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The past racial climate of the south has to have something to do with it also. There was so much emphasis placed on the rights, privileges, etc... given and not given to whites and non-whites, that ethnicity kind of took a back seat to the simplified categorization of "White or Colored?"
i don't know if i agree. just in south carolina, before the revolutionary war you had Englishmen and Africans all over ... but you also had scots in the pee dee, swiss-germans (who spoke german) along the savannah, lots of english-speaking french huguenots around charleston and the santee cooper lakes, and ulster irish in the uptate. you can still see the traces of the different nationalities of the south if you know where to look, the problem is with peoples' interest as things get more complex every generation.
Most people that I know are aware of their heritage, at least to some degree, no matter which region of the U.S they live in. I certainly don't think that knowledge of or interest in such a subject would be limited by a person's location.
That said, I have a relative who researched and published my father's family history and traced it back to the Normandy region around 900 A.D. Otherwise I would probably have said that my ancestry was English when it is actually French.
The past racial climate of the south has to have something to do with it also. There was so much emphasis placed on the rights, privileges, etc... given and not given to whites and non-whites, that ethnicity kind of took a back seat to the simplified categorization of "White or Colored?"
It's so funny when people speak of the South as if it were the only segregated/racist area in the U.S. on it's own little island. I hope that most people realize that this is not the case...it's not "the past racial climate of the South" so much as it is the past racial climate of the nation.
It's so funny when people speak of the South as if it were the only segregated/racist area in the U.S. on it's own little island. I hope that most people realize that this is not the case...it's not "the past racial climate of the South" so much as it is the past racial climate of the nation.
Yes, the South wasn't the only region in the nation with racial problems, but it was by far the worst. There is a historical reason why the South is the first to come to mind when one is thinking of racism. Yes other parts of the country have their racial shame as well, but the South's racial notoriety is not unjust, at least historically.
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Originally Posted by GunnerTHB
I doubt that previous racial tension has anything to do with it. German American or Irish American or French American or English American etc... would be just as white (if not more white) than saying American. So no I disagree with you 100%. I consider myself an American and I would put that down on my nationality because my family has been in the states for a very long time. It has nothing to do with distinguishing myself apart from the blacks.
The South is the most integrated part of the country (and I would argue least racist).
You are combining the present and the past. I did not state anything about the present, I clearly said the past. If you look at the social structure back then, it was a white social structure. This dominant social structure and its associated privileges and benefits based mostly on color (white and non-white) had to play some role in Southern whites having less of an ethnic identity/awareness than other parts of the country.
Detroit is extremely racially segregated, and it is about as far from the South as it gets. The racial demographics within the city limits of Detroit resembles Nigeria while most of Detroit's suburbs racially resembles Norway.
Yes, the South wasn't the only region in the nation with racial problems, but it was by far the worst. There is a historical reason why the South is the first to come to mind when one is thinking of racism. Yes other parts of the country have their racial shame as well, but the South's racial notoriety is not unjust, at least historically.
You are combining the present and the past. I did not state anything about the present, I clearly said the past. If you look at the social structure back then, it was a white social structure. This dominant social structure and its associated privileges and benefits based mostly on color (white and non-white) had to play some role in Southern whites having less of an ethnic identity/awareness than other parts of the country.
I understand that. My point was the fact that there are plenty of other ancestries that are just as "white" and "American" as English American, Irish American etc.... that you usually come across in the South.
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