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This looks like your typical day in Golden Gate park...no festivals are needed to see that kind of diversity in the Bay Area:
And you continue to speak on what you know little about. Whites never had the same level of "discomfort" around blacks in SF? Than why was the Fillmore District destroyed? Hint: racism. Why did SF have crime-ridden black ghettos pop up not long after it gained most of it's black population in WWII? Hint: white flight (aka, racism). Also, you may want to read up on the Zebra Murders, in which an SF-based, radical offshoot of the Nation of Islam went around randomly murdering white people on the streets of SF, over the course several months in the 1970s. They randomly killed 16 white people (mostly with the same .32 caliber pistol, though they also used a machete a couple times), and wounded 10 more, just because they were white (or "white devils" as they put it). It literally put a stranglehold on the city because people were scared to go outside and potentially become the next victim. Tourism and the economy actually suffered from it. It sure as hell made a lot of white people feel quite a bit of "discomfort", especially the racist ones of course. Also, you know what the SFPD's response was at one point, when another Zebra Murder victim popped up? They went around SF's black neighborhoods in the middle of the night, and arrested every single man and boy they saw hanging around outside (they knew the suspects were black men)...they arrested over 500 people in one night, all innocent, and it was based on their skin color. And that was only 40 years ago. Sounds pretty damn racist and oppressive to me.
SF even had a race riot in Hunters Point, in 1966 (which including looting and shootouts with police and the national guard). Seriously, educate yourself before you make all these claims that black people had it so good in the Bay Area in comparison. They may have had it better than the deep south, but that's not saying too much, given the fact that racism was rampant throughout the nation back then.
You may also want to know that the black population in SF has a murder rate higher than Chicago or Oakland. There are less black people here than either city, but there is a ton of crime in SF's black community...it's disproportionate, even by the already disproportionately bad standards in most other black ghetto areas. So there's another reason for racist people to have "discomfort" regarding blacks in SF.
Of course California/the Bay has a much shorter history of repression against blacks compared to much of the nation though, seeing as the vast majority of them arrived during WWII to work in war industries (for example, in 1940 Oakland was only 2.8% black, and SF was only 0.8% black). It was still a very racist time though. Thankfully CA never had slaves to begin with so I would guess that overall there was probably a little less ingrained animosity against black people, compared to South Carolina or something. But there was still more than enough racial problems, regardless...the same kinds that all around the nation resulted in race riots and the transformation of black areas into high-crime ghettos.
So you're somewhat right, in that California experienced less racism against blacks in total, seeing as it had almost no black people for around a century (it's kind of hard to be racist against black people when there are few of them around, right?)...BUT much of what CA did experience was just as bad as what you'd find elsewhere in the nation, aside for the south (which had Jim Crow laws, and obviously a history of extreme racism that was born out of slavery).
California did have African American slavery. It's well-documented.
California did have African American slavery. It's well-documented.
I should have said California was never a slave state. It had some slavery under the Spanish way back in the day, but slavery had been outlawed under Mexican rule...and when CA was admitted into the US, it was as a non-slave state. But extreme racism was everywhere back then, and plenty of southerners also moved to CA, so despite being a non-slave state with many free black people, CA also had some slaves early in its history as part of the US (even though it was illegal...not that those slave owners cared).
There were plenty of incidences of run-away slaves getting granted their freedom in CA in the 1850s (though ironically, some of them were freed through loopholes in racist laws...even non-slave states were highly racist s***holes, they just had no legal slavery):
Quote:
-In 1849, a white man lost a case against a black man who was accused of both being a slave and being in debt to the accuser. At the time, California was not under U.S. rule, and Mexican law, which prohibited slavery, was used in the case. This resulted in the legal precedent of the official non-acknowledgement of slavery in California.
-In 1851, a fugitive slave named Frank was recaptured by his owner in San Francisco; Frank then sued the owner in court. The judge ruled in favor of Frank because the slave had taken his freedom in California and didn't cross state lines in the process, thus ruling the application of the Fugitive Slave Law, which was passed in Congress the previous year, invalid in this case. Furthermore, a California law passed in 1850 had ruled the testimony of non-whites in court inadmissible; hence, even though Frank had admitted to being the owner's slave, the case had proceeded in his favor because his own admission was invalid.
-In 1852, a state fugitive slave law was passed in Sacramento, and was unsuccessfully challenged in the Perkins escapee case. However, when the law lapsed in 1855, the Legislature failed to renew it, and the Mitchell case in San Jose resulted in freedom for Mitchell, a runaway slave.
-In 1858, in one of the most protracted cases over the state-level status of slavery, Archy Lee, a slave who had run away from his owner, Mississippi native Terry Stovall, was arrested four times as his fate - as a slave bound for return to Mississippi with his master, or continued residence in California as a free man - was decided in a flip-flop manner by some three local judges and a United States Commissioner. Archy won the case through the support of the local freed black community in San Francisco. To avoid further legal reprisals by his former owner, he fled to Canada, where he eventually died.[5]
Don't get me wrong, life still would have sucked as a black person in CA, as it would have anywhere in the US....just maybe not quite as much for most of them, as compared to those living in a slave state.
Sometimes a city that is racially diverse is the worst place for a child to grow up enlightened about other races, because they are only exposed to mutual hatred and "otherness," or there is an exaggerated discrepancy where the whites are the only ones with decent jobs/education. What cities would you say have a large number of successful, happy people of races other than white? In particular, cities where African Americans and/or Latinos (two of the most common victims of severe racial prejudice) are commonly seen in respectable positions and mixing socially with other racial groups?
I understand that there is a real value in African Americans, Latinos, etc. having places and spaces where they can hang out without white folks butting our noses in and talking over everyone but I like for there to be at least some exposure to each other's cultures!
Can you give any examples of where you see "severe" racial prejudice? Since when do whites seek to be in places where African Americans, and Latinos hang out? To my recollection it has always been the other way around.
It has been some time now, where you turn on TV and most of the characters with positive roles are people of color, and the villains, or negative characters are white.
Can you give any examples of where you see "severe" racial prejudice? Since when do whites seek to be in places where African Americans, and Latinos hang out? To my recollection it has always been the other way around.
It has been some time now, where you turn on TV and most of the characters with positive roles are people of color, and the villains, or negative characters are white.
I'd say hip-hop culture has played a significant role in influencing ALL races.
To elaborate. Even the most liberal whites I met around University were more interested in studying Europe and Asia and talking about how much more progressive they are and how great socialism is than they were taking any time to actually go across town and learn anything about the blacks and latinos that they share a city with.
No. Who told you this lie? I live in downtown Toronto, and there's very little racism in Toronto.
Can you cite your sources and give some statistics/examples of this racism. Because it's not true.
its all 3rd party actually. i've never felt it myself. its actually shocking how harmonious it is (nk)
my brother's been living there for 5 yrs. i never visit though. literally never visit. lost my passport and haven't gotten a new one
and we don't get along that well
To elaborate. Even the most liberal whites I met around University were more interested in studying Europe and Asia and talking about how much more progressive they are and how great socialism is than they were taking any time to actually go across town and learn anything about the blacks and latinos that they share a city with.
So? People in college don't go across town to go hang out with poor white people either. Yeah, I'm sure the middle-class Asians and Hispanics in college go across town to hang out on the black side of town... Oh, but those damn liberal white people, that's the problem, right?
So? People in college don't go across town to go hang out with poor white people either. Yeah, I'm sure the middle-class Asians and Hispanics in college go across town to hang out on the black side of town... Oh, but those f**king liberal white people, that's the problem, right?
Did I hit a nerve?
I was simply saying how listening to rap music doesn't necessarily mean a person of Caucasian descent actually hangs around blacks and latinos.
And keep in mind, liberals are usually the ones screaming diversity and whatnot. I don't see middle class Asians or Latinos doing that. They usually focus on their own communities. Nothing wrong with that. But you would think for many liberals that talk the talk, they would do a bit more to walk the walk.
I was simply saying how listening to rap music doesn't necessarily mean a person of Caucasian descent actually hangs around blacks and latinos.
And keep in mind, liberals are usually the ones screaming diversity and whatnot. I don't see middle class Asians or Latinos doing that. They usually focus on their own communities. Nothing wrong with that. But you would think for many liberals that talk the talk, they would do a bit more to walk the walk.
Liberal white people preach diversity, because it's engrained in the post Civil Rights-era culture of the liberal establishment. It's a well meaning buzzword that rarely means anything. Most real diversity is a matter of circumstance.
New York City is diverse simply because people immigrate there because of economic opportunities. It's not as if immigrants from Africa and Asia and Eastern Europe and the Middle East care at all about living somewhere full of diverse cultures--they want to live somewhere they can climb up the economic ladder and live in a community made up of their own culture... In the end though most people stick to their culture, whether ethnic or some other sub-cultural element, except when different cultures end up living in close proximity because economically that's what they could afford.
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but I like for there to be at least some exposure to each other's cultures!