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Also I was just wondering if you could tell me about the area a little. I have heard about racism being a problem there, how bad is it? I like to interracial date from time to time and I really would like to know if you see a lot of that down there Finally how is the Nightlife there? I am thinking of moving there for a job at a news station and I just wanted to have an idea on what it is like before I come visit. I have been to Myrtle Beach (I was born in North Carolina) before and didn't have many problems when I was there so I wondered if Charleston is like that as well.
Don't worry to much about what people think, just live your life. People will be angry at you for what ever you do, regardless what your circumstance is. So, don't worry to much about the loud minority ignorance, becuase most of the world are not ignorant and are the silent majority.
And if something is said, just tell them don't be ignorant, be educated!
I think what wild is describing is more Prejudice not racism, Bob has asked a good question and Leo has given the text book definition of the word and by the definition racism is not as prominant as most think.
People do not go around linching the local Negros, not that this hasn't happened in the past, for looking at a white girl. You do see some interacial couples, the further you get from the city the fewer you see.
The problem with interacial couples around here is that they are not accepted by either race the blacks and whites will both equally shun an interacial couple.
We don't like to be called negros either! :-) Besides causcasions have new negros to worry about coming from across and aren't concerned with us anymore, if anyone catches what I'm saying!
We don't like to be called negros either! :-) Besides causcasions have new negros to worry about coming from across and aren't concerned with us anymore, if anyone catches what I'm saying!
I was making a reference to the way it used to be.
seems people don't even realize what they are saying is offensive and if it was said up north it would be totally unacceptable on many levels.
I'm originally from the NY area. From my experience, I think the racist comments that I used to hear up north would draw much more criticism than anything I've heard since I moved to Charleston.
I had some friends down from NY to visit and it seems that while up North they are just "average people" down here they come across as very racist.
In regards to the OP, I've seen more interracial couples (and what appears to be more acceptance of them) down here in SC than I saw up in NY. However, it could also be that down here, people are more tolerant of what others do. Southerners seem (to me) to be more passive and not wanting to cause conflicts. Whereas Northerners appear (to me) as more likely to get up in your face and tell you what they think.
Since moving here I have encountered some prejudicial comments and attitudes, but it is not like some would lead you to believe. The south has a reputation when it comes to racism, but I have encountered similar attitudes up north.
Sadly in this day and age the racial ignorance from all sides of the color spectrum is still a learned behavior. It can be eradicated if we only allow it to be.
It's a learned behavior, alright. I was never prejudiced until I went to a majority black high school and was told to "shut [my] cracker a$$ mouth" when I responded to a teacher's questioning in class. I was a pretty big, athletic guy, too, so I had 3 or 4 guys try to intimidate me at once in the halls. This went on constantly and with no provocation on my part. My car was vandalized, my girlfriend taunted and molested... Just barbaric nonsense and mob mentality to the nth.
To that point, I'd consider myself very open-minded. One of these people who was probably way too apologetic for slavery and Jim Crowe laws, despite the fact that my family was never even remotely involved in the lot. I was just happy to get out of there, graduate at the top of my class, and go on to places where people actually took the time to aspire to something and to treat others as human beings.
From my experience having lived in Southern California, the UK, Spain, Costa Rica, Atlanta, Charleston, Portland, and several smaller towns in the south and Colorado, the more diversity a place has, the more conflict. Homogenity breeds happiness and peace. Still, funny how well whites and Asians can get along and how conflict begins to emerge when things are mixed any other way.
Thankfully, a lot of this dies away as people mature, but it never goes away.
A lot of you are going to take issue with my post. So be it. Until you've walked in those shoes, well, let's just say I'd have once thought the same way. Is Charleston more prejudiced than other places? I don't think so. It's been forced to confront its issues head on given the diversity of the population. That said, when conflict brews, it can escalate far more quickly here than in less diverse places.
I just want to say that I lived in SC for 12 years and I never had a problem with racism. And my parents are straight up Nigerian immigrants. (i'm a first gen american). In Charleston, my sister went to CofC there and she loved it. Sure, there were some people who were a tad old school prejudice, but most of them were much older folk. The younger crowds (under 50) are less like that. My bosses have all lived here in SC their whole life, and we get along great with blacks, one guy who i think is gay here, and tons of foreigners come through our office and we have no problem.
SC isn't as bigoted as people think. People in some areas may not have been exposed to different groups of people, but that's not just the white people. Some black people haven't either, so they have some closed minded views of different groups. But they aren't bad people. Most of them don't really have hatred towards these groups, they just don't understand really.
And I think when facing a sitation like that, you have a duty to educate people. So if you're worried about interracial dating, you have a good reason to be cautious. Some people might look negatively towards it, but most won't hate you for it.
And for the record, my boss's sister is white, i mean WASP, okay? She married a half black, half asian (East Asian, I'm sure) man. All her kids look very asian. But all her in-laws look black. My boss is white herself and her husband is part Native American. They both live in their lovely homes and get along just great with their neighbors. (Granted, the midlands of SC and the Rock Hill area are a tad more diverse, just so you know.)
I think SC should work harder in improving its image to the rest of the nation.
Racism is in the eye, and sometime the ear, of the beholder. But regionalism, particularly where the elitest in most of the country are concerned, is still a big problem.
Almost every news and entertainment venue, and publisher, still refer to the area in a negative way. The term "going South" is constantly thrown out to indicate a failing trend, as in "his golf game is going south by the minute, Johnny".
If the South is such a bad place, why do so many from the North (East and West) flock to it? And why is regionalism o.k., but racism is not.
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She married a half black, half asian (East Asian, I'm sure) man. All her kids look very asian. But all her in-laws look black. My boss is white herself and her husband is part Native American. They both live in their lovely homes and get along just great with their neighbors. (Granted, the midlands of SC and the Rock Hill area are a tad more diverse, just so you know.)
Regionalism
