Racism in Cincinnati is shocking to me(what do you guys think about it) (Avon: public schools, live)

[clarkekm]

Racism is a bit of a problem in Cincinnati. Everyone here is talking about blacks hating whites but I have seen my fair share of white people being racist towards black people since I've been here. It seems to me if a white person does something to a black person and the black person retaliates both are called racist in cincinnati. It can never be as simple as , two random people disagreeing. No it has to be that the white person is racist for doing something to a black person. The black person is racist for retaliating against the white person. Every thing is so white and black. Thing is CINCINNATIANS don't think their racist or there's a racist problem in cincinnati. ANYBODY ELSE that come to cincinnati can clearly see there's a huge bigotry problem in Cincinnati.

[Natural510]

Yeah, it's one of the main reasons the wife & I never moved down there. Things are very polarized and there is a long history of racism in that city.

[austiNati]

The racism in this town is so..... ignorant. As a black man, who has attended private schooling from K-12, I can say that the most racist comments I've heard, have been from people that didn't even know the comment they made was racist. Everytime I hear someone say, "You talk white", or "You ain't hood, I got white friends with more street cred than you" I just roll my eyes. Honestly, I'm suprised my eyes aren't stuck. I should write a book, it would surely be funny as all hell.

Haha, funny story:

A few months ago, a lady friend and I attended a house party in U-Heights. A friend of mine was DJing and invited us to kick it. It was actually a nice shindig, but later in the night, when grabbing a drink and having a smoke, I introduced my friend to one of the host of the party. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Nice party, thanks for the invite"

Host (while drunk): "Hell yeah man, it ain't nothin'"

Me: "Yea I see you're feeling alright"

Host: Yeaaaa

Me: "This is my friend Erin. Her, Jordan and I, all went to school together"

Host: "Ohhhh, Erin... I think I'll call you... Tequanda"

(pause)

*blank look on her, mine and everyone else face*

Erin: "WTF???"

Host: "You just seem like a Tequanda to me"

Everyone: *face palm*

It was sooo random and stupid, we just laughed our asses off, and dude felt like a dumb ass. That's just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to race relations in this town. Luckily, there are some people here who aren't completely in a cave when it comes to socializing with people of different backgrounds. Dude was from the eastern suburbs, and admitted he'd never really hung out with black people, but damn, it just rolled off his tounge so casually, I already knew he didn't know what he was talking about. LOL. Don't even get me started on all the crazy **** I heard at Moeller.

[Tyrone Mallory]

I totally agree with clarkekm on this one. One of the main problems is that the races are so polarized here. For a city that’s almost 50% black you still find entire neighborhoods, school districts, departments at work completely unsegregated and people go about this everyday like it’s no big deal. There is very little race mixing at all. It’s sad because the world is passing us by and no one seems to care. We just lost Chiquita and a lack of diversity and a bi-lingual work force was number 2 on their list of reasons why they left.

[wolden]

Well the real point of the discussion is whether Cincinnati in particular is uniquely racist. I don't think it is. If you just read the news you can see racism is rampant all over the country. It is very easy, for example, to find people expressing their racism with regard to Obama. I've lived all over the country myself and found racism everywhere.

Racism goes both directions. There is white on black and black on white and all other combinations. However, since there are many more whites than blacks, the total amount of racism is more white on black simply because blacks are a minority.

If someone claims Cincinnati is uniquely racist I would like to hear exactly why. You need to take into account the overall racial make up of a city you compare it to. For example, take Pittsburgh, a rust belt city of similar size and racial population. its not that different from Cincinnati. Now if you want to compare Cincinnati to Atlanta or San Francisco there are a whole host of other things that influence the judgement of racism.

In sum I doubt that Cincinnati is much different in terms of total racism than Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Eire, Buffalo, or Rochester, or even Chicago.

[mshepherd9]

About the confederate flag, it is on a barn roof just off I-71 in my area of Warren County near Clinton County. Racism? Yes there is some. Try going into a BIGBOX store and see if they follow you if you are young and a minority. They will follow you more often than not. Things are changing and the youth will replace their elders with a little more tolerance, however the youth are not learning their history and are not critical of extreme right wing in this country. So, the dialogue between conservatives and liberals is happening less and less. The other side is just seen as the enemy. Sad to to see it.

[Tex?Il?]

Take a look at this:

The 10 most segregated urban areas in America | Slide Show - Salon.com

This is a list of the 10 most segregated metro areas in the country.

As you may have guessed the metro areas of the industrial midwest is very well represented here.

In order from least to most segregated:

10. Los Angeles
9. Philadelphia
8. Cincinnati
7. St. Louis
6. Buffalo
5. Cleveland
4. Detroit
3. Chicago
2. New York
1. Milwaukee

And if you look at the number of neighborhoods (if you want to match then up with a map of Cincinnati neighborhoods) for a metro its size it has a decent selection of neighborhoods in the city limits that are about split 50-50. including:

North Avondale, Pleasant Ridge, College Hill, Northside, East Price Hill, Mt. Auburn/Prospect Hill, suburb of Springdale. Some of these are nicer than others.

I think Cincinnatis racist reputation is more from the fact that culturally conservative in the suburbs and exurbs more so than the other metros. But in the city itself you have several integrated neighborhoods. More so than other equivalent metros, and as much as cities much larger.

[Briolat21]

I haven't any idea about how racist a specific neighborhood in Cincy is or is not.

But - just because a city/neighborhood is a 50/50 population split and thus "integrated" - doesn't mean its not racist. Really, those are two separate problems.

Also - the list refers to the metro areas. Cincy is not alone at all in having a more conservative suburban/exurban area surrounding a city core. Welcome to the Rust Belt.

[cali3448893]

I was surprised to find milwaukee number one, only been their once

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by jonathancalderon71

I was surprised to find milwaukee number one, only been their once

Milwaukee, as compared to the rest of the industrial midwest cities remained more or less lilly-white until the second great migration.

In other words, by WWII, Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland all had huge AA populations/communities. Cincinnati and St. Louis even longer as they were further south and therefore closer. But Milwaukee really didn't get a large AA population until the 50s. That might have something to do with it. Like the city didn't grow with different races until recently. Then it more or less stopped growing - which generally leads to more residential segregation.