why no black people? (Portland, Lewiston: house, school, living)

[eastguy]

All the big towns in maine inluding Portland and bangor has little to no black people. Infact the whole stares lacks minorities. I just visited bangor a couple of days from NYC and felt like the only black guy in the whole town.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

According to the US Census, Maine is the whitest state. We have a number of Native Americans from the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac and Maliseet tribes. We have a number of Asian wives who came home with American service men and they have an average number of kids. Portland and Brewer were waypoints on the Underground Railroad. Portland has always had an active Black Church.

My wife was 16 years old before she ever saw a black person in person. The black lady was a domestic who arrived for the summer with the family who employed her. I'm well over 60 years old and I never hear anything inappropriate spoken in my community regarding race. No jokes, no prejudice and no concern about whether anybody might move in. That's what I know.

As to your question, I have no idea. I would be guessing if I tried to answer the question.

[mollysmiles]

I would be guessing as well....no idea....we do have a few black families in Washington County, and my feeling is that they don't experience prejudice, but I only know one of the families personally because they live close by

[Submariner]

I have also observed this.

However I have no idea why it is.

I have been in the American Legion and I heard it said that Maine once had an active KKK. If it did once have an active KKK, where did it go? I have no idea.

I attended a meeting when new candidates were being voted on, it was mentioned that such a candidate was black, and one member asked if we were going to allow black members. I voted in favour of his membership, and he was made a member. However because that comment was made, I have not again entered that American Legion. [I guess it is silly of me. Now that they are bi-racial, I should attend. But the idea that such a question was asked shocked me].

The VFW in Maine made a big deal out of accepting native Indians into the VFW. Though it took many decades before they would accept such.

Such thinking is foreign to me.

[msina]

I have seen less overt racism in rural Maine than I did in "integrated" Massachusetts. I've heard less racial comments from Maine people than I did from members of "racial minority members". We are a family of mixed heritage. I see much more diversity here than I did even ten years ago. On my little street is a Black family, a Puerto Rican family and a young woman from China. We have families and elders.

[RANGER.101ST]

i dont no why its that way.there is one older gentel man up the road 4 or 5 miles who's black .he dosent live there full time just in the summer and he go's back to ga. in the fall.
i gess i will have to ask him tomorow i'll let you no what he says.

[MRVphotog]

A fairly healthy bunch of Somalians have moved into Lewiston and Portland. So much so that the mayor of Lewsiton made national news four years ago when he penned a letter asking for the immigration to be halted. Perhaps you weren't in Maine then. Haven't heard much about it lately so I assume it's old news. A bunch work at LL Bean during peak, interesting people.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by eastguy

All the big towns in maine inluding Portland and bangor has little to no black people. Infact the whole stares lacks minorities. I just visited bangor a couple of days from NYC and felt like the only black guy in the whole town.

You tell us?? We just live here.

[genmomto5]

I guess living near where many of the Somali immigrants have made their homes makes things look different here. We see Blacks, Hispanics (OK so I have three Hispanic kiddos so that is a given in my house :P) and Asians every day around here. My nephew has at least 6 Black classmates in his elementary class. I love seeing the kids going in and out of the school because it is so much less homogeneous than the places my kids have gone to school before. There is such multicultural diversity and diversity within cultures there. I get the sense that, though public education is prefect nowhere and can always use improvement, at least in his school there is so much diversity and individuality kids are less likely to be socially chastened for being different.

[Maineah]

To me diversity is not something you force on a people. It either happens naturally or it doesn't. Anyone who has the desire and means can move to Maine no matter what their color. It's certainly not the fault of the citizens of Maine that minorities have, for whatever reason, decided not to settle in Maine. As the OP said he felt like he was the only Black in Bangor. It seemed as though that prospect made him feel uncomfortable. If I was the only white in some town I guess I might feel uncomfortable there too and may not pick it for a place to live??
I do not know why blacks, and other minorities choose not to live here. When I was a kid and asked grownups that question I was told it was too cold in Maine and black people don't like to be cold! Good enough answer for a kid I guess and proves the point that even back then nobody had an answer for that question.