[vpcats]

Originally Posted by CiXeL

this is a latin soda you can buy in miami
i think nothing else needs to be said

How are you my dear CiXel? Haven't had the pleasure of seeing you around for a while.

If I may make a little comment here..... So, you know what invitro fertilization is and Orion's belt but you can't tell Creole from Spanish, or Latin as you call it? That brain-drain illness must be creeping up on you too I guess.

You'll need to be really careful with those few neurons you have left.

[Ben Around]

FL's historical culture (pre-latin, pre-NYC) is southern. Whe I lived there as a kid in the 60s, the schools were still segregated, movie theaters were segregated, blacks always rode in the back of the bus, and there were actual concrete block walls that separated white subdivisions from black.

[JeepGirl118]

People will always have their opinions - live and let live. Everywhere you go there is racism not just on skin color - racism and discrimination against the overweight, sexual orientation, religion, laziness, toward the wealthy or the poor, the idiotic, those who do not have college degrees, ugly people, smokers, etc. The list could be endless if I did not want to sleep sometime this eve . . . everyone has their poison -it's worldwide.

[CiXeL]

jjnino, we're barely scraping by on what we got. not everyone has a couple grand lying about. jobs for english speakers only are long commutes from homestead. the price of gas is going way up. its sucking away all our available cash. over the last few months working ive scrounged together a small amount of money that perhaps i could live on if i lost my job and florida unemployment wouldnt kick in. last time florida unemployment screwed me when the recruiter screwed me with an impossible clause to get the unemployment. i almost went broke.
we like the climate but yes we'd much rather live in broward than be living with all the frustration. i just need to find a single story 2 bedroom house with a garage out near davie or something with a yard. im trying to grow ultratropical fruit, i need to be below the mango line.

btw my mental health is shot. that left long ago. besides only the freaks and crazies could live down here and adjust. its like what they say about papau new guinea and how its just the insane, radicals, and recluses that live there from australia because its such mayhem.

[lulu]

Thank you! Why is it that everyone assumes that because it's not mainstream U.S. stuff like Coca-Cola, it's always a spanish thing? Brazilians are assumed spanish, now Haitian stuff, too?? Personally, I've never even tasted this....though, curiosity set in so I think I will try it now. Probably good, too . I saw the other day a pineapple soda in the grocery store, I'm thinking of trying that one, too. Even some mate tea's from Argentina.
Anyway, I don't think it's anything to do with races as spanish speakers come in all colors as do U.S. citizens - every culture is a world in itself. How would all of us, U.S. citizens feel, if we were compared to other English speaking places-like for example Jamaica or the Bahamas?? And all called 'English-ericans' and considered 1 race. If one thinks about it, it's actually the same rationale in thinking...just twisted the other way.
Personally, being from both worlds and yes, one race only.....
Well, I think it's not mainly a race thing...it's really being in different cultural environments that are not our own.
As a matter of fact, I feel at times lost with other spanish speaking groups or even other English speaking cultures...though, the difference with me is that I'm curious by nature & try to learn from other cultures...while some people just close off, so they become narrow minded by taking the easier way out because unknowingly they are sticking with what feels most comfortable. This not only happens to English speakers, it happens to spanish speakers, people of different races, religions, political idealogies, etc, etc....
Yep, unfortunately it's everywhere...& we need to get away from the "boxed" mentality.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by ducksburg

there are a lot of minorities in Florida,maybe that's why people consider it racial.

Rack that!!!! Tired of hearing people in Bangor, Maine or Eau Claire, Wisconsin try to lecture people on racism (Understand that the original poster is from Arizona, so I'm not necessarily talking about this thread). It's easy to be racially tolerant when you have next to no exposure to other races.....

Remember that everyone when you criticize a region or state as "racist"...

[lulu]

I don't know about this...Florida was not always Southern American culture - it starting becoming that way from the 1800's, only - just a blink of an eye timewise in the history of the U.S. FL was sold for a few million to the U.S & lots of these so called S. folk came from Northern U.S. states and stayed for generation's and spread that culture around FL. The Spanish (from Spain) still roamed Florida. We all know that St. Augustine is the oldest city we have in the entire U.S. dating back to the 1500's and was built by the Spanish. The majority of the Spanish in FL left to Cuba & other places - even Spain like 2 of my grandparents whom would not live in a backward place ...others stayed like my other side of the family.
'La Florida' is a Spanish name & named by the Spanish...in the 1800's, FL was mainly inhabited by native Americans, runaway slaves (some even left with the Spanish to Cuba, too)...and of course English, Spanish & some French that stayed and grew roots here. For the time.. Northern U.S. states and yes even Cuba were far more advanced in everything than Fl was - this was like a backward place. Truly a harsh environment..that only the brave endured. It's a fairly new U.S. state...& not at all what we see today.

[RedWingsFan]

Originally Posted by VAFury

Rack that!!!! Tired of hearing people in Bangor, Maine or Eau Claire, Wisconsin try to lecture people on racism (Understand that the original poster is from Arizona, so I'm not necessarily talking about this thread). It's easy to be racially tolerant when you have next to no exposure to other races.....

That's exactly what I always say as well. Most people that preach to people about not being racist have never lived around people that are not the same race as themselves. Once you do, and I mean have more than one neigbhor of another race, you see things differently. There is a larger difference, it's more than skin color, people from different races/ethnic backgrounds also act differently. I'm not saying they act good or bad, but there are differences, noticeable ones and many people are not comfortable living around those differences.

[Rhett_Butler]

Originally Posted by RedWingsFan

That's exactly what I always say as well. Most people that preach to people about not being racist have never lived around people that are not the same race as themselves. Once you do, and I mean have more than one neigbhor of another race, you see things differently. There is a larger difference, it's more than skin color, people from different races/ethnic backgrounds also act differently. I'm not saying they act good or bad, but there are differences, noticeable ones and many people are not comfortable living around those differences.

Exactly, and people without this type of experience tend to easily mistake personal racial preference for outright racism... Though that's a generalization too as no one should be judged solely on race.

[cmj_fla]

Here is a quote from Theodore Roosevelt on his ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Is this mentality still valid? Is the country so politically correct that it has lost it patriotism?