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We've been doing research to try to get a sense of what life is like for people of color in New Hamphire but are coming up with nothing except that there are very few Blacks and Asians living there. My husband is half Chinese, half German, he's been in the States (from Germany) for almost five years. I am Haitian-American, we have a daughter who will be turning one next month.
We currently live in a Boston suburb and can't afford to buy a home in our area. My husband works in Woburn and many of his co-workers commute from Londonderry, Derry and Windham, NH. The relatively low rents and good schools do make Southern NH attractive to us, however, we also want to live somewhere cleaner, less crowded, slower pace and safer than where we are living now. Is there anyone here that can give us some insight? I'm worried we would feel isolated and that people would not be friendly or welcoming to us. There is a lot to consider since we have a child and plan on adding another soon. Thank you in advance for your honesty!
Well, I have spent most of life in NH, and can't help that i wasn't born here, any more than you.
Blacks as you say are not exactly common here, but more seem to be around these days, from my personal experience.
The lack of them, sure hasn't created any racial issues, which are in fact hard to have when most people have been white. There have been white on white problems here since here has been.
I sure don't have a problem with any one over race. I do have a problem with anyone from 'away' moving here and bringing what ever life style from 'away' they had with them.
NH doesn't need a city life style or more shopping malls. I do not personally welcome ideas like tax paid trash pick up.
Coming here should mean you want to live like NH is meant to be lived, and not to make NH bend for city wants.
The problem you have of others alike to you is gong to be a problem, but your problem, for we don't care what your kids look like so long as you care for them and don't go on welfare as a life style. The simple fact is you and your family will be unique, which you declared yourself.
It isn't realistic to consider any place on Earth will have places where you will have alike neighbors, and was something i assume you considered a long time ago.
I am not meaning to say i think you do live this way as I do not, but an more trying to convey that NH isn't a great state for welfare and that we have no racial problems to speak of. When I get down to the southern parts I do see a Spanish like people in larger numbers, but I haven't heard a bad word about them, other than maybe we can't exactly communicate well, since many don't speak English.
This just goes for anyone of any race.
BTW have you ever visited Montreal? Up there is everyone from anywhere, a total spectrum of peoples seemingly to me living in harmony.
I would say these same things to any white from a big city too, so I am hoping this isn't seen as racial predjuiced. In fact I have said this in the NH board here before to what i assumed was a white city person dweller.
They were wanting to know the malls shopping situtaion in Franconia and or Littleton. I have no idea really which race they consider they belong too.
I am white, my wife appears white, but is also Native American, not that anyone cares...
A little more.... Any time any white moves to a rural area, it can take a year or more for the new folks to fit in. When you begin to chat up locals the first thing the locals will talk about is winter. They are interested in if you being new will survive the first winter. If you do they get more freindly, if you don't it means you moved away.
Winter is what sorts out NH folks from most other folks.
Many times a looser will move here thinking that they are big shot city dwellers and somehow this will impress locals. I can think of a great deal of city loosers who had this mind set, and are no longer here, of those city loosers that do come here to be big shots they last a few years, and are found to be loosers just like they know themselves to be, and discover they can't last here any better than where ever it was they came from.
In time the locals will figure out the scams, and with less people it is harder to hide these scams.. Some proffesions where this can be found is with car dealerships CEO types, restaraunts CEO types, Police of all things! And others...
This makes my resume's look like a joke.. The reason I lost the job, is most often the business failed, and the CEO was no where to be found on the last pay day.
While I'm sure there are a few morons anywhere; I've found racism not to be well tolerated in NH. I've lived in other states as well with much more diverse populations and it was much more of an issue in those places. NH tends to be very live and let live in my experience so far.
The only real push here is against illegal aliens (and not just those from Mexico/Central/South America); simply put- there are laws in place already and NH residents want to see them enforced. What I find refreshing is that this is applied to ALL people, as opposed to just those who look/talk differently like it is in many other places...
New Hampshire towns can be a bit uppity, especially the small, rather conservative ones. You'd be good in Derry, which is just big enough - not quite a city, but bigger than the average town. Solid school district as long as the child is not looking for trouble. Londonderry is nice too, you'd be relatively close to a lot of cool different places (Nashua, Manchester, the NH/MA coast, Boston, etc.). I'd reconsider Windham, but that's just me!
Thank you for your quick replies. To Mac_Muz, big city life is what we are trying to get away from; I thought I mentioned that. Neither I nor my husband have ever been on welfare, we work very hard. I never considered Montreal because I was born and raised in the US and don't have any problems living here and my husband quite likes it here, we just want good schools, a bigger house than what we could get here for the same money, cleaner air, slower pace, and a higher quality of life.
It makes me sad that as a MA native, I will not be able to continue living here if things continue the way they are. Many of us are looking at alternatives, and NH is a viable alternative. As unhappy as some of you are with the numbers of people moving up there, I believe you will continue to see an influx of people from MA for many years to come.
Burlington is expensive, schools in Woburn and Chelmsford not so great, we want a nice home on at least an acre, I would love to have a garden and to live peacefully. We are a very low-key couple, we don't drink or smoke, detest loud, congested city life. Those things are fun when you are young and single, but now that we have our little pumpkin, we really want different things.
I haven't seen many interracial families here, but there are a few, and they are treated the same as everyone else. My church for example, is almost all white, but there is an extended African family here, and one man from the family married a white woman in the congregation, and they just adopted a biracial girl last year. We are newer than they, and my sense is the entire family is deeply loved by the church. I think there is also a Korean or Chinese boy adopted by a white family here, and they are also accepted much as any other family. My own family is all Asian, and we have been warmly accepted.
I think most of the time here it doesn't seem to matter the color of your skin, or makeup of your family.
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