barber shop wondering what they were rioting about, he commented that the one black family that lived in town never rioted. Duh...

When I moved to Austin in 1977 one of my first jobs was architectural drafting on the Renovation of Welch Hall, the Chemistry Building at UT. We spent a lot of time studying the original architectural blue prints for that job. I recall being shocked to see that the original drawings included separate restrooms and drinking fountains for "colored people".

[capcat]

Originally Posted by cBach

I would say the things that you mention here are not racist but instead cultural differences.

I don't mean to be rude, but... of course they're cultural. I wasn't speaking about racial discrimination, except as a reflection of the nation in the era the films discussed.

But as for racism, who am I to say there is or there isn't? I'm not qualified to make such a judgement.