Racism in Cincinnati is shocking to me(what do you guys think about it) (loans, houses)

[13th Alphabet]

Originally Posted by Sarah Perry

Your last point is well taken, although I didn't notice the same difference when I tried to make small talk with other white people in Cincinnati. I do have to take exception to your characterization of Lexington as "essentially like a small town." It's a mid size city and in my experience much too large to have any kind of stereotypical small-town friendliness.

It's more of a cultural difference from my observations. Whites in general tend to be more friendly, engaging, and willing to help others, while blacks tend to be more standoffish and possess a more "mind your own business" type mindset, especially in the northeast and the industrial midwest.

I ride Metro fairly often, and more often than not, if I'm engaged in a somewhat lengthy conversation with a stranger, it's usually with a white female, black male, black female, and white male respectively.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by Wahl_Wrighter

It's more of a cultural difference from my observations. Whites in general tend to be more friendly, engaging, and willing to help others, while blacks tend to be more standoffish and possess a more "mind your own business" type mindset, especially in the northeast and the industrial midwest.

I have personally found Blacks more friendly in Cincinnati than any others. Whites tend to not want to talk to strangers or whatever. Obviously, not all people are friendly no matter the race. Keep in mind I also find New Yorkers friendly as well. Really it comes down to understanding culture. New Yorkers are very direct.

[Emo_Shortie]

i consider myself a very openminded person. i believe slavery was and is wrong. i believe the kkk is a joke. especially considering as how we are all mixed with something anymore these days so they need to just get over it. i also believe tho we should study and cherish our history and the history of the US we should really get past what happened all those yrs ago. THERE ARE NO WHITES any more so people need to get over it. altho i believe this i also believe people wont get over it. its something they think they believe in and tho i disagree with these close minded people i also firmly believe in speaking ure minds and standing for what u believe in. if u want the 10commandments in ure front yard then u should also be allowed to have a conf flag hangin off ure porch as well.

[motorman]

Welcome to the discussion, Emo_Shortie. Since you've so emphatically stated that "there are no whites any more," (and technically, I'm not even sure there ever were any to begin with...) I'm curious about your reaction to someone taking it a giant step further--by emphasizing that everyone one of us here in the U.S.A is, first and foremost, an "African-American." (namely because paleontologists and anthropologists have agreed that mankind's beginnings were in and around the Great Rift Valley in Africa)

[amurphy]

Finally! A person who asked same question that I did when I first moved here 20 years ago. I have lived in a number of cities north and south in the US over the past 40 years and I have never seen so much racism as in Cincinnati. Going both ways. When I first got here I was working at a large corporation downtown that had a cafeteria. I started to sit down with a group of people that I worked with closely, and was made very unwelcome because they were black and I'm white. They would work with me but not socialize with me. And of course I've seen a ton of it going the other way too. In other places that I've lived I've been used to having a very diverse group of friends, but not here. It's one of the reasons I'm trying so desperately to leave this city. When I first moved here all those years ago I went into a store that sold Cincinnati novelty items. There were many things that said that Cincinnati considers itself reactionary and proud of it. Thank you for having the courage, OP, to say what I've been saying and thinking for so many years. I had no choice but to stay here because of my husband's job, but he has passed now and thank you for reminding me that there's another important reason why I want to leave-i
unfortunately, over all these years I've gotten used to it.

[censusdata]

I'm not saying all people in Cincinnati are racist but if I made a list of the most racists (White on Black) I personally know all of them are either from Cincinnati or Southern Indiana.

[HardWorker713]

Tex? Il?

Ive lived in four of the cities you listed (Born & raised in Cinti) Cinti, Cleveland, Chicago and New York (Brooklyn)

It is my experience that Cincinnati has and continues to be a very racist city. When I come home to visit, I often experience at least one racist comment from someone that is white and assumes that I am uneducated up until.......they have a conversation with me. I tell them I have 2 Master's degrees, I serve in the Military etc......and THEN they become comfortable with me....smh
Why cant they Just Be Comfortable otherwise??????

Its pretty heart breaking.....

[cali3448893]

Wow i really cant believe my thread would get this big!

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by jonathancalderon71

Wow i really cant believe my thread would get this big!

It centers on a nasty topic which will always bring people out of the woodwork. Personally I think much of it is overblown compared to 40 years ago. To some nothing ever gets better, but to me it certainly has for which I am thankful.

[jsims]

I grew up in Cincinnati in the late 60's, early 70's, in a Hyde Park neighborhood, with Whites living on my street and Blacks living on the next street. Such a clearly marked line between the races! I was in fourth grade when we moved there and I remember walking up the street to find friends to play with. The White kids I came across were no fun at all. The next day, a pile of Black kids came over to my house. We had fun! For the next three years, all my good friends were Black. There was really no difference between my Black friends and me, except that I lived in a big house and their houses were very small. I also excelled in school and they didn't, and though we went to the same elementary school, they went to different classes entirely. I knew they were intelligent, I didn't know why they were in "dumbbell" classes. My buddies and I went around the neighborhoods cutting lawns and I always spent the money I earned, they took their earnings to their mothers - it helped with the family income. I think that most of my friend's mothers were on welfare. I rarely saw my Black friend's fathers - visits from them were few and far between. I remember a teacher telling me not to play with my Black friends, they were a bad influence, she said. I also remember winning a running race, when my Black competetor clearly got across the finish line before me. As a kid, it was all confusing. That's how institutionalized racism works - all the little acts of favoratism, privilege, insults, preferences don't seem like much, but little by little, day by day, I moved ahead in the world, while my Black friends moved back, back, back. Leaving elementary school, I attended Walnut Hills High School, a college preparatory school, and they attended the regular junior high. We lost track of each other, but one of my friends dropped by years later to try and sell me some weed. Just before we left for Los Angeles, my mom saw another one of my old friends in the back of a squad car. I went on to earn a doctorate and all that. I just checked on whatever happened to my old buddies by googling their names. I happened to find out that two of my Black friends died years ago (they would have been in their fifties now). To those of you with interest in racism, it's not so much about the n-word or the confederate flag, or any individual thing, it's about the endless stream of advantages for one person over another and the equally endless stream of insults to one person and not the other. It all added up for me to be successful and comfortable in California and for at least some of my pals to be dead well before their time. Is this unique to Cincinnati? No, but there is an intensity there, that makes it possible to have one street occupied by Whites and the next by Blacks. Here in Los Angeles, I watch my daughter excel in school, attending the finest programs in public schools and each year I have observed fewer and fewer Latino and African American students in her classes. One mother of a Latino student had to place her very bright son in a very expensive private school because she knew the cards were stacked against him in the public school system. So my daughter and the Latino student both lose. The diversity of elementary school for my daughter is lost by the time she goes to High School and the very bright Latino student has to attend a special private school for a great education. So, hope this helps with your thinking about racism in Cincinnati. And to the original poster of this thread, you mentioned that you think you got your answer to your original query. I'm interested in what that answer is.